WASHINGTON: Taliban fighters could isolate Afghanistan’s capital in 30 days and possibly take it over within 90, a US defence official cited US intelligence as saying, as the resurgent militants made more advances across the country.
The official, speaking to Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity, said the new assessment of how long Kabul could stand was a result of the Taliban’s rapid gains as US-led foreign forces leave. The official said it is not a “foregone conclusion,” adding the Afghan security forces could reverse the momentum by putting up more resistance.
The Taliban now control 65% of Afghanistan and have taken or threaten to take 11 provincial capitals. Faizabad, in the northeastern province of Badakhshan, became the eighth provincial capital to be seized by the Taliban.
Fighting was extremely intense in Kandahar city. The city received scores of bodies of Afghan forces and some injured Taliban. All gateways to Kabul, which lies in a valley surrounded by mountains, are choked with civilians fleeing violence.
The speed of the Taliban advance has shocked the government and its allies. US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the attacks were against the spirit of a 2020 agreement.
The Taliban committed to talks on a peace accord that would lead to a “permanent and comprehensive ceasefire,” Price said. “All indications at least suggest the Taliban are instead pursuing a battlefield victory.” “Attacking provincial capitals and targeting civilians is inconsistent with the spirit of the agreement,” he said.
The United Nations said more than 1,000 civilians had been killed in the past month, and the International Committee of the Red Cross said that since Aug. 1 some 4,042 wounded people had been treated at 15 health facilities.
The Taliban denied targeting or killing civilians and called for an independent investigation. The group “has not targeted any civilians or their homes in any locality, rather the operations have been undertaken with great precision and caution,” spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said in a statement.
PEACE TALKS
The loss of Faizabad was the latest setback for the government of President Ashraf Ghani, who flew to Mazar-i-Sharif to rally old warlords to the defence of the biggest city in the north as Taliban forces closed in.
Ghani spent years sidelining the warlords as he tried to project the authority of his central government over wayward provinces. On Wednesday, President Ghani held crisis talks with ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum and prominent ethnic Tajik leader Atta Mohammad Noor about defending the city.
The Afghans “need to determine … if they have the political will to fight back and if they have the ability to unite as leaders to fight back,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. She declined to comment on the intelligence assessments that Kabul could be overtaken by the Taliban within 90 days but said the plan to withdraw troops by August 31 was held.
The State Department’s Price said the United States was working to forge an international consensus behind the need for a peace accord. The Taliban have captured districts bordering Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Pakistan and China, heightening regional security concerns. He spoke as envoys from the United States, China, Russia and other countries met in Doha with Taliban and Afghan government negotiators in a bid to break a months-long deadlock in peace talks.
