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It is the twelfth provincial capital out of Afghanistan’s 34 that the insurgents have taken of their weeklong blitz that swept over a lot of the nation.
The Taliban captured one other three provincial capitals in southern Afghanistan on Friday, together with in Helmand, the scene of a number of the heaviest combating previously twenty years, because the insurgents press a lightning offensive that’s steadily encircling the capital, Kabul.
The lack of Helmand’s provincial capital comes after years of toil and blood spilled by American, British and allied NATO forces. A whole lot of overseas troops have been killed there over the course of the practically two-decade struggle.
The insurgents have taken greater than a dozen provincial capitals in latest days and now management greater than two-thirds of the nation simply weeks earlier than the U.S. plans to withdraw its final troops.
Attaullah Afghan, the pinnacle of the provincial council in Helmand, says that Taliban captured the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah following heavy combating and raised their white flag over governmental installations. He says that three nationwide military bases exterior of Lashkar Gah stay beneath management of the federal government.
Atta Jan Haqbayan, the provincial council chief in Zabul province, mentioned the native capital of Qalat fell to the Taliban and that officers are in a close-by military camp getting ready to go away.
Two lawmakers from Afghanistan’s southern Uruzgan province mentioned native officers have surrendered the provincial capital, Tirin Kot, to the quickly advancing Taliban. Bismillah Jan Mohammad and Qudratullah Rahimi confirmed the give up Friday. Mohammad says the governor is en path to the airport to depart for Kabul.
Kandahar and Herat seized
The newest advances got here hours after the insurgents captured the nation’s second and third largest cities in a lightning advance. The seizures of Kandahar and Herat mark the most important prizes but for the Taliban.
Whereas Kabul isn’t immediately beneath menace but, the losses and the battles elsewhere additional tighten the grip of a resurgent Taliban, who’re estimated to now maintain over two-thirds of the nation and proceed to press their offensive.
With safety quickly deteriorating, america deliberate to ship in 3,000 troops to assist evacuate some personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Individually, Britain mentioned about 600 troops could be deployed on a short-term foundation to help British nationals leaving the nation, and Canada is sending particular forces to assist evacuate its embassy.
Hundreds of Afghans have fled their houses amid fears the Taliban will once more impose a brutal, repressive authorities, all however eliminating girls’s rights and conducting public executions.
Peace talks in Qatar stay stalled
Peace talks in Qatar stay stalled, although diplomats are nonetheless assembly, because the U.S., European and Asian nations warned that any authorities established by pressure could be rejected.
“We demand a direct finish to assaults in opposition to cities, urge a political settlement, and warn {that a} authorities imposed by pressure shall be a pariah state,” mentioned Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy to the talks.
Fazel Haq Ehsan, chief of the provincial council within the western Ghor province, mentioned Friday that the Taliban had entered Feroz Koh, the provincial capital, and that there was combating inside the town. The Taliban in the meantime claimed to have captured Qala-e Naw, capital of the western Badghis province. There was no official affirmation.
The Taliban are additionally on the transfer in Logar province, simply south of Kabul, the place they declare to have seized the police headquarters within the provincial capital of Puli-e Alim in addition to a close-by jail. The town is a few 80 kilometers south of Kabul.
The newest U.S. army intelligence evaluation suggests Kabul may come beneath rebel strain inside 30 days and that, if present developments maintain, the Taliban may achieve full management of the nation inside a number of months. The Afghan authorities could also be pressured to drag again to defend the capital and just some different cities within the coming days if the Taliban keep momentum.
The onslaught represents a surprising collapse of Afghan forces after america spent practically twenty years and $830 billion making an attempt to determine a functioning state after toppling the Taliban within the wake of the September 11 assaults. The advancing Taliban experience on American-made Humvees and carry M-16s pilfered from Afghan forces.
Afghan safety forces and the federal government haven’t responded to repeated questions from journalists, as a substitute issuing video communiques that downplay the Taliban advance.
The problem of shifting troops out to the provinces means the federal government is more likely to focus all its efforts on defending the capital.
In Herat, Taliban fighters rushed previous the Nice Mosque within the historic metropolis — a construction that dates to 500 BC and was as soon as a spoil of Alexander the Nice — and seized authorities buildings. Witnesses described listening to sporadic gunfire at one authorities constructing whereas the remainder of the town fell silent beneath the insurgents’ management.
Herat had been beneath militant assault for 2 weeks, with one wave blunted by the arrival of warlord Ismail Khan and his forces. However on Thursday afternoon, Taliban fighters broke via the town’s defensive strains and later mentioned they have been in management.
Afghan lawmaker Semin Barekzai additionally acknowledged the town’s fall, saying that some officers there had escaped. It wasn’t instantly clear what occurred to Khan, who earlier had been described as beneath assault along with his forces at a authorities constructing.
In Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, insurgents seized the governor’s workplace and different buildings, witnesses mentioned. The governor and different officers fled the onslaught, catching a flight to Kabul, the witnesses added. They declined to be named publicly because the defeat has but to be acknowledged by the federal government.
The Taliban had earlier attacked a jail in Kandahar and freed inmates inside, officers mentioned.
Earlier Thursday, the militants raised their white flags imprinted with an Islamic proclamation of religion over the town of Ghazni, which sits on an important north-south freeway simply 130 kilometers southwest of Kabul.
In southern Afghanistan, the Taliban’s heartland, heavy combating continued in Lashkar Gah, the place surrounded authorities forces hoped to carry onto the capital of Helmand province.
Nasima Niazi, a lawmaker from Helmand, criticized ongoing airstrikes concentrating on the realm, saying civilians probably had been wounded and killed.
“The Taliban used civilian homes to guard themselves, and the federal government, with out paying any consideration to civilians, carried out airstrikes,” she mentioned.
With the Afghan air energy restricted and in disarray, aviation monitoring information urged U.S. Air Power B-52 bombers, F-15 fighter jets, drones and different plane have been concerned within the combating throughout the nation, in keeping with Australia-based safety agency The Cavell Group.
U.S. Central Command has acknowledged finishing up a number of airstrikes in latest days, with out offering particulars or commenting on the issues over civilian casualties.
A United Nations company warned that civilians in southern Afghanistan confronted cut-off highways and cell phone outages. It described help teams as being unable to find out how many individuals had fled as intense combating and airstrikes continued there.
In Kabul and surrounding central provinces that stay beneath authorities management, the U.N.’s Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs mentioned “the safety state of affairs remained unstable and unpredictable with elevated battle and violence.”
Chaman border opened
Pakistan in the meantime opened its Chaman border crossing for individuals who had been stranded in latest weeks. Juma Khan, the Pakistan border city’s deputy commissioner, mentioned the crossing was reopened following talks with the Taliban.
Whilst diplomats met in Doha, Qatar on Thursday, the success of the Taliban offensive referred to as into query whether or not they would ever rejoin long-stalled peace talks with the federal government in Kabul. As a substitute, the group may come to energy by pressure — or the nation may splinter into factional combating prefer it did after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.
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