Afghanistan

US vows to isolate Taliban if they take power by force

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S. peace envoy brought a warning to the Taliban on Tuesday that any government that comes to power through force in Afghanistan won’t be recognized internationally after a series of cities fell to the insurgent group in stunningly quick succession.

That’ll scare em.

Taliban captures its SEVENTH city in five days as Pentagon says there’s ‘not much’ US can do to help the Afghan army

The Taliban has captured its seventh regional capital and attacked a major city today as jihadist fighters continue to push back beleaguered government forces.

Farah, capital of western Farah province, fell to the Islamists on Tuesday afternoon following a ‘brief’ fight with security forces, local officials said. Militants are now in control of the governor’s office and police headquarters.

Meanwhile the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the largest in the country’s north, also came under attack from the Taliban, though government forces said they had repelled an initial assault.

Chinese, Russian militaries hold drills in northwest China amid uncertainty in Afghanistan

“The Taliban will have no mercy on us and the government won’t stop the bombing.”

The resident of Lashkar Gah in southern Afghanistan is one of thousands trapped or fleeing for their lives as fighting for control of the city rages between militants and government forces.

The BBC is not naming some interviewees in this article for security reasons.

“There are corpses on the roads. We do not know if they are civilians or the Taliban,” the man told the BBC Afghan service in an interview on Whatsapp. “Dozens of families have fled their homes and settled near the Helmand river.”

Taliban executed 900 people in six weeks as the Islamists overran Kandahar province

The Taliban executed some 900 people in six weeks in just one province as its fighters overran government troops, a police chief has claimed

Targets included police officers, tribal elders, civil activists, and even a popular comedian who were dragged from their homes and killed in southern Kandahar province, the region’s former head of police Tadin Khan said.

Islamist fighters have now recaptured much of the province and have laid siege to the regional capital – also named Kandahar – as they push to retake control of the country following US troop withdrawal.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said the hastened withdrawal of foreign forces has led to the worsening situation on the battlefield, as the Taliban renewed assaults on major cities.

“The reason for our current situation is that the decision [to withdraw international troops] was taken abruptly,” Ashraf Ghani told the country’s parliament on Monday.

Presenting his security plan, Ghani expressed hope that the situation on the ground will be “under control within six months.”

Corrupt leadership and a military plagued by an unwillingness to fight may have something to do with it as well.

Afghan forces are battling to stop a first provincial city from falling to the Taliban following weekend offensives from the insurgents on urban centres in a major escalation in fighting.

Taliban fighters assaulted at least three provincial capitals overnight – Lashkar Gah, Kandahar and Herat – after a weekend of heavy fighting that resulted in thousands of civilians fleeing the advancing militants.

Fighting raged in Lashkar Gah, Helmand’s provincial capital, where the Taliban launched coordinated attacks on the city centre and its prison hours after the government announced the deployment of hundreds of commandos to the area.

The Taliban have rarely experienced difficulty handling Afghan forces.

Fighting is raging around three major cities in southern and western Afghanistan as Taliban militants seek to seize them from government forces.

Taliban fighters have entered parts of Herat, Lashkar Gah and Kandahar.

They have made rapid gains in rural areas since it was announced almost all foreign troops would go by September.

But the fate of these key cities could be crucial amid fears of a humanitarian crisis and how long government forces will be able to hold out

The Taliban’s surge in Afghanistan as the United States completes its withdrawal could lead to an “existential crisis,” a U.S. oversight report said.

The situation in Afghanistan is “bleak,” and the “overall trend is clearly unfavorable to the Afghan government,” a letter from the Special Inspector General John Sopko that accompanied Wednesday’s quarterly report to Congress read.

Plainly stated the corrupt Afghan government will be replaced by a corrupt Taliban government.

The resurgent Taliban have taken more territory in Afghanistan in the last two months than at any time since they were ousted from power in 2001.

Over the last 20 years, the control map of Afghanistan has been an ever-changing canvas. Here, we look at the fluctuating picture of who controls which areas.

It appears the Taliban have been emboldened in recent weeks by the withdrawal of US troops – retaking many districts from government forces.

Afghan authorities on Saturday imposed a night-time curfew across 31 of the country’s 34 provinces to curb surging violence unleashed by a sweeping Taliban offensive in recent months, the interior ministry said.

The widespread Taliban offensive has seen the insurgents capture key border crossings, dozens of districts and encircle several provincial capitals since early May.

“To curb violence and limit the Taliban movements a night curfew has been imposed in 31 provinces across the country,” except in Kabul, Panjshir and Nangarhar, the interior ministry said in a statement.

With the withdrawal of American-led foreign forces all but complete, the resurgent Taliban now controls about half of Afghanistan’s roughly 400 districts.

After a brief lull in violence during this week’s Muslim holidays of Eid al-Adha, fighting continued again with the authorities claiming to have killed more than 260 Taliban fighters in the past 24 hours across several provinces.

Both the authorities and the Taliban exaggerate their claims, which cannot be independently verified.

Islam plus a Tribal culture equals brutal chaos.