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US President Joe Biden has urged Afghan leaders to fight for their homeland as the Taliban armed group tightens its grip on the country’s territory.
“Afghan leaders must come together,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Tuesday, adding that the Afghan troops outnumber the Taliban and must be willing to fight.
“They have to fight for themselves, to fight for their nation. “
The US president said he does not regret his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, noting that Washington has spent more than $ 1 trillion in 20 years and lost thousands of troops.
He said the United States continued to provide significant air support, food, equipment and salaries to Afghan forces.
Meanwhile, the Taliban have seized three other provincial capitals in Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday, putting nine of the country’s 34 capitals in the hands of the armed group.
The fall of the capitals of Badakhshan and Baghlan provinces in the northeast and Farah province in the west has put increasing pressure on the country’s central government to stem the tide of the advance.
The group captured the provincial capitals Faizabad, Farah, Pul-e-Khumri, Sar-e-Pul, Sheberghan, Aybak, Kunduz, Taluqan and Zaranj.
The Taliban have already conquered large parts of rural Afghanistan since launching a series of offensives in May to coincide with the start of the final withdrawal of foreign forces.
A senior European Union official said on Tuesday that Taliban forces now control over 65% of Afghanistan, threaten to take 11 provincial capitals and seek to deprive Kabul of traditional support from national forces in the north.
The Afghan map “changes from day to day”
From Kabul, Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride said the map of Afghanistan “is changing day by day”.
“It is not a good picture from the point of view of the government, and especially when it looks at the north of the country and the areas it previously controlled. Mazar-i-Sharif, a very strategic city, currently appears to be the only stronghold under its control in the north of the country, ”he said.
McBride said there had been an upsurge in fighting in the south as President Ashraf Ghani traveled to Mazar-i-Sharif in the north to meet with local leaders “to try to boost morale.”
“Likewise, the Taliban have now created momentum, albeit in the countryside, where many warlords think they are gaining the upper hand,” McBride said.
The north was for years the most peaceful region in Afghanistan, with only minimal Taliban presence. The group’s strategy appears to be to take the north and the border posts to the north, west and south, and then move closer to Kabul.
In Qatar, peace talks are continuing as part of the international community’s efforts to bring stability and security to Afghanistan.
Mohammed Jamjoom of Al Jazeera, in a report from the Qatari capital Doha, said that if the current round of talks is successful, there could be an announcement of intra-Afghan peace talks.
“Now the Taliban are on the rise and diplomats are wondering if they were serious about coming to Doha and negotiating,” he said, adding that “everything remains an open question” at the second day of the three-day talks.
The Taliban are fighting to defeat the US-backed government and re-impose its rule.
A spokesperson for the group’s political bureau in Doha told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that he was on the road to negotiation and did not want the talks to fail.
The United States carried out air raids to support government troops. Defense Ministry spokesman John Kirby said the raids had a “kinetic” effect on the Taliban, but recognized their limitations.
“No one has suggested here that air strikes are a panacea, which will solve all the problems of the conditions on the ground. We never said that, ”Kirby said.
“Deeply disturbing”
Taliban and government officials have confirmed that the armed group has invaded several provincial capitals in recent days in the north, west and south.
Gulam Bahauddin Jailani, head of the Afghan National Disaster Authority, told Reuters news agency that fighting was taking place in 25 of the 34 provinces and that 60,000 families had been displaced in the past two months, most seeking refuge in Kabul.
Six EU member states have warned the bloc’s executive against stopping deportations of failed Afghan asylum seekers arriving in Europe, fearing a possible repeat of a 2015-2016 crisis following the arrival more than a million asylum seekers, mostly from the Middle East.
UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said reports of violations that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity were emerging, including “deeply disturbing reports” on the summary execution of surrendering government troops.
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