Taliban tighten grip on approaches to Kabul in Afghanistan offensive (original) (raw)
The Taliban have tightened their grip on the approaches to Kabul, taking control of a key city on the main road south as the threat to several other major urban areas escalated.
The fall on Thursday night of Ghazni, 90 miles south of the capital and which sits on Highway 1 connecting Kabul and Kandahar, means the Taliban control the main strategic approaches from the north and south after the fall of Pul-e Khumri two days ago.
In Herat, Afghanistan’s third city, there was also heavy fighting in the streets after the Taliban broke through lines held by Afghan government forces and local warlord Ismail Khan on Thursday, with heavy clashes taking place around the governor’s mansion.
As smoke and flames were visible from some buildings, the Taliban fighters could be heard calling in one neighbourhood to raise its flags.
Kabul has not been directly threatened in the Taliban’s advance, but the stunning speed of their offensive raises questions about how long the Afghan government can maintain control of the slivers of the country it has left.
The government may eventually be forced to pull back to defend the capital and just a few other cities. Thousands of people displaced by the fighting have fled to Kabul and are living in open fields and parks.
The Taliban have published videos and images online of their white flags flying in Ghazni as it emerged that the local governor and chief of police had defected to the insurgents.
The city is the 10th provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in a handful of days.
Control of Afghanistan by district
Its capture after 10 days of fighting came as Taliban fighters pushed their offensive against other cities, including Herat in the country’s west, Mazar-i Sharif in the north and Kandahar in the south, the country’s second-largest city.
“The Taliban have completely captured Ghazni and control the city,” a senior local official confirmed to the Guardian by phone. “They broke into the prison and released around 400 inmates.
“They started their assault on the city at around 12am, and entered the city from several directions at around 2am.
“There were heavy street-to-street clashes between security forces and the Taliban. At around 8am they took over most key parts of the city and the city completely fell 30 minutes ago.
“The local governor and police commander made a deal with Taliban and joined the Taliban. Heads of security and intelligence are still fighting with them in the city’s outskirts,” another official said.
“It is very dangerous for Kabul and we raised this concern several times. We even told Kabul our suspicions about the governor’s behaviour.”
The increasing threat to Kabul followed warnings by US defence and intelligence officials on Wednesday that the speed of the Taliban’s advance could result in the Afghan government collapsing in 90 days and the capital being isolated within a month.
The latest Taliban victory follows a strategy of first overrunning the countryside and then provincial capitals as they have cut lines of supply and reinforcement for Afghan government forces, including the airbase at Kunduz, to increasingly isolate key centres.
Fighting also raged on Thursday in Lashkar Gah, one of Afghanistan’s largest cities in the Taliban heartland of Helmand province, where government forces are surrounded after the militants’ weeklong blitz.
The government hopes to hold on to Lashkar Gah, but a suicide car bombing on Wednesday was the latest attack to target the regional police headquarters.
By Thursday, the Taliban had taken the building. Some police officers surrendered to the militants and others retreated to the nearby governor’s office, which was still held by government forces, said Nasima Niazi, a lawmaker from Helmand.
Niazi said she believed the Taliban attack killed and wounded members of the security forces members, but she had no casualty figures.
Another suicide car bombing targeted the provincial prison, but the government still held it, she said.
The Taliban have freed hundreds of their members over the last week, bolstering their ranks while seizing US-supplied weapons and vehicles.
Niazi criticised ongoing airstrikes targeting the area, saying civilians were likely to have been killed or wounded. “The Taliban used civilian houses to protect themselves, and the government, without paying any attention to civilians, carried out airstrikes,” she said.
Afghan security forces and the government have not responded to repeated requests for comment over the days of fighting. President Ashraf Ghani is, however, trying to rally a counteroffensive relying on his country’s special forces, the militias of warlords and American airpower ahead of the US and Nato withdrawal at the end of the month.
Ghani appointed Gen Hibatullah Alizia as his new army chief, the Afghan defence ministry said late on Wednesday, replacing Gen Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai, who had only been in post since June.
The Afghan defence ministry also tweeted on Wednesday that Sami Sadat, a young general hailed for his defence of Lashkar Gah, had been promoted to lead the country’s special forces.
Gen Sami Sadat, commander of the Afghan army’s 215th Corps, has been promoted to head of special forces. Photograph: Public Relation Office of 215 Ma/AFP/Getty Images
Sadat, 36, commands the 20,000-strong 215th Corps in Lashkar, and told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday he was confident he could defend the city. “I know this is our country, that the Taliban are failing, that they will fail sooner or later,” he said by phone.
The fighting around Lashkar Gah has raged for weeks. Afghan air power is limited and in disarray, and the US air force is believed to be carrying out strikes to support Afghan forces. Aviation tracking data suggested B-52 bombers, F-15 fighter jets, drones and other aircraft were involved in the fighting overnight across the country, according to the Australia-based security firm, Cavell Group.