Taliban takes 2 more provincial capitals in relentless Afghanistan offensive
6 provincial capitals are now under Taliban control
The United States said it was up to Afghan security forces to defend the country after Taliban militants captured a sixth provincial capital on Monday, along with border towns and trade routes.
"When we look back, it's going to come down to leadership and what leadership was demonstrated or not," Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said at a news conference. "It's their country to defend now. It's their struggle."
U.S. President Joe Biden has said the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan will end on Aug. 31, arguing that the Afghan people must decide their own future and that he would not consign another generation of Americans to the 20-year war.
The Taliban, fighting to reimpose strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster, have stepped up their campaign to defeat the government as foreign forces withdraw.
On Monday, the Taliban took control of two more provincial capitals, officials said. Their fall marked the latest development in a weeks-long, relentless Taliban offensive as American and NATO forces finalize their pullout from the war-torn country.
The militants have ramped up their push across much of Afghanistan, turning their guns on provincial capitals after taking large swaths of land in the mostly rural countryside. At the same time, they have been waging an assassination campaign targeting senior government officials in the capital of Kabul.
The sweep comes despite condemnations by the international community and warnings from the United Nations that a military victory and takeover by the Taliban would not be recognized. The Taliban have also not heeded appeals to return to the negotiating table and continue long-stalled peace talks with the Afghan government.
Government officials flee
Two lawmakers from northern Samangan province — Hayatullah Samangani and Mahboba Rahmat — said the provincial capital of Aybak fell to the Taliban on Monday afternoon without resistance. They said government officials fled to another district.
Provincial council member Mohammad Hashim Sarwari said Taliban fighters earlier had captured three districts of the province before overrunning the capital.
Another provincial lawmaker who is in Samangan, Ziauddin Zia, said some government installations were still under government control as security forces resisted Taliban fighters.
According to Mohammad Noor Rahmani, the council chief of northern Sar-e Pul province, the Taliban overran that provincial capital after more than a week of resistance by Afghan security forces, after which the city of Sar-e Pul collapsed. The government forces have now completely withdrawn from the province, he said.
Several pro-government local militia commanders also surrendered to the Taliban without a fight, allowing the insurgents to gain control of the entire province, Rahmani said.
The cities of Aybak and Sar-e Pul join four other provincial capitals now fully under Taliban control: Zaranj, the capital of western Nimroz province; the city of Shibirghan, the capital of northern Zawzjan province; Taleqan, the capital of another northern province with the same name; and Kunduz, the capital of northern Kunduz province.
Kunduz is one of the country's larger cities with a population of more than 340,000. It has been a key area defended against Taliban takeovers by Western troops over the years.
After billions of dollars spent in aiding, training and shoring up Afghan forces, many are at odds for how to explain the surprising Taliban blitz that has threatened — and by now taken — several of the country's 34 provincial capitals.
Rahmani, the council chief in Sar-e Pul, said the provincial capital had been under siege by the militants for weeks, with no reinforcements being sent to overstretched Afghan forces.
A video circulating on social media Monday shows a number of Taliban fighters standing in front of the Sar-e Pul governor's office and congratulating each other on the victory.
Dozens of children killed in past 3 days
The countrywide Taliban offensive intensified as U.S. and NATO troops began to wrap up their withdrawal from Afghanistan this summer.
With Taliban attacks increasing, Afghan security forces and government troops have retaliated with airstrikes aided by the United States. The fighting has also raised growing concerns about civilian casualties.
On Monday, UNICEF said it was shocked by the increasing number of casualties among children amid the escalating violence in Afghanistan.
Over the past three days, at least 27 children have been killed in various provinces, including 20 in Kandahar, it said.
"These atrocities are also evidence of the brutal nature and scale of violence in Afghanistan which preys on already vulnerable children," the agency said.
It did not identify the side responsible for the killings. UNICEF also raised the alarm over what it said was increased recruitment of children by armed groups.
'Rotten deal'
The Taliban gains have sparked recriminations over the withdrawal of foreign forces. British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told the Daily Mail that the accord struck last year between the United States and the Taliban was a "rotten deal."
Wallace said his government had asked some NATO allies to keep their troops in Afghanistan once the U.S. troops departed, but failed to garner enough support.
"Some said they were keen, but their parliaments weren't. It became apparent pretty quickly that without the United States as the framework nation it had been, these options were closed off," Wallace said.
Germany's defence minister rejected calls for its soldiers to return to Afghanistan after Taliban insurgents took Kunduz where German troops were deployed for a decade.
The Taliban have also taken most of Lashkar Gah, the capital of southern Helmand province, where they took nine of the 10 police districts in the city last week. Heavy fighting there continues, as do U.S. and Afghan government airstrikes, one of which damaged a health clinic and a high school.
Helmand Health Department Chief Sher Ali Shakir said Monday that in the previous 24 hours, seven people were killed and 95 were wounded in fighting and were transferred to hospitals in the province.
On Saturday, Taliban fighters entered the capital of the northern Jawzjan province after sweeping through nine of 10 districts in the province. The city of Kandahar, the provincial capital of Kandahar, also remains under siege.
As they rolled through provincial capitals, the Taliban issued an English-language statement on Sunday saying that residents, government employees and security officials had nothing to fear from them.
However, revenge attacks and repressive treatment of women have been reported in areas now under Taliban control.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people displaced by fighting in northern provinces have reached Kabul, where they are living in parks without adequate access to drinking water amid scorching summer temperatures.
With files from Reuters