- The Taliban insurgents have strengthened their control of Afghanistan and seized control of its second and third largest cities.
- Western embassies are preparing to send troops to help evacuate staff from the capital Kabul.
- As the deadly Taliban rebellion turned into the defeat of the security forces, the occupation of these cities was a devastating setback for the government.
The Taliban insurgents strengthened their control of Afghanistan on Friday, seizing control of Afghanistan’s second and third largest cities, while Western embassies are preparing to send troops to help evacuate staff from the capital Kabul.
As the deadly Taliban rebellion turned into a rout of security forces, the capture of Kandahar and Herat, the second largest city in the south, after a few days of conflict was a devastating setback for the government.
“This city looks like a front line, a ghost town,” Ghulam Habib Al-Hashimi, a member of the provincial assembly, said over the phone in Herat, a city with approximately 600,000 people on the border with Iran.
“The family will either leave or hide at home.”
Speaking of Kandahar, the southern economic center, a government official told Reuters:
After intense clashes late last night, the Taliban controlled the situation.
As international forces complete their withdrawal after 20 years of war, these failures have heightened fears that the US-backed government might fall into the hands of the insurgents.
A U.S. defense official quoted U.S. intelligence this week as saying that the Taliban can occupy Kabul within 90 days.
A spokesperson said that the United Nations World Food Program considers the food shortage in Afghanistan “very terrible” and is getting worse, adding that this situation has all the characteristics of a humanitarian disaster.
Among the major cities in Afghanistan, in addition to Kabul, the government also controls Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Jalalabad in the east near the border with Pakistan.
as a response Taliban advance, The Pentagon said it would Approximately 3,000 additional soldiers Help evacuate the staff of the U.S. Embassy within 48 hours.
Britain says It will deploy about 600 soldiers to help its citizens leave, while other embassies and aid groups say they are also letting their people leave.
According to the Associated Press, Canada will also deploy special forces to Kabul to help evacuate embassy staff.
The United Nations warned that the arrival of the Taliban’s offensive in the capital would “have a catastrophic impact on civilians,” but there is little hope of negotiating to end a battle with the Taliban that has clearly won a military victory.
This Taliban Security officials said they also occupied Lashkar Gah in the south and Qala-e-Naw towns in the northwest. Officials said that Firuz Koh, the capital of central Ghor Province, was handed over without fighting.
In order to defeat the government and impose their strict Islamic rule, the militants, Already controlled Since August 6, 14 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals have been provincial capitals.
A provincial official said that the rebels detained senior commander Mohamed Ismail Khan after occupying Herat, which dealt a blow to anti-Taliban forces, adding that they promised not to harm him and other captured officials. .
A Taliban spokesperson confirmed that Khan, the fighter who led the opposition to the Taliban, was detained by them in recent weeks.
Thump
As the US-led foreign troops prepare to complete their withdrawal at the end of this month, the speed of the offensive has triggered accusations of President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw troops, which was their attack on the United States in November and September.
Biden said this week that he does not regret his decision, noting that Washington has spent more than $1 trillion in the longest war in the United States and lost thousands of soldiers.
Lost Kandahar Economic Center Will deal a heavy blow to the government. It is the heartland of the Taliban, and Pashtun fighters appeared in the province in the chaos of the civil war in 1994, and swept most of the rest of the country in the next two years.
An official said that government forces still control the Kandahar Airport, which was the second largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan during its 20-year mission.
Rashkar Gah is the capital of Helmand, an opium-growing province, where British, American and other foreign troops have fought insurgents for many years.
The US State Department said that Secretary of State Anthony Brinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with President Ashraf Garni on Thursday and told him that the United States “still invests in the security and stability of Afghanistan.” They also stated that the United States is committed to supporting a political solution.
Republican leader Mitch McConnell of the US Senate stated that the exit strategy is making the United States “a step toward a worse sequel to the 1975 defeat in Saigon” and urged Biden to pledge more support to the Afghan army.
“Without it, Al Qaeda and the Taliban could burn our embassy in Kabul to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.”
British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said that Afghanistan is falling into a failed country and civil war. Al Qaeda and other organizations will thrive in this civil war and may once again pose a threat to the West.
In an agreement reached with the administration of former US President Donald Trump last year, the Taliban agreed not to attack foreign troops headed by the United States when they retreat.
They also promised to discuss peace issues, but the intermittent meetings with government representatives were fruitless. International envoys participating in the Afghanistan negotiations in Qatar called for speeding up the peace process as an “urgent matter” and stopping attacks on the city.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said this week that the Taliban would refuse to negotiate unless Ghani resigned.
Pakistan officially denies support for the Taliban, but it is an open secret that Taliban leaders live in Pakistan and recruit fighters from a network of religious schools in Pakistan.
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