Kabul nearly besieged as more cities fall to Taliban
The insurgents are battling government forces just 11km south of the Afghan capital raising fears of a full takeover and civil war
KABUL: The Taliban captured a large, heavily defended city in northern Afghanistan in a major setback for the government, and the insurgents are approaching the capital less than three weeks before the US hopes to complete its troop withdrawal.
The fall of Mazar-e-sharif, the country’s fourth largest city, which Afghan forces and two powerful former warlords had pledged to defend, hands the insurgents control over all of northern Afghanistan, confining the Western-backed government to the centre and east.
Abas Ebrahimzada, a lawmaker from the Balkh province where the city is located, said the national army surrendered first, which prompted pro-government militias and other forces to lose morale and give up in the face of a Taliban onslaught launched earlier on Saturday.
Ebrahimzada said Abdul Rashid Dostum and Ata Mohammad Noor, former warlords who command thousands of fighters, had fled the province and their whereabouts were unknown.
The insurgents have captured much of northern, western and southern Afghanistan in a breakneck offensive less than three weeks before the US is set to withdraw its last troops, raising fears of a full militant takeover or another Afghan civil war.
The Taliban on Saturday also captured all of Logar province, just south of the capital, Kabul, and detained local officials, said Hoda Ahmadi, a lawmaker from the province. She said the Taliban have reached the Char Asyab district, just 11km south of Kabul.
The insurgents also captured the capital of Paktika, bordering Pakistan, according to Khalid Asad, a lawmaker from the province.
He said fighting broke out in Sharana early on Saturday but ended after local elders intervened to negotiate a pull-out. He said the governor and other officials surrendered and were on their way to Kabul.
Sayed Hussan Gerdezi, a lawmaker from the neighbouring Paktia province, said the Taliban seized most of its local capital, Gardez, but that battles with government forces were still under way. The Taliban said they controlled the city.
The Taliban now control at least 20 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, leaving President Ashraf Ghani’s government with a smattering of provinces in the centre and east, plus Kabul.
Thousands flee homes
Tens of thousands of Afghans have fled their homes, with many fearing a return to the Taliban’s oppressive rule. The group had previously governed Afghanistan under a harsh version of Islamic law in which women were forbidden to work or attend school, and could not leave their homes without a male relative accompanying them.
Salima Mazari, one of the few female district governors in the country, said she has never even considered surrendering. “There will be no place for women,” said Mazari, who governs a district of 36,000 people near Mazar-esharif.
“In the provinces controlled by the Taliban, no women exist there anymore, not even in the cities. They are all imprisoned in their homes,” she added.
The withdrawal of foreign troops and the swift collapse of Afghanistan’s own forces despite hundreds of billions of dollars in US aid over the years has raised fears the Taliban could return to power or that the country could be shattered by factional fighting, as it was after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.
It’s also prompted many
American and Afghan veterans of the conflict to question whether two decades of blood and treasure was worth it.
Afghans have been streaming into Kabul’s international airport in recent days, desperate to fly out, even as more American troops have arrived to help partially evacuate the US embassy.
The first Marines from a contingent of 3,000 arrived on Friday. The rest are expected by Sunday. The US Air Force has carried out strikes to aid its Afghan allies but they appear to have done little to stem the Taliban’s advance. A B-52 bomber and other warplanes traversed the country’s airspace on Saturday, flight-tracking data showed.