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Afghan security forces in Herat on Thursday
Photo: - / AFP
The radical Islamic Taliban have apparently captured the third largest city in Afghanistan.
The news agencies AFP and AP report unanimously.
According to government security sources, the city of Herat near the border with Iran fell into the hands of extremists on Thursday.
"We had to leave the city to prevent further destruction," said security circles, according to AFP.
The officials confirmed the corresponding information from the Taliban.
Eyewitnesses told AP of sporadic shots near a government building, otherwise the city was in the hands of the Taliban.
Fierce fighting over the city had previously been reported, with extremists taking the police headquarters.
Dozens of military vehicles and weapons fell into the hands of the Taliban, a spokesman said.
Taliban hold eleven provincial capitals
The Taliban have conquered city by city in Afghanistan in the past few days and are moving ever closer to the capital Kabul. Herat is the eleventh provincial capital to be captured by the Taliban within a week. In addition to the capital, the Afghan government only controls a handful of areas and besieged cities in many places. Most recently, Ghazni fell to the militant Islamist group. The strategically important city is less than 150 kilometers from the capital Kabul.
Interior Minister Seehofer finally decided on Wednesday not to deport rejected asylum seekers to Afghanistan for the time being.
He had previously asked the EU Commission to ensure that the deportations would continue.
Numerous other EU countries such as France and the Netherlands have now also stopped the flights.
The Afghan government asked for it weeks ago.
The Federal Foreign Office expects more refugees
Because of the situation in Afghanistan, the Minister of State in the Foreign Office, Niels Annen, expects an increasing number of refugees from the region in Germany as well.
"It is naive to believe that the advance of the Taliban and the violence in the war region have no consequences for migration policy," said Annen.
"People from Afghanistan will have to flee even more than in previous years."
Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) called the advance of the Taliban on Thursday "very, very bitter".
"What has not succeeded is our goal to make another country out of Afghanistan, to turn it sustainably positive." Politicians must draw conclusions from this.
In the future, Germany must "view its goals very realistically and communicate very precisely what is achievable and what is not."
slü / AFP / AP