“War is raging” with the Taliban, Afghan Minister of Defense Bismillah Mohammadi said yesterday after the insurgents carried out their first major assault on a provincial capital.
“We recognize that the war is raging and we are in a very sensitive military situation,” Mohammadi said, hours after the Taliban launched their assault on the city of Qala-i-Naw, the capital of Badghis Province.
“I want to reassure all of you that our national forces, with the support of local resistance forces, will use all their power and resources to defend our homeland and our people,” he said in a statement.
Photo: Reuters
As the pullout of US troops from the country nears completion, fierce fighting has erupted in the city, with the militants seizing the police headquarters and offices of the Afghan National Directorate of Security.
The insurgents have pressed ahead with a dizzying campaign since US and NATO forces began the final withdrawal from the country, seizing dozens of rural districts and stirring fears that the Afghan government is in crisis.
“The enemy has entered the city, all the districts have fallen. The fighting has started inside the city,” Badghis Governor Hessamuddin Shams told reporters in a text message.
Badghis provincial council head Abdul Aziz Bek said that some security officials had surrendered to the Taliban during the night.
“The provincial council officials have fled to an army camp in the city. Fighting continues in the city,” Badghis provincial council member Zia Gul Habibi said.
The Taliban were inside the city’s police headquarters and the local office of the nation’s spy agency, Habibi said.
In Tehran, an Afghan government delegation met with Taliban representatives, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, following months of stalled negotiations between the two warring sides.
Opening the Tehran talks, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif welcomed the US departure, but warned that “today the people and political leaders of Afghanistan must make difficult decisions for the future of their country.”
Last week, all US and NATO forces left Bagram Air Base near Kabul — the command center for operations against the Taliban — effectively wrapping up their exit after 20 years of military involvement.
The assault came hours after the Pentagon confirmed that the pullout was more than 90 percent completed.
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