The Taliban tightened the noose over northern Afghanistan Sunday, capturing two more provincial capitals as they take their fight to the cities after seizing much of the countryside in recent months.
The insurgents have snatched up four provincial capitals in Afghanistan since Friday in a lightning offensive that appears to have overwhelmed government forces.
Pro-Taliban social media accounts claimed the insurgents were also close to overrunning the provincial capital of Taloqan.
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“After some fierce fighting, the mujahideen, with the grace of God, captured the capital of Kunduz,” the Taliban said in a statement.
Parwina Azimi, a women’s rights activist in Sar-e-Pul, told AFP by phone that government officials and the remaining forces had retreated to an army barracks about three kilometres (two miles) from the city.
– Perennial target –
It has been a perennial target for the Taliban, who briefly overran the city in 2015 and again in 2016 but never managed to hold it for long.
“The commando forces have launched a clearing operation. Some areas, including the national radio and TV buildings, have been cleared of the terrorist Taliban,” it said.
Northern Afghanistan has long been considered an anti-Taliban stronghold that saw some of the stiffest resistance to militant rule in the 1990s.
“The capture of Kunduz is quite significant because it will free up a large number of Taliban forces who might then be mobilised in other parts of the north,” said Ibraheem Thurial, a consultant for International Crisis Group.
The Taliban frequently target prisons to release incarcerated fighters to replenish their ranks.
– US air strikes –
The pace of Taliban advances has caught government forces flatfooted, but they won some respite late Saturday after US warplanes bombed Taliban positions in Sheberghan.
Sheberghan is the stronghold of notorious Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose militiamen and government forces were reportedly retreating east to Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh province.
A retreat of his fighters dents the government’s recent hopes that militias could help the overstretched military.
That has been a familiar response to most Taliban gains in recent weeks, although government forces have largely failed to make good on promises to retake dozens of districts and border posts.
“I lost my mother, father, two brothers, two sisters-in-law and other members of the family,” said Noor Jan.
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