Taliban take Kunduz in lightning offensive

Afghan city falls as former British general warns that withdrawal ‘sends wrong message to West’s allies’

The Taliban overran the city of Kunduz and two other provincial centres in a matter of hours yesterday, continuing a cascade of gains against the Afghan government. Five of the country’s provincial capitals have now been swept from government control in only three days in a lightning offensive by the Taliban. Kunduz is the most significant Taliban gain since the insurgents launched an offensive in May, as foreign forces began the final stages of their withdrawal.

THE Taliban overran the city of Kunduz and two other provincial centres in a matter of hours yesterday continuing a cascade of gains against the Afghan government.

The strategic northeastern city largely fell yesterday alongside the capitals of the northern Sar-e Pol and Takhar provinces, local officials and residents said.

Five of the country’s provincial capitals have now been swept from government control in only three days in a lightning offensive by the Taliban.

Kunduz is the most significant Taliban gain since the insurgents launched an offensive in May, as foreign forces began the final stages of their withdrawal. The city has long been prized by the Taliban, who briefly overran it in 2015 and again in 2016, but have never managed to hold it.

Local officials said the insurgents had again captured the city as troops withdrew to the outskirts, though the government in Kabul insisted some troops were still holding out and clearing operations had begun.

Weeks of rural gains by the Taliban have in recent days switched to a focus on seizing towns and cities. The larger urban centres of Kandahar, Herat and Lashkar Gah are also under siege as the Afghan forces struggle to fight off attackers on multiple fronts.

American planes based outside the country continued to bomb Taliban targets to try to blunt their advance, but the US will complete its military withdrawal within a month.

A former senior British general who *Where fighting is ongoing or strong Taliban presence Control of districts as of Aug 8, 2021

served in Afghanistan said the UK and its Western allies were making a strategic mistake by pulling out.

Gen Sir Richard Barrons warned the decision to pull out would send a message to countries around the world that leaders in the West “don’t have the stomach to see these things through”.

“I don’t believe it’s in our own interest – in making that decision to leave, we’ve not only, I think, sold the future of Afghanistan into a very difficult place, we’ve also sent a really unfortunate message to the West’s allies in the Gulf and Africa and Asia,” Gen Barrons told the BBC.

He said that it suggests that “we don’t have the stomach to see these things through and we would rather leave than ensure that a humanitarian or political crisis doesn’t occur”.

He added: “We will run the risk of terrorist entities re-establishing in Afghanistan to bring harm in Europe and elsewhere.

“So I think this is a very poor strategic outcome.”

Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the Commons defence committee, used a Sunday newspaper column to condemn a “shabby withdrawal” that was “abandoning the country to the very insurgency that drew us there in the first place”.

Hundreds of prisoners were reported to have been freed after the Taliban took the main jail in Kunduz.

Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, a provincial council member, said that the Afghan forces now only controlled the city’s airport and main army barracks. The rest of the city was under Taliban control.

“The innocent and poor pay the cost of the war in Kunduz and other parts of the country. Both government forces and the Taliban are the enemy of civilians,” said Mr Ayubi.

“One can’t provide security and the other doesn’t care about people’s safety,” he added.

Zaranj in Nimroz became the first provincial capital to fall when it was captured on Friday. Sheberghan, in Jawzjan province, fell the following day.

As the crisis in Afghanistan has worsened, both the UK and the US have renewed calls for their citizens to book commercial tickets and leave the country as soon as possible.