Thousands of Afghan families fled fighting in former Taliban fortress

• Thousands of Afghan families fled their homes due to the fighting in the former Taliban fortress in Kandahar.
• In recent months, violence has surged in many provinces.
• The family has moved from a turbulent area to a safe area in the city.

Officials said on Sunday that more than 22,000 Afghan families fled their homes to escape fighting in the former Taliban fortress in Kandahar, as authorities arrested four insurgents suspected of launching a rocket attack on Kabul this week.

Since the beginning of May, a few days after the final retreat of foreign troops led by the United States, the insurgents have launched a full-scale offensive, and violence has surged in many provinces, including Kandahar.

The deadly Taliban attack enabled the insurgents to occupy dozens of areas, border crossings and besieged several provincial capitals.

Dost Mohammad Daryab, head of the refugee department in Kandahar province, told AFP: “The fighting in Kandahar has displaced 22,000 families in the past month.”

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“They all moved from the turbulent areas of the city to safer areas.”

Fighting on the outskirts of Kandahar city continued on Sunday.

Lalai Dastageeri, deputy governor of Kandahar Province, told AFP: “The negligence of some security forces, especially the police, has brought the Taliban so close.”

“We are now trying to organize our security forces.”

Local authorities have set up four camps for the displaced, with an estimated number of approximately 154,000.

Hafiz Mohammad Akbar, a resident of Kandahar, said his house was taken over by the Taliban after he escaped.

Akbar said:

Increased fear of fighting

Residents worry that the fighting may intensify in the next few days.

“If they really want to fight, they should fight in the desert instead of destroying the city,” said Khan Muhammad, who moved to the camp with his family.

“Even if you win, you can’t rule the ghost town.”

With 650,000 inhabitants, Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan after Kabul.

The southern provinces were the center of the Taliban regime when it ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

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After the attack on September 11, 2001, the Taliban was overthrown in an invasion led by the United States, and the Taliban led a deadly rebellion that has continued to this day.

The latest offensive they launched in early May allowed the organization to control half of the country’s approximately 400 regions.

Earlier this week, General Mark Milli, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that the Taliban appeared to have “strategic momentum” on the battlefield.

But Human Rights Watch, a global human rights organization, said that there are reports of Taliban atrocities against civilians in areas they occupy, including the town of Spinboldak near the Pakistani border that they occupied earlier this month.

Patricia Grossman, deputy director of HRW Asia, said in a statement:

The authorities also announced that they had arrested four men allegedly belonging to the Taliban and accused them of carrying out a rocket attack on Kabul this week.

“A Taliban commander Mo Ming and his three other men have been arrested. They are all part of the Taliban organization,” the ministry spokesperson Mirwes Stanikzai told reporters in a video message.

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On Tuesday, at least three rockets landed near the palace as President Ashraf Ghani and his senior officials conducted outdoor prayers to commemorate the beginning of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

However, the jihadist group Islamic State claimed to have launched the attack.