Taliban claims 85% of nation
>>KABUL: The Taliban claimed to be in control of 85% of Afghanistan as authorities yesterday prepared to retake a key border crossing seized by the insurgents in a sweeping offensive launched as US troops pull out of the war-torn nation.
Hours after President Joe Biden issued a staunch defence of the US withdrawal on Thursday, the Taliban said its fighters had seized two crossings in western Afghanistan — completing an arc of territory from the Iranian border to the frontier with China.
In Moscow, a delegation of Taliban officials said they controlled about 250 of Afghanistan’s nearly 400 districts — a claim impossible to independently verify, and disputed by the government.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid separately told reporters their fighters had captured the border town of Islam Qala on the Iranian frontier and the Torghundi crossing with Turkmenistan.
Herat governor spokesman Jilani Farhad said the authorities were preparing to deploy new troops to retake Islam Qala port, the biggest trade crossing between Iran and Afghanistan.
“Reinforcements have not been sent to Islam Qala yet. They will be sent there soon,” he told reporters.
The Afghan government has repeatedly dismissed the Taliban’s gains as having little strategic value, but the seizure of multiple border crossings along with mineral-rich areas will likely fill the group’s coffers with several sources of new revenue.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called for international pressure to force a deal with Afghanistan.
“The security situation in Afghanistan only argues more for international pressure to have a negotiated political settlement,” Mr Austin said in a tweet on Friday.
“The entire world can help by continuing this push.”
The Pentagon chief did not specify which countries he was urging to help, but Pakistan is widely believed to have significant influence over the insurgents.
In other news, China evacuated 210 nationals from Afghanistan, the airline that carried out the emergency chartered flight said.
A Xiamen Airlines flight departed the capital Kabul for the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, on July 2 carrying Chinese citizens who had been stranded in Afghanistan, it said in a Thursday social media post.
Among them were 22 people who were later confirmed to be infected with coronavirus, despite the airline taking “top-notch epidemic prevention measures” during the flight and upon landing, it added. The Chinese foreign ministry confirmed the Covid19 cases and called on nationals to leave Afghanistan.