JUST IN: Taliban Insurgents Capture Afghanistan’s Biggest Cities
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JUST IN: Taliban Insurgents Capture Afghanistan’s Biggest Cities
By Alabidun Shuaib Abdulrahman
Taliban insurgents have taken grip of Afghanistan on Friday, following the capture of its second and third biggest cities.
The capture of the second-biggest city of Kandahar in the south and Herat in the west after days of clashes are a devastating setback for the government as the deadly Taliban insurgency turns into a rout of the security forces.
Reports, quoting provincial council member, Ghulam Habib Hashimi via telephone conversations said “The city looks like a front line, a ghost town.”
He further claimed: “Families have either left or are hiding in their homes.”
Referring to the southern economic hub of Kandahar, a government official told Reuters: “Following heavy clashes late last night, the Taliban took control.”
The defeats have fuelled fears the U.S.-backed government could fall to the insurgents as international forces complete their withdrawal after 20 years of war.
A U.S. defence official cited U.S. intelligence as saying this week that the Taliban could take Kabul within 90 days.
The U.N. World Food Programme sees food shortages in Afghanistan as “quite dire” and worsening, a spokesperson said, adding the situation had all the hallmarks of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Of Afghanistan’s major cities, the government still holds Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Jalalabad, near the Pakistani border in the east, in addition to Kabul.
In response to the Taliban advances, the Pentagon said it would send about 3,000 extra troops within 48 hours to help evacuate U.S. embassy staff.
Britain said it would deploy about 600 troops to help its citizens leave while other embassies and aid groups said they too were getting their people out.
Canada would also deploy special forces troops to Kabul to help in the evacuation of embassy staff, the AP reported.
The United Nations has warned that a Taliban offensive reaching the capital would have a “catastrophic impact on civilians” but there is little hope for negotiations to end the fighting with the Taliban apparently set on a military victory.
