Taliban now controls 65pc of Afghanistan

GBNEWS24DESK//

The Taliban now controls 65 per cent of Afghanistan after a lightning blitz that caught Afghan forces by surprise, reports AFP.

The militants seized two more Afghan cities on Tuesday — including one just 200 kilometres from Kabul — as tens of thousands of people fled their homes in the north for the relative safety of the capital and other centres.

But despite the bloodshed, and with eight provincial capitals now toppled in the insurgents’ sweeping advance, US President Joe Biden gave no hint of delaying his deadline to withdraw all American troops by August 31.

He instead urged Afghan leaders to “come together” and “fight for themselves.”

“I do not regret my decision” to withdraw US troops after two decades of war, Mr Biden told reporters in Washington.

He spoke after the insurgents won control of Farah city, capital of the same-named province, and Pul-e-Khumri in Baghlan, within hours of each other, officials in both centres said.

“The Taliban are now in the city,” Baghlan MP Mamoor Ahmadzai said.

“They have raised their flag in the main square and on governor’s office building.”

The Taliban confirmed their seizure in separate tweets.

Six of the other provincial capitals to have fallen since Friday are in the country’s north, with the insurgents setting their sights on Mazar-i-Sharif, the region’s biggest city.

Its fall would signal the total collapse of government control in the traditionally anti-Taliban north.

Government forces are also battling the hardline Islamists in Kandahar and Helmand, the southern Pashto-speaking provinces from where the Taliban draw their strength.