The Taliban seized on Friday the Afghan city of Zaranj, the first provincial capital to fall into their hands since the start of their offensive in May, and assassinated the head of the government's communications service in Kabul.
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The insurgents entered Zaranj, capital of Nimroz province in southwestern Afghanistan, without encountering "
any resistance,
" said Roh Gul Khairzad, deputy governor of the province.
Small town located on the border with Iran, Zaranj is worth above all for its economic importance and its capture allows the insurgents to control a new part of the Afghan borders.
A symbolic victory with a heavy impact
For the Taliban, this is a very symbolic victory that could have a devastating psychological effect for the Afghan army, whose morale is already at its lowest.
The Taliban had already seized several key border posts, with Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Pakistan, which are a vital source of revenue, drawn from tariffs, for this landlocked country.
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Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon said on Friday they controlled the entire Afghanistan-Tajikistan border, nearly 1,300 km, at a summit bringing together the heads of state of the five former Soviet republics from Central Asia.
The Taliban have seized vast rural areas in the past three months in a blitz attack launched in favor of the withdrawal of international forces, which is to be completed by August 31.
After encountering weak resistance in the countryside, they have been directing their offensives on the big cities for a few days, encircling several provincial capitals.
The UN calls to "stop" these "attacks"
At a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, the UN envoy to Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, called on the Taliban to "
stop
" these "
attacks on cities
", asking the Council to issue them a warning "
Unambiguous
".
Read also: Faced with the violence of the Taliban, Washington plans to welcome thousands of additional Afghan refugees
Hours earlier, the Taliban had followed through on their threat after promising Wednesday to carry out further "
retaliatory
" operations against senior government officials in response to the Afghan army's aerial bombardment campaign.
Proving once again that they can strike anywhere in the capital, they killed Dawa Khan Menapal, a former deputy spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, at the end of Friday prayers, announced. the Ministry of the Interior.
Menapal was a well-known figure in the media community in Kabul.
This ex-journalist regularly attacked the Taliban on social networks, often with irony.
Strikes and fighting that continue
The Afghan and American armies have carried out multiple airstrikes in recent days in an attempt to stop the advance of the Taliban on several major urban centers. The fighting continued Friday in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, where the army launched a counterattack on Wednesday evening, but also in Sheberghan, in Jawzjan province, home of famous warlord Abdul Rachid Dostom .
The Defense Ministry said late in the afternoon that the Taliban had been driven from Sheberghan, where they had entered earlier. In Lashkar Gah, the offices of Action Against Hunger were hit Thursday by an "
aerial bombardment
", the NGO announced on Friday. “
The building was clearly identified as belonging to a humanitarian organization either from the street or from the roof of the building. Moreover, its location has been communicated on several occasions to the parties to the conflict,
”she underlined.
Civilians, who pay a heavy price in war, continued to try to flee the combat zones, as the army urged them to, but without having any safe place to take refuge. In Herat, the third largest city in the country, also surrounded by the Taliban, many residents left their homes on Friday. "
We have completely evacuated the area,
" Ahmad Zia, a resident of the western part of the city, told AFP. “
We have nothing left and we don't know where to go.
"
