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The Taliban tightened their grip on the outskirts of Kabul, taking control of a key town on the main road to the south as the threat to several other major urban areas intensified.
The fall of Ghazni on Thursday evening, 150 km south of the capital and which is on Route 1 between Kabul and Kandahar, means that the Taliban are controlling the main strategic approaches from the north and south after the fall of Pul-e Khumri two days ago.
In Herat, Afghanistan’s third-largest city, heavy fighting also took place in the streets after the Taliban breached lines held by Afghan government forces and local warlord Ismail Khan on Thursday, with heavy clashes around the governor’s mansion.
As smoke and flames were visible from some buildings, Taliban fighters could be heard calling into a neighborhood to hoist their flags.
Kabul has not been directly threatened by the advance of the Taliban, but the staggering speed of their offensive raises questions about how long the Afghan government can maintain control of the shreds of the country it left.
The government could eventually be forced to withdraw to defend the capital and a few other cities. Thousands of people displaced by the fighting have fled to Kabul and live in open fields and parks.
The Taliban posted videos and images online of their white flags waving in Ghazni as it emerged that the local governor and police chief had defected from the insurgents.
The city is the 10th provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in a matter of days.
His capture after 10 days of fighting came as Taliban fighters pushed their offensive against other cities, including Herat in the west of the country, Mazar-i Sharif in the north and Kandahar in the south, the country’s second largest city.
“The Taliban have completely captured Ghazni and control the city,” a senior local official confirmed by telephone to the Guardian. “They broke into the prison and released around 400 inmates.
“They started their assault on the city around midnight and entered the city from several directions around 2 am.
“There were violent street-to-street clashes between the security forces and the Taliban. At around 8 a.m. they took over most of the city’s key areas and the city completely fell 30 minutes ago.
“The local governor and the police commander made a deal with the Taliban and joined the Taliban. Security and intelligence chiefs are still fighting with them on the outskirts of town, ”another official said.
“It is very dangerous for Kabul and we have raised this concern on several occasions. We even told Kabul of our suspicions about the governor’s behavior.
Growing threat to Kabul follows warnings from US defense and intelligence officials on Wednesday that the speed of the Taliban’s advance could lead to the collapse of the Afghan government in 90 days and the capital’s isolation within a month .
The Taliban’s latest victory follows a strategy of invading the countryside first and then the provincial capitals, as they cut off supply and reinforcement lines for Afghan government forces, including the Kunduz air base, to increasingly isolate key centers.
Fighting also raged Thursday in Lashkar Gah, one of Afghanistan’s largest cities in the Taliban heart of Helmand province, where government forces are surrounded after the week-long militants blitz.
The government hopes to keep Lashkar Gah, but a suicide car bomb on Wednesday was the latest attack targeting the regional police headquarters.
On Thursday, the Taliban took the building. Some police surrendered to the militants and others retreated to the neighboring governor’s office, which was still being held by government forces, said Nasima Niazi, an MP for Helmand.
Niazi said she believed the Taliban attack killed and injured members of the security forces, but had no figures on the number of casualties.
Another suicide car bomb targeted the provincial jail, but the government still detained her, she said.
The Taliban have freed hundreds of their operatives over the past week, bolstering their ranks while seizing weapons and vehicles provided by the United States.
Niazi criticized the ongoing airstrikes targeting the area, saying civilians would likely have been killed or injured. “The Taliban used civilian homes for protection, and the government, without paying any attention to civilians, carried out airstrikes,” she said.
Afghan security forces and the government did not respond to repeated requests for comment during the days of fighting. President Ashraf Ghani is however trying to rally a counter-offensive by relying on the special forces of his country, the militias of the warlords and the American air power with a view to the withdrawal of the United States and NATO from the end of the month.
Ghani appointed General Hibatullah Alizia as the new army chief, the Afghan Ministry of Defense said Wednesday evening, replacing General Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai, who had only been in post since June.
The Afghan Defense Ministry also tweeted on Wednesday that Sami Sadat, a young general hailed for his defense of Lashkar Gah, had been promoted to head the country’s special forces.
Sadat, 36, commands the 215th corps of 20,000 men in Lashkar and told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday that he was confident he could defend the city. “I know this is our country, that the Taliban are failing, that they will fail sooner or later,” he said by phone.
The fighting around Lashkar Gah has been raging for weeks. Afghan air power is limited and in disarray, and the US Air Force is believed to be conducting strikes in support of Afghan forces. Aviation tracking data suggests B-52 bombers, F-15 fighter jets, drones and other planes were involved in the overnight fighting across the country, the security firm said. Australian Cavell Group.
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