Taliban militants have overrun the second provincial capital in Afghanistan in the space of two days, as the group seeks to gain control of further cities, local officials have confirmed.
The insurgent group captured the provincial capital Sheberghan, in northern Jawzjan province, provincial councillor Bismillah Sahil and provincial deputy governor Abdul Qadir told dpa on Saturday.
Sahil said the Taliban fighters had taken over key buildings such as the governor’s office, the police headquarter and the central prison in the city.
However, the pro-government forces were still holding some areas, including the airport and an army brigade, seeking to drive the militants back out of the city, according to Mohammad Karim Jawzjani, a parliamentarian who represents Jawzjan.
Footage shared on social media showed prisoners fleeing the city’s jail with the help of Taliban fighters.
There has been heavy fighting between the Taliban and pro-government forces in the outskirts of the city for weeks. On Friday, Taliban fighters broke into key areas in the city but they were pushed back.
The city, which is located 130 kilometres west of Mazar-e-Sharif, is considered the main gateway to the country’s northern and northeastern regions.
With an estimated 132,000 inhabitants, Sheberghan is also the home of one of Afghanistan’s factional leaders, Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former vice president, and one of the main figures in the anti-Taliban alliance.
Marshal Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek leader, returned to Kabul on Wednesday after a lengthy absence from the country for treatment in Turkey.
Forces loyal to Dostum formed the main resistance against the Taliban in the province.
While the Taliban was capturing Sheberghan, Dostum was meeting with President Ashraf Ghani to discuss the country’s security situation, especially the situation in the northern province, a presidential statement said.
The time has come to improve the country’s security situation and defend Afghanistan’s values, Dostum, who holds the highest military rank, was quoted in the statement as saying.
Jawzjan shares a border with Turkmenistan as well as the Afghan provinces of Balkh, Sar-e-pul, and Faryab.
Former Afghan general Atiqullah Amarkhail believes that the fall of Sheberghan city will damage the morale of forces in the country because Dostum was considered to be an extremely powerful anti-Taliban figure.
Following the collapse of the city of Zaranj on Friday in southwestern Nimroz province, Sheberghan is the second provincial capital to fall since the US and its allies began withdrawing from the country.
The last time before the recent Taliban offensives a provincial capital was captured by the Islamists was in the autumn of 2016, when Kunduz was briefly taken.
The insurgent group has encircled about a dozen provincial capitals in recent months. Currently, heavy fighting continues between the government and Taliban forces around the provincial capitals of Helmand, Kandahar, Herat, Badakhshan, Kunduz and Takhar provinces.
Thomas Ruttig, an expert from Kabul-based think tank Afghanistan Analysts Network, said with the recent Taliban gains, no one should underestimate the group’s military capabilities.
“After all, they would attack many regions simultaneously,” Ruttig says. “But there is still a long way to go to Kabul.”
The militants are also carrying coordinated attacks against key government figures in the capital of the country.
On Friday, the Taliban assassinated the director of Afghanistan’s media and information centre, Dawa Khan Menapal, in an armed attack in the capital Kabul.
Earlier on Saturday, a member of the Afghan air forces was killed when a magnetic bomb attached to his vehicle went off in Chahar Asyab district of Kabul province, according to a security official who asked not to be named. Another five civilians were injured in the blast.
With an uncertain future, there is a climate of fear in the country forcing many people to flee through legal or illegal migration.
US President Joe Biden has announced that US troops will end their 20-year military intervention in the country by end of August. NATO has already quietly wrapped up its mission in the country.
Observers fear the insurgent group will continue its violent attacks and overpower the country through military means.
AAP
