2 more provincial capitals fall to Taliban blitz
Fight is Afghans’, Pentagon states
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban took control of two more provincial capitals in Afghanistan on Monday, officials said. Their fall marked the latest development in a weekslong, relentless Taliban offensive as American and NATO forces finalize their pullout from the war-torn country.
The militants have ramped up their push across much of Afghanistan, turning their guns on provincial capitals after taking large swaths of land in the mostly rural countryside. On Monday, they controlled five of the country’s 34 pro
vincial capitals. At the same time, they have been waging an assassination campaign targeting senior government officials in the capital, Kabul.
The United States showed no sign Monday of stepping up airstrikes. A Pentagon spokesman emphasized that Americans now see the fight as one for Afghan political and military leaders to win or lose.
“When we look back, it’s going to come down to leadership and what leadership was demonstrated, or not,” by Afghans, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at a Pentagon news conference. “It’s their country to defend now. It’s their struggle.”
The Taliban sweep comes despite condemnations by the international community and warnings from the United Nations that a military victory and takeover by the Taliban would not be recognized. The Taliban have also not heeded appeals to return to the negotiating table and continue long-stalled peace talks with the Afghan government.
Two lawmakers from northern Samangan province — Hayatullah Samangani and Mahboba Rahmat — said the provincial capital of Aybak fell to the Taliban on Monday without resistance. They said government officials fled to another district.
Provincial council member Mohammad Hashim Sarwari said Taliban fighters captured three districts of the province before overrunning the capital. Another lawmaker, Ziauddin Zia, said some installations were still under government control as security forces resisted Taliban fighters.
Fighting on the outskirts of Aybak began Monday morning as the Taliban pushed in. By the afternoon, most of the city was under insurgent control, and most government forces had fled.
“Aybak fell to the Taliban, and all officials and security forces retreated,” said Assadullah, a dispatcher at Samangan police headquarters who uses just one name. “Now I am hiding in the city.”
Raaz Mohammad Mowahid, another member of the provincial council, said the city had collapsed without much fighting.
“Security forces retreated to a mountain to the south,” Mowahid said.
Aybak sits on the main highway that connects Kabul to Afghanistan’s northern provinces. The city’s fall means the Taliban have effectively placed a stranglehold on much of Balkh province and its immensely important capital, Mazar-i-Sharif.
Nazir Ahamad, a cellphone seller in the city, said the Taliban had seized all the government buildings in Aybak and that shops were closed. Hundreds of prisoners were also released from the jail.
“The Taliban entered without a gunshot,” he said.
Contributing to the collapse of the city Monday was the defection of a former member of parliament and prominent militia commander who joined the Taliban, bringing hundreds of fighters with him, two officials said. The move spread panic in the Afghan ranks as Taliban fighters closed in.
FALLEN CAPITALS UP TO 5
Mohammad Noor Rahmani, the council chief of northern Sar-e Pul province, said the Taliban overran the provincial capital there after more than a week of resistance by the Afghan security forces, after which the city of Sar-e Pul collapsed. Government forces have now completely withdrawn from the province, he said.
Several pro-government local militia commanders also surrendered to the Taliban without a fight, allowing the insurgents to gain control of the entire province, Rahmani said.
Aybak and Sar-e Pul join three other provincial capitals now fully under Taliban control: Zaranj, the capital of western Nimroz province; Sheberghan, the capital of northern Zawzjan province; and Taleqan, the capital of another northern province with the same name.
The Taliban are also fighting for control of Kunduz, the capital of northern Kunduz province. On Sunday, they planted their flag in the city’s main square, where it is seen flying atop a traffic police booth in a video obtained by The Associated Press.
Kunduz’s capture would be a significant gain for the Taliban and a test of their ability to take and retain territory. It is one of the country’s larger cities with a population of more than 340,000, and was a key area defended against Taliban takeovers by Western troops over the years.
After billions of dollars spent in aiding, training and shoring up Afghan forces, many are at odds how to explain the surprising Taliban blitz.
Rahmani, the council chief in Sar-e Pul, said the provincial capital had been under siege by the militants for weeks, with no reinforcements being sent to the overstretched Afghan forces. A video circulating on social media Monday shows a number of Taliban fighters, standing in front of the Sar-e Pul governor’s office and congratulating each other for the victory.
