The Taliban control nine of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals after conquering three more in recent hours in the west and north, causing an exodus of civilians. In the early hours of Wednesday they conquered the city of Faizabad, in the extreme northeast of Afghanistan, reported a local deputy. “Last night, the security forces that have been fighting the Taliban for several days were put under heavy pressure. They left Faizabad and withdrew [to neighboring districts]. The Taliban have taken the city. The two fields have suffered heavy losses, ”Zabihullah Attiq, a deputy from Badakhshan province, of which Faizabad is the capital, told AFP.
Faizabad followed Farah in the west and Pul-e Khumri in the north, who fell on Tuesday.
Since Friday, the Taliban have chained the conquests: Zaranj (southwest), Sheberghan (north), fiefdom of the famous war chief Abdul Rashid Dostom, and above all, Kunduz, the great city of the northeast, as well as three other northern cities, Taloqan, Sar-e-Pul and Aibak.
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Wars lost beforehand
US President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he does not regret ordering the withdrawal of his military: "I do not regret my decision" to leave Afghanistan, said Biden.
Afghans "must have the will to fight" and "must fight for their nation themselves."
Washington does not hide its frustration at the weakness of the Kabul army, which the Americans have been training, financing and equipping for years.
Joe Biden, President of the United States.
On video, Biden's statements on the current situation in Afghanistan.OLIVER CONTRERAS |
VIDEO: REUTERS - QUALITY
The Taliban launched this offensive in May, at the beginning of the final withdrawal of US troops, but its advance has accelerated in recent days with the seizure of several urban centers.
The departure of the international forces will conclude on August 31, twenty years after the intervention following the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States.
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The violence has led tens of thousands of people to flee their homes across the country as the Taliban are accused of numerous atrocities where they have fallen into their hands.
"When there are two daughters in a family, they take one to marry her off, when there are two boys, they take one for the war," says Marwan, a young widow who fled from Taloqan, interviewed by AFP in a refugee park in Kabul.
Abdulmanan, a displaced person from Kunduz, said he saw the Taliban behead one of his sons, and he does not know whether "his body has been eaten by dogs or buried."
Afghans, displaced from the northern provinces and who fled their home, take refuge in a public park in Kabul on Tuesday. Rahmat Gul / AP
Some 359,000 people have fled their homes because of the fighting since the beginning of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
At least 183 civilians lost their lives and 1,181 were injured in a month in the cities of Lashkar Gah, Kandahar, Herat (west) and Kunduz, the UN reported on Tuesday, stating that they are only victims who have been documented.
Mazar i Sharif
The spokesman for US diplomacy, Ned Price, stressed that the government forces are "far superior in number" to the Taliban, and that they have "the potential to inflict more significant losses." "This idea that the advance of the Taliban cannot be stopped," "is not the reality on the ground," he said. The Taliban continue to besiege the city of Mazar i Sharif. On Tuesday they attacked neighborhoods on the outskirts of the largest city in the north, but were repelled, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
If it fell, the government would no longer have control over the whole of this region that has traditionally opposed the Taliban. As fighting rages in the north, but also in the south around Kandahar and Lashkar Gah, two historic insurgent strongholds, Doha on Tuesday hosted the first of a series of international meetings with representatives from Qatar, the United States, and China. , United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, United Nations and the European Union.
The peace process between the Afghan government and the Taliban was opened last September in Qatar, within the framework of the agreement concluded in February 2020 between the insurgents and Washington that provides for the total departure of foreign troops in Afghanistan. But the negotiations are at a standstill. Although hopes are slim of reaching a concrete result, US emissary Zalmay Khalilzad was going to urge the Taliban to "cease their military offensive and negotiate a political settlement."