The Taliban on Sunday strengthened their control over northern Afghanistan, seizing two additional provincial capitals, including the large city of
Kunduz, in a large offensive that the army seems unable to stop.
A few hours apart, the insurgents, after heavy fighting, took possession of Kunduz, 300 km north of Kabul, which they had surrounded for a few weeks, and of Sar-e-Pul, 400 km further afield. ‘Where is. They now control four of the 34 Afghan provincial capitals. “Kunduz has fallen. The Taliban have taken control of all key buildings in the city, ”said an AFP correspondent on the spot.
Kunduz, strategic crossroads
The city of about 300,000 inhabitants, already fallen twice in recent years at the hands of the insurgents, in 2015 and 2016, is a strategic crossroads in northern Afghanistan, between Kabul and Tajikistan. Taloqan, capital of neighboring Takhar province, was also threatened on Sunday. The capture of Kunduz has been the Taliban’s main military success since the start of their offensive in May, launched with the withdrawal of international forces, which must be fully completed by August 31.
After seizing vast rural territories without encountering much resistance, they have been concentrating their efforts since the beginning of August on urban centers, encircling several provincial capitals. “It’s total chaos,” said Abdul Aziz, a resident of central Kunduz.
Taliban fighters freed
At the end of June, the Taliban had conquered the districts enclosing Kunduz and the important border post of Shir Khan Bandar, border of Tajikistan, a nerve center for economic relations with Central Asia. The Defense Ministry said government troops were trying to take over key areas of Kunduz. “The commando forces have launched a clean-up operation. Some places, including the national radio and television buildings, have been cleared, ”he said.
“The capture of Kunduz is really important because it will free a large number of Taliban fighters who can then be mobilized in other places in the North,” Ibraheem Thurial Bahiss, consultant for the International Crisis Group, told AFP. (ICG). Images on social media showed, over the weekend, what appeared to be Taliban prisoners released in newly captured towns, who could then join their ranks.
The north of the country in turmoil
After Kunduz, Sar-e-Pul, 600 km west of Kabul, also fell to the Taliban. They had already seized Sheberghan on Saturday, 50 km further north, the stronghold of the famous warlord Abdul Rashid Dostom. “The Taliban surrounded an army battalion on the outskirts of town. All other parts of the city are under Taliban control, ”said Mohammad Hussein Mujahidzada, a member of the Sar-e-Pul Province Council.
Parwina Azimi, a human rights activist, claimed by phone that administrative officials and the rest of the armed forces had withdrawn to barracks about three kilometers from Sar-e-Pul. Kabul’s inability to hold the north of the country could prove crucial to the government’s chances of survival. Northern Afghanistan has always been seen as an anti-Taliban stronghold, where resistance to them was strongest when they came to power in the 1990s.
The Taliban ruled the country between 1996 and 2001, imposing their ultra-rigorous version of Islamic law, before being driven out by an international coalition led by the United States, for their refusal to deliver Osama bin Laden, in the after the attacks of September 11. Friday, the insurgents had also seized, without meeting the slightest resistance, the city of Zaranj, capital of the distant province of Nimroz (southwest), on the border with Iran.