08/15/2021 8:50 AM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 08/15/2021 8:50 AM
Taliban fighters entered Kabul, the capital Afghanistan, on Sunday and seek
an unconditional surrender from the central government
, as Afghans and foreigners rush to leave the city.
The embattled central government, meanwhile, has proposed an interim government but is faced with fewer and fewer options.
Civilians who feared that the Taliban would
reinstate the brutal regime
that virtually eliminated women's rights rushed to flee the country and lined up at ATMs to withdraw their savings.
Helicopters fly over the city, some reportedly evacuating US embassy personnel.
Other Western embassies were preparing to do the same with their representatives.
In a spectacular offensive, the Taliban captured almost all of Afghanistan in just over a week, despite hundreds of billions of dollars invested by the United States over nearly two decades to bolster Afghan security forces.
Just days earlier, a US military analysis estimated that it would be a month before the capital came under pressure from insurgents.
The
Taliban
had already announced this Sunday
the capture of two other provincial capitals
, Bamyam and Maidan Wardak, with which there are already 28 of the 34 provinces of the country under their control.
The rapid offensive in one week made more progress than in twenty years of war.
The city of Bamyan, the capital of the central province of the same name, was "conquered" and placed under insurgent control, said the main Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid.
Officers in Kabul, a city besieged by the Taliban.
(EFE)
To this is added
the city of Maidan Shahr
, the capital of the Maidan Wardak province, also in the center of the country.
The same spokesman affirmed that the combatants who were fighting for this city managed to enter the capital and took control of all the regional government offices.
"The enemy fled to Kabul and a large quantity of weapons, and equipment fell into the hands of the Taliban fighters," he said.
An unstoppable advance
In recent days and hours, the Taliban have reported numerous back-to-back victories across most of the country, with
at least 28 provincial capitals under their dominance
and their advances in the remaining ones at unstoppable speed.
Although the armed group has not confirmed the total conquest of Khost, its fighters have already entered the capital of the homonymous province, in the southeast of the country, and are advancing in their operations to expel the forces and representatives of the Afghan Government.
With almost the entire country dominated, with the Taliban
with one foot inside Kabul
and the Afghan forces abandoning their posts, in some cases under surrender, the group also took the borders of Afghanistan with several of its steps.
A group of people displaced by the fighting in Afghanistan.
(EFE)
The Taliban spokesman assured today that the city of Torkham, located along the line between Pakistan and Afghanistan, is already being controlled by his men amid the outpost with brutality, beheadings and corpses in the streets.
Torkham is one of the most important points between both countries that registers
65 percent of the commercial activity
;
followed by that of Chaman, in the province of Baluchistan, which represents 25 percent, also in the hands of the Taliban for more than a month.
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The Taliban tighten the siege on Kabul and the government of Afghanistan hurries a counteroffensive