Sat 14 August 2021:
In a major blow for the government, the Taliban have taken control of a large, well fortified city in northern Afghanistan.
The Taliban now control all of northern Afghanistan, isolating the Western-backed government to the center and east, following the loss of Mazar-i-Sharif, the country’s fourth largest city, which Afghan soldiers and two powerful former warlords had sworn to defend.
Dostum on the run
Abas Ebrahimzada, a lawmaker from the Balkh province where the city is located, said the national army surrendered first, which prompted pro-government militias and other forces to lose morale and give up in the face of a Taliban onslaught launched earlier Saturday.
WHO IS ABDUL RASHID DOSTUM? DEFENDING MAZAR-I-SHARIF FROM TALIBAN
Ebrahimzada said Abdul Rashid Dostum and Ata Mohammad Noor, former warlords who command thousands of fighters, had fled the province and their whereabouts were unknown.
President Ashraf Ghani travelled to Mazar – a traditional anti-Taliban bastion – two days ago to rally troops.
Earlier on Saturday, Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani held urgent talks with local leaders and international partners on Saturday as Taliban fighters pushed closer to the capital, Kabul.
“As your president, my focus is on preventing further instability, violence, and displacement of my people,” Ghani said in a brief televised address.
Taliban and Mazar-i-Sharif
Mazar-i-Sharif, home to a famous blue-tiled Muslim shrine, was a stronghold of the Northern Alliance, ethnic militias who helped the U.S. topple the Taliban in 2001.
In 1997, as many as 2,000 Taliban fighters were captured and killed by forces loyal to Mohammed Mohaqiq, a Shiite Hazara leader, and his ethnic Uzbek allies. The following year, the Taliban returned and killed thousands of Hazaras in Mazar-e-Sharif in a revenge attack.
The fighters have captured much of northern, western and southern Afghanistan in a breakneck military operation less than three weeks before the United States is set to withdraw its last troops, raising fears of a full takeover or another Afghan civil war.
With the Taliban in control of two-thirds of the war-torn country, thousands have fled via the capital’s international airport. The US and European countries also started evacuating their embassy staff as the Taliban moves closer to the capital, Kabul.
Photo: Afghan Taliban are raising their flags in Mazar-e-Sharif. Twitter: Pakistan Strategic Forum
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