Afghan city at risk of falling to the Taliban
KABUL, Afghanistan — An important city in Afghanistan’s south was in danger of falling to the Taliban on Saturday as their fighters pushed toward its center despite concerted U.S. and Afghan airstrikes in recent days.
Reports from Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand, a province where the Taliban already controlled much of the territory before their recent offensive, were dire: People were fleeing their homes, a hospital in the city had been bombed, and government reinforcements were only now arriving after days of delays.
“We are just waiting for the Taliban to arrive — there is no expectation that the government will be able to protect the city anymore,” said Mohammadullah Barak, a resident.
If the insurgent group seizes the city this time, it will be the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban since 2016.
The worsening situation in Lashkar Gah is a more acute version of what is happening in cities across the country.
On Saturday, fighting between insurgent and government forces around Herat city, a traditionally safe area in the country’s west, edged dangerously close to its periphery. On Friday, a U.N. compound there was attacked, and one of its guards was killed.
Taliban fighters also remained entrenched in neighborhoods in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city. In Kunduz city, an economic hub on the Tajikistan border, efforts to root out the Taliban now garrisoned within its walls have stalled.
In Lashkar Gah, an Afghan military officer said government forces had requested reinforcements for days without luck and described the situation as dire. Reinforcements began arriving Saturday evening, he said.
To break the siege, Afghan aircraft bombed Taliban positions in neighborhoods across Lashkar Gah Friday night.
Attaullah Afghan, the head of the provincial council in Helmand, said the Afghan air force had bombed a private hospital in the city after the Taliban took shelter there, killing a civilian and wounding two others. Several Taliban fighters were also killed in the strike, he said.
“Only the center of the city is free of the Taliban,” said Abdul Halim, a resident. “The city is locked and surrounded by the Taliban from all four fronts.”