Taliban seize large parts of Afghanistan as troops flee | Stories by Joe Biden

The Taliban’s march across northern Afghanistan intensified as more and more troops were evacuated from Afghan forces, with hundreds fleeing the border into Tajikistan, officials said.

More than 300 Afghans passed through the Badakhshan region of Afghanistan as Taliban fighters headed for the border, the State Committee for National Security in Tajikistan said in a statement on Sunday. Afghan troops passed by at 6:30 pm local time on Saturday.

“Guided by principles and good relations,” Tajik officials allowed the troops to return to Afghanistan to cross Tajikistan, he said.

Beginning in mid-April, when US President Joe Biden announced the end of Afghanistan’s “eternal war”, the Taliban has moved on across the country. But its main advantages have been in the northeast of the country, a U.S. allied defense base that helped them defeat them in 2001.

The Taliban now control about a third of all 421 provinces and territories in Afghanistan.

Benefits in the northeastern part of Badakhshan province in recent days came to the forefront of the military without war, said Mohib-ul Rahman, a member of the council. He criticized the Taliban for its misconduct of the military, which is very small and poor.

“Unfortunately, most of the territory was left to the Taliban without a war,” Rahman said. In the past three days, 10 provinces have been conquered by the Taliban, eight without war, he said.

Hundreds of Afghan soldiers, police and paramedics have surrendered and fled to the Badakhshan provincial capital in Faizabad, Rahman said.

Although a security meeting was held early on Sunday to strengthen the area around Faizabad, some regional officials are leaving the city for the Afghan capital Kabul, he said.

In late June, the Afghan government mobilized militant groups with a history of violent violence to help the Afghan soldiers who were suffering but Rahman said many fighters in Badakhshan states had just fought.

The Taliban have also seized important territory in their former state of Kandahar after a brutal night battle with Afghan government officials, officials said on Sunday.

The fall of Panjwai province in southern Kandahar comes just two days after US and NATO forces withdrew. Bagram Shopping Center near Kabul, where he led a 20-year operation against the Taliban and al-Qaeda allies.

For years, the Taliban and Afghanistan’s forces have been fighting all the time in Panjwai and surrounding areas, a militant force seeking to take over is approaching Kandahar, the provincial capital.

Kandahar province is the birthplace of the Taliban, who continued to rule Afghanistan until it was overthrown by a US-led force in 2001.

Panjwai Governor Hasti Mohammad said Afghan and Taliban forces clashed overnight, prompting government troops to return to the region.

“The Taliban have seized the police headquarters and the embassy,” he told AFP.

Kandahar council leader Sayed Jan Khakriwal confirmed the fall of Panjwai, but criticized government officials for “deliberately leaving”.

Benefits

Areas controlled by the Taliban in the north are increasing, moving along the borders of Afghanistan and Central Asia. Last month, the group took control of Imam Sahib, a town in Kunduz province in the Uzbekistan province and controlled a major trade route.

What is happening in Badakhshan is significant because it is the home territory of former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was assassinated by a suicide bomber in 2011. His son, Salahuddin Rabbani, is a member of the High Council for National Reconciliation.

The former assassinated president also led Afghanistan’s Jamiat-e-Islami, a prominent anti-Taliban militant Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was killed by a suicide bomber two days before the 9/11 flight to the US.

The Interior Ministry released a statement on Saturday saying the victory was temporary, although it is unclear how to restore power.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the collapse of the regimes and said many were taken without war. Former Taliban militants have shown off their Afghan Afghan counterparts taking money for travel and repatriation.