The Taliban have tightened the noose around northern Afghanistan, capturing three more provincial capitals as they take their fight to the cities after seizing much of the countryside in recent months. The insurgents have snatched up five provincial capitals in Afghanistan since Friday in a lightning offensive that appears to have overwhelmed government forces. Fighting in Afghanistan’s long-running conflict has intensified since May, when foreign forces began the final stage of a withdrawal due to be completed later this month. Kunduz, Sar-e-Pul and Taloqan in the north fell within hours of each other Sunday, lawmakers, security sources and residents in the cities confirmed. News18 takes a look as the Taliban ravage Afghanistan:
Perennial target
Kunduz is the most significant Taliban gain since the May offensive began — it has been a perennial target for the insurgents, who briefly overran the city in 2015 and again in 2016 but never managed to hold it for long.
The defence ministry said government forces were fighting to retake key installations. Spokesman Mirwais Stanikzai said that reinforcements including special forces had been deployed to Sar-e-Pul and Sheberghan. “These cities that the Taliban want to capture will soon become their graveyards,” he added.
Kabul’s ability to hold the north may prove crucial to the government’s long-term survival.
Northern Afghanistan has long been considered an anti-Taliban stronghold that saw some of the stiffest resistance to militant rule in the 1990s. The region remains home to several militias and is also a fertile recruiting ground for the country’s armed forces.
“The capture of Kunduz is quite significant because it will free up a large number of Taliban forces who might then be mobilised in other parts of the north,” said Ibraheem Thurial, a consultant for International Crisis Group.
Vivid footage of the fighting was posted on social media over the weekend, including what appeared to be large numbers of prisoners being freed from jails in captured cities. The Taliban frequently target prisons to release incarcerated fighters to replenish their ranks.
On Friday, the insurgents seized their first provincial capital, Zaranj in southwestern Nimroz on the border with Iran, and followed it up by taking Sheberghan in northern Jawzjan province the next day.
US air strikes
The pace of Taliban advances has caught government forces flatfooted, but they won some respite late Saturday after US warplanes bombed Taliban positions in Sheberghan.
Sheberghan is the stronghold of notorious Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose militiamen and government forces were reportedly retreating east to Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh province.
Dostum has overseen one of the largest militias in the north and garnered a fearsome reputation fighting the Taliban in the 1990s — along with accusations his forces massacred thousands of insurgent prisoners of war.
A retreat of his fighters dents the government’s recent hopes that militias could help the overstretched military.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been displaced by the recent fighting, and on Saturday, 12 people were killed when their bus was struck by a roadside bomb as they tried to flee Gardez in Paktia province.
“I lost my mother, father, two brothers, two sisters-in-law and other members of the family,” said Noor Jan.
The withdrawal of foreign forces is due to finish at the end of this month ahead of the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The US-led invasion sparked by 9/11 toppled the first Taliban regime in 2001.
‘stain on biden’
A prolonged civil war in Afghanistan is more likely than a rapid Taliban takeover as the United States’ full military withdrawal nears, Washington’s former ambassador to Kabul said Sunday.
“A prolonged civil war is a more likely outcome than a swift Taliban takeover of the entire country. They’re being very smart about this. They’re not launching major strikes into Kabul,” former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, told ABC’s “This Week”.
“They’re doing what they’re doing in part to create a climate of fear and panic. They are succeeding wonderfully,” Crocker added, referring to the Taliban.
The recent string of Taliban military victories has not moved President Joe Biden to reassess his decision to end the U.S. combat mission by the end of the month, senior administration officials said Sunday. But the violence shows just how difficult it will be for Biden to extract America from the war while insisting that he is not abandoning the country in the middle of a brutal Taliban offensive.
In a speech defending the U.S. withdrawal last month, Biden said the United States had done more than enough to empower the Afghan police and military to secure the future of their people. U.S. officials have acknowledged that those forces will struggle, but argue they must now fend for themselves.
US defense officials said there were no plans to take action this time beyond limited airstrikes. Over the past three weeks, the United States has used armed Reaper drones and AC-130 aerial gunships to target Taliban equipment, including heavy artillery, that threaten population centers, foreign embassies and Afghan government buildings, officials said.
One official acknowledged that with only 650 U.S. troops remaining on the ground in Afghanistan, a concerted air campaign was unlikely to undo the advances the Taliban had made.
Taliban casualties
The Taliban on Sunday faced heavy casualties when Air Forces targeted their gatherings and hideouts in the city of Shebergan, killing 200 members of the terrorist outfit, according to Afghan defence ministry official.
“More than 200 terrorist Taliban were killed in Shebergan city after Air Forces targeted their gathering and hideouts today evening. A large number of their weapons and ammunition and more than 100s of their vehicles were destroyed as a result of the airstrikes,” tweeted Fawad Aman, an Afghan defence ministry official.
India’s stance
India on Friday urged the UN Security Council to review deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and asserted that for successful peace process it is necessary to ensure that the Taliban “engage in negotiations in good faith, eschew the path of violence, severe ties with the Al Qaeda and other terrorist organisations, and fully commit itself towards reaching a political solution”.
India also condemned the reported removal by the Taliban of a Sikh religious flag from the roof of a gurdwara in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktia province, which has witnessed fighting between militants and Afghan security forces in recent weeks. Reports from Afghanistan said the Taliban had allegedly forced the custodian of Gurdwara Thala Sahib in Chamkani region of Paktia province to remove the Nishan Sahib or holy flag from the shrine’s rooftop.
The Afghan forces thwarted the Taliban’s attack on India-built Salma Dam in Herat province, said the Afghan government, adding that the terror group has “suffered heavy casualties and fled the area as a result of counter-attacks”. In a tweet, Afghan defence ministry spokesperson Fawad Aman said Taliban terrorists attempted an attack on Salma Dama, popularly known as the India-Afghanistan friendship dam.
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