The Taliban surrounded the key city of Kunduz in northeastern Afghanistan on Monday (June 21st), stepping up pressure on government forces forced to abandon several districts, according to local sources.
Read also: Afghanistan: Kandahar trapped by the Taliban
“
The situation is worrying in Kunduz. Taliban fighters are at the gates of the city and they are confronting the army,
”Amruddin Wali, a member of the provincial council, told AFP. "
This morning the Taliban took control of the Achin bridge, north of the city, and are blocking access to Kunduz
" from the border with Tajikistan, to the north and on the main axis leading to Kabul, to the south , continued Amruddin Wali. “
The Afghan forces have withdrawn. The Taliban have taken up a position on the main road and only allow civilians to pass
, ”he added.
This information was confirmed to the AFP correspondent on the spot by a security source refusing to be named.
According to this source, the Afghan security forces have lost three districts from which they withdrew "
after a week of intense fighting
".
"
If the Afghan forces do not receive air support it will be a disaster,
" warns the official.
According to their spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, contacted by AFP, the insurgents "are
carrying out operations around Kunduz but have not launched an offensive against the city
".
The Taliban are stepping up their offensives on the ground
Kunduz fell into the hands of the insurgents twice, in 2015 and 2016, before being recaptured.
Kunduz police spokesman Inamuddin Rahmani told local media "
50 Taliban killed and 30 injured in the past 24 hours
."
But according to him, "
the security forces are at their post
."
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The Taliban have stepped up their offensives on the ground since the start of the withdrawal of American forces in early May, scheduled to end no later than September 11. The Afghan army is under assault from all sides, especially in the northern provinces (Kunduz, Baghlan, Badakhshan, Faryab, Maimana) and is losing ground at an alarming rate. It has recently suffered heavy casualties, including in the ranks of its elite forces which last week recorded at least 20 deaths in Faryab, or was forced to abandon besieged outposts in remote areas.
Under the terms of the agreement signed with the insurgents in February 2020 in Doha, Americans who are withdrawing from Afghanistan will only resort to air force if the insurgents threaten major cities.
The Taliban are now present in almost all Afghan provinces and surround several major cities, as they did in the 1990s to seize almost the entire country and install an authoritarian Islamic regime, driven out by the American intervention in 2001.
Read also: Afghans fear the return of the Taliban after the departure of the Americans
The south is already largely under Taliban control with the exception of the big cities. A Taliban official reaffirmed Sunday, June 20 the will to establish "
an authentic Islamic regime by negotiation
", but the inter-Afghan talks started last September in Doha with the government have stalled.