KABUL: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani flew to the northern city of Mazar-I-Sharif which was surrounded on Wednesday to move his surrounding troops, with Taliban fighters who have now taken more than a quarter of the provincial capital in less than a week.
Ghani arrived at Mazar when the Taliban arrested Faizabad last night, making it the ninth city will be flooded since Friday.
Afghan leaders held talks with the strong strength of Mazar Atta Mohammad Noor and the famous Warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum about the city defense, such as Taliban fighters closer to the edges.
The loss of Mazar will be a disaster blow to the Kabul government and represent the collapse of the collapse of the control over the north – the length of the fort of the anti-Taliban militia.
The hour before Ghani arrived, the picture posted on the official social media accounts of the government showed the Dostume on a plane in Kabul on its way to Mazar, along with the commando contingