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KABUL: The Taliban accomplished their sweep of Afghanistan’s south on Friday, taking 4 extra provincial capitals in a lightning offensive that introduced them nearer to Kabul simply weeks earlier than the U.S.
is about to formally finish its two-decade warfare.
Within the final 24 hours, the nation’s second- and third-largest cities Herat within the west and Kandahar within the south have fallen to the insurgents, as has the capital of the southern province of Helmand, the place American, British and NATO forces fought a number of the bloodiest battles of the battle.
The blitz by way of the Taliban’s southern heartland means the insurgents now maintain half of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals and management greater than two-thirds of the nation.
The Western-backed authorities within the capital, Kabul, nonetheless holds a smattering of provinces within the middle and east, in addition to the northern metropolis of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Whereas Kabul isn’t immediately below menace but, the resurgent Taliban have been battling authorities forces in Logar province, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the capital.
The U.S. army has estimated that Kabul might come below rebel stress inside 30 days and that the Taliban might overrun the remainder of the nation inside just a few months.
They’ve already taken over a lot of the north and west of the nation.
Within the south, insurgents swept by way of three provincial capitals on Friday.
Attaullah Afghan, the pinnacle of the provincial council in Helmand, stated the Taliban captured Lashkar Gah following weeks of heavy preventing and raised their white flag over governmental buildings.
He stated that three military bases exterior of the town stay below authorities management.
In Tirin Kot, the capital of the southern Uruzgan province, Taliban fighters paraded by way of a essential sq., driving a Humvee and a pickup seized from Afghan forces.
Native officers confirmed that the Taliban additionally captured the capitals of Zabul province within the south and Ghor within the west.
With safety quickly deteriorating, the US deliberate to ship in 3,000 troops to assist evacuate some personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
Britain and Canada are additionally sending forces to assist their evacuations.
Denmark stated it would briefly shut its embassy, whereas Germany is lowering its embassy employees to the “absolute minimal.”
Lots of of 1000’s of Afghans have fled their houses amid fears the Taliban will return the nation to the type of brutal, repressive rule it imposed when it was final in energy on the flip of the millennium.
At the moment, the group all however eradicated ladies’s rights and carried out public executions because it imposed an unsparing model of Islamic regulation.
An early signal of such ways got here in Herat, the place insurgents paraded two alleged looters by way of the streets on Friday with black make-up smeared on their faces.
There are additionally considerations that the preventing might plunge the nation into civil warfare, which is what occurred after the Soviets withdrew in 1989.
“We’re anxious. There may be preventing in every single place in Afghanistan. The provinces are falling day-to-day,” stated Ahmad Sakhi, a resident of Kabul.
“The federal government ought to do one thing. The persons are going through a number of issues.”
The U.N. refugee company stated practically 250,000 Afghans have been pressured to flee their houses for the reason that finish of Could, and 80% of these displaced are ladies and kids.
In all, the company stated, some 400,000 civilians have been displaced for the reason that starting of the yr, becoming a member of thousands and thousands who’ve fled earlier rounds of preventing in current many years.
Peace talks in Qatar between the Taliban and the federal government stay stalled, although diplomats are nonetheless assembly, because the U.S., European and Asian nations warned that battlefield positive factors wouldn’t result in political recognition.
“We demand an instantaneous finish to assaults in opposition to cities, urge a political settlement, and warn {that a} authorities imposed by drive might be a pariah state,” stated Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy to the talks.
However the Taliban advance continued.
Hasibullah Stanikzai, the pinnacle of the Logar provincial council, stated preventing was nonetheless underway inside Puli-e Alim, with authorities forces holding the police headquarters and different safety amenities.
He spoke by cellphone from his workplace, and gunfire might be heard within the background.
The Taliban, nonetheless, stated they’d captured the police headquarters and a close-by jail.
The onslaught represents a surprising collapse of Afghan forces after the US spent practically 20 years and $830 billion attempting to determine a functioning state.
U.S. forces toppled the Taliban within the wake of the Sept.11, 2001, assaults, which al-Qaida deliberate and executed whereas being sheltered by the Taliban authorities.
With solely weeks remaining earlier than the U.S.
plans to withdraw its final troops, the fighters now advancing throughout the nation experience on American-made Humvees and carry M-16s pilfered from Afghan forces.
Invoice Roggio, a senior fellow on the Basis for Protection of Democracies, stated the Afghan military has rotted from inside attributable to corruption and mismanagement, leaving troops within the area poorly outfitted and with little motivation to battle.
The Taliban, in the meantime, have spent a decade taking management of enormous swaths of the countryside.
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