TALIBAN CAPTURE PORT TOWN IN NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN WITHOUT FIGHT

Tue 22 June 2021:

Taliban fighters seized the town of Sher Khan Bandar in the Kunduz province of northern Afghanistan without resistance from the government troops, the local broadcaster Ariana news reported on Tuesday, citing security sources.

Kunduz provincial council member Khaliddin Hakmi said the Taliban “captured Sher Khan Bandar and the town and all the border check posts”, while an army officer told AFP separately that “we were forced to leave all check posts… and some of our soldiers crossed the border into Tajikistan.”

The outlet also reported, citing the country’s Defense Ministry, that the army managed to reclaim Aliabad District in the Kunduz province, the Dushi district in the Baghlan province, and the Balkh district in the Balkh province, all of them in the country’s north, from Taliban.

In the meantime, according to the data obtained by the TOLOnews outlet, at least 60 districts across Afghanistan have either been captured by the Taliban or are currently subject to fighting between the government forces and the Taliban.

The hostilities come as the US and NATO members continue to pull troops out of Afghanistan in line with the first peace agreement in eighteen years, signed by Washington and the Taliban in February 2020. The deal also envisioned the launch of the intra-Afghan dialogue, which began in September 2020 in Doha.

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent