DThe militant Islamic Taliban are continuing their dramatic territorial expansion. On Friday night, they conquered Kandahar, the second largest city in southern Afghanistan. Two councillors and a provincial assembly of the German News Agency confirmed this. “Kandahar has been completely conquered,” a Taliban spokesperson said on Twitter on Friday. “The jihadists have reached the Martyrs Square in the city.” A local resident told AFP that the Afghan army had apparently retreated. Many soldiers went to military installations outside the city.
The city of Raschkar Gah in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan was also captured. Islamists control the most important government agency in the city, which has approximately 200,000 residents. The two Afghan provincial assemblies of the German News Agency confirmed this on Friday. In addition, Firus Koh in Ghor province in the western part of the country was taken over by Islamists. Fasel-ul Hak Ehsan Provincial Assembly stated that the city with an estimated 130,000 inhabitants was occupied by Islamists without any resistance. Security forces and several government officials have retreated to a military base in the city.
This means that the 15th city will fall into the hands of Islamists within a week. Among the major cities, the government only owns the capital Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Jalalabad in the east.
Taliban Capital
Kandahar has more than 650,000 residents. The capital of the province of the same name is the southern economic center and the birthplace of the Taliban movement in the 1990s. Kandahar was also the capital of Islamists during its reign from 1996 to 2001. Before the security forces withdrew from the city, there were serious conflicts between the Kandahar government and the Taliban for more than three weeks, said Gul Ahmed Kamin, a representative of Islamists. Provincial Assembly. The government forces eventually left the main government agencies and sought asylum in the 205th Army Corps in the province.
With the collapse of the city of Kandahar, the Taliban occupied 15 capitals in the country’s 34 provinces within a week. On Thursday alone, they occupied three cities. These include Herat, the third largest city, and Gasni, a strategically important city only 150 kilometers away from Kabul. Representatives of the Afghan government have not yet commented on the riots.
In view of this progress, the U.S. Armed Forces will immediately send approximately 3,000 more soldiers to Kabul Airport. According to a spokesperson for the US Department of Defense, this is to support the orderly reduction of the staff of the US Embassy. In addition, if reinforcements are needed, the United States will send an additional 4,000 soldiers to Kuwait and 1,000 more soldiers to Qatar. The spokesperson said on Thursday that the U.S. military should complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan by August 31. Britain also hopes to send about 600 more soldiers to help repatriate the British from Afghanistan.
In view of the rapid advancement of the Taliban, Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called on the US government to immediately increase its support for the Afghan security forces.If the president Joe Biden His line “will not change soon, the Taliban is achieving a major military victory”, McConnellHe demanded that Biden must “immediately” commit to providing more assistance to the Afghan army, including continuing to provide air support after the U.S. forces withdrew on August 31.
“If this does not happen, Al Qaeda and the Taliban can celebrate the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks by burning down our embassy in Kabul,” warned. McConnell About radical Islamist groups. McConnell said that the US embassy’s statement of further layoffs and additional troops “hastily” relocated to Afghanistan “seems to be preparing for the fall of Kabul.”
if Taliban McConnell warned that if the terrorist organization Al Qaeda takes over Afghanistan and returns there, it will encourage Islamic extremists around the world. The influential Republican said angrily: “President Biden’s strategy has turned an imperfect but stable situation into a huge embarrassment and global crisis within a few weeks.” He warned that Biden’s actions The costs and consequences will affect the world.
However, McConnell did not mention Biden’s former Republican president Donald Trump, Has reached an agreement with the Taliban that all international forces will withdraw before May 1. Biden postponed the evacuation of the remaining 2,500 US soldiers in the spring, but insisted on this decision in principle. Recently, he stated at the White House on Thursday that Afghans must now “fight for their country.”
