Taliban continue to advance in Afghanistan, capture Lashkar Gah after Kandahar

The Taliban have claimed to have captured two of Afghanistan’s cities — Kandahar and Lashkar Gah — in an advance that has raised fears of the collapse of the government.

Confirming a claim by the insurgents, a senior Afghan security source told news agency AFP on Friday that the key southern city of Lashkar Gah has also been captured.

The claim comes hours after Afghan troops abandoned the country’s third largest city — Herat — to the insurgents. The Taliban earlier said they had captured Afghanistan’s second biggest city of Kandahar.

The capture of Kandahar and Herat – the country’s second and third largest cities will represent the Taliban’s two most significant victories since they began a broad offensive in May as US-led foreign forces withdrew under a deal struck between the militants and the United States last year.

The government has effectively lost most of north, south and west Afghanistan in the past week, and is left holding the capital and a dwindling number of contested cities also dangerously at risk.

On Thursday, the Taliban also seized the historic central city of Ghazni, 150 km (90 miles) southwest of Kabul, before over-running Herat in the west and Kandahar in the south, according to the Taliban. The Taliban also claimed to have captured Qala-e-Naw in the northwest.

The government still holds the main city in the north – Mazar-i-Sharif – and Jalalabad, near the Pakistani border in the east, as well as Kabul.

On Wednesday, a US defence official cited intelligence as saying the Taliban could isolate Kabul in 30 days and possibly take it over within 90.

US TO EVACUATE AFGHANISTAN EMBASSY STAFF
As the Taliban swept across more territory, the United States and United Kingdom moved to quickly pull out their embassy staff from the capital. The United States said it will send troops to evacuate embassy staff from Kabul.

“We are further reducing our civilian footprint in Kabul in light of the evolving security situation,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters, while noting the embassy would remain open.

The Pentagon said 3,000 US troops would be deployed to Kabul within the next 24 to 48 hours, underscoring that they would not be used for attacks on the Taliban.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said London would send 600 of its own troops to evacuate its nationals and “support the relocation of former Afghan staff who risked their lives serving alongside us”.

Price said the United States would also start sending in daily flights to evacuate Afghan interpreters and others who assisted the Americans and are fearful for their lives due to the Taliban’s sweeping offensive.

PILING PRESSURE
As the rout unravelled, Kabul handed a proposal to Taliban negotiators in Qatar offering a power-sharing deal in return for an end to the fighting, according to a member of the government’s team in Doha, who asked not to be named.

The conflict has escalated dramatically since May, when US-led forces began the final stage of a troop withdrawal due to end later this month following a 20-year occupation.

The loss of Herat and Ghazni piles more pressure on the country’s already overstretched airforce, needed to bolster Afghanistan’s scattered security forces, who have increasingly been cut off from reinforcements by road.

Pro-Taliban social media accounts also boasted of the vast spoils of war their fighters had recovered in recent days, posting photos of armoured vehicles, heavy weapons and even a drone seized by the insurgents at abandoned military bases.

News Credit: India Today