The countrywide Taliban offensive intensified as U.S. and NATO troops began wrapping up their withdrawal this summer. Afghan security forces and government troops have retaliated with airstrikes aided by the United States. The fighting has also raised growing concerns about civilian casualties.
On Monday, UNICEF said it was shocked by the increasing number of casualties among children. Over the past three days, at least 27 children have been killed in various provinces, including 20 in Kandahar, it said.
“These atrocities are also evidence of the brutal nature and scale of violence in Afghanistan which preys on already vulnerable children,” the agency said. It did not identify the side responsible for the killings. UNICEF also raised the alarm over what it said was increased recruitment of children by armed groups.
The Taliban have also taken most of Lashkar Gah, the capital of southern Helmand province, where they took nine of the 10 police districts in the city last week. Heavy fighting there continues, as do U.S. and Afghan government airstrikes, one of which damaged a health clinic and a high school.
Helmand health department chief Sher Ali Shakir said Monday that in the previous 24 hours, seven people were killed and 95 were wounded.
As they rolled through provincial capitals, the Taliban issued an English-language statement Sunday saying that residents, government employees and security officials had nothing to fear. However, revenge attacks and repressive treatment of women have been reported in areas now under Taliban control.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people displaced by fighting in northern provinces have reached Kabul, where they are living in parks without adequate access to drinking water amid scorching summer temperatures.
“We walked with slippers, didn’t have the chance to wear our shoes,” said Bibi Ruqia, who left northern Takhar province after a bomb hit her house. “We had to escape, now we are here in a park.”
In Kabul on Sunday, unknown gunmen shot dead a journalist and a colleague, said police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz. He said Toofan Omar was also a prosecutor in Paktia province. Omar was traveling from Bagram to Kabul when his car was ambushed.
The Taliban said they were investigating the incident. They often target government officials and those they perceive as working for the government or foreign forces, though several attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State group.
SITUATION DETERIORATING
U.S. officials said Monday that military commanders have bluntly laid out their assessments that conditions in Afghanistan are deteriorating. Afghan special operations forces have been able to hold off the Taliban in key centers, including Kandahar and Lashkar Gah, they said. But in locations where the commandos have not been sent in, regular Army forces have been overrun.
Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with his top Middle East commander, Gen. Frank McKenzie, on Monday, officials said. But defense and military leaders have not provided any new recommendations to beef up U.S. operations in defense of the Afghans. The U.S. has been launching up to a handful of airstrikes a day on the Taliban, and officials said there has been no order yet to increase that tempo.
Senior officials from the White House National Security Council, State Department and Defense Department were in close contact with U.S. embassy officials in Kabul on Sunday assessing the broader impact of the fall of Kunduz, the largest and most significant Taliban takeover, according to a senior administration official.
The official, however, indicated that the Biden administration remains determined to stick to its plan to end the U.S. war in Afghanistan by the end of the month despite the Taliban’s rapid strategic gains.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Kirby acknowledged that the fight on the ground is “clearly not going in the right direction” with the U.S. just three weeks from its deadline to end its 19-year combat mission in Afghanistan.
After routing the al-Qaeda plotters of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. in the war’s first years, the U.S. and its NATO allies stayed on for years afterward, partly in hopes of fostering a Kabul-based government and military capable of withstanding the Taliban once Western forces finally withdrew.
President Joe Biden has said he is honoring a withdrawal deal that President Donald Trump struck with the Taliban. But Biden has made clear he also is determined to extract U.S. forces from their longest war.
The U.S. is continuing to launch airstrikes from other locations in the region to try to help Afghan ground forces knock back emboldened Taliban fighters. No U.S. strike aircraft remain in Afghanistan, so warplanes are traveling from several hours away to reach their targets.
Kirby declined to say how many airstrikes the U.S. has initiated in recent days. And he declined to say whether the administration might continue the strikes past Biden’s Aug. 31 withdrawal date, given the Taliban advance.
In the meantime, “we will continue to support them … where and when feasible, understanding that it’s not always going to be feasible.”