Kabul — Afghan President
Ashraf Ghani flew to the besieged northern
city of
Mazar-i-Sharif Wednesday to rally his beleaguered forces, with Taliban
fighters having now taken more than a quarter of the country's provincial
capitals in less than a week.
اضافة اعلان
Ghani arrived in Mazar as the Taliban captured Faizabad overnight, making it
the ninth city to be overrun since Friday.
The Afghan leader held talks with Mazar's long-time strongman Atta Mohammad
Noor and infamous warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum about the defense of the city, as
Taliban fighters inched closer to its outskirts.
The loss of Mazar would be a catastrophic blow to the Kabul government and
represent the complete collapse of its control over the north — long a bastion
of anti-Taliban militias.
Hours before Ghani arrived, pictures posted on official government social
media accounts showed Dostum boarding a plane in Kabul en route to Mazar, along
with a contingent of commandos.
Fighting in Afghanistan's long-running conflict has escalated dramatically
since May, when the US-led military coalition began the final stage of a
withdrawal set to be completed before the end of the month.
Further to the east of Mazar, in Badakhshan's capital Faizabad, a local
lawmaker told AFP that security forces had retreated after days of heavy
clashes.
"The Taliban have captured the city now," said Zabihullah Attiq,
confirming the latest city to fall.
Government forces were also battling the hardline Islamists in Kandahar and
Helmand, the southern Pashto-speaking provinces from where the Taliban draw
their strength.
In Kandahar, fierce clashes erupted between Taliban insurgents and security
forces, with heavy fighting being reported near the city's prison, which the
militants have been trying to reach for weeks.
The Taliban frequently target prisons to release incarcerated fighters and
replenish their ranks.
No regrets
But even as the Taliban routed government forces, US President Joe Biden
gave no hint of delaying his deadline to withdraw all American troops by August
31, instead urging Afghan leaders to "fight for themselves" on
Tuesday.
"I do not regret my decision" to withdraw US troops after two
decades of war, he told reporters in Washington.
And as fighting raged, US diplomats were desperately trying to breathe life
back into all but dead talks between the Afghan government and Taliban in Doha,
where Washington's special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was pushing the hardline
Islamists to accept a ceasefire.
Biden has stressed that Washington would continue to support the Afghan
security forces with air strikes, food, equipment, and money for salaries.
"They have got to want to fight. They have outnumbered the
Taliban," he said.
The Taliban have appeared largely indifferent to peace overtures, and seem
intent on a military victory to crown a return to power after their ouster 20
years ago in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
The insurgents appeared to be consolidating their hold over captured cities
in the north, with rifle-toting militants patrolling the streets of Kunduz on
foot and in armored humvees as smoke rose from smoldering shops destroyed
during the fight for the city.
After conquering most of the north, the Taliban have now set their sights on
region's biggest city, Mazar-i-Sharif — long a linchpin for the government's
control of the area — after capturing Sheberghan to its west, and Kunduz and
Taloqan to its east.
Mazar saw some of the bloodiest fighting during the Taliban's scorched earth
rampage through the country in the 1990s, with rights groups accusing the Taliban
of massacring up to 2,000 civilians — mostly Shiite Hazaras — after capturing
the city in 1998.
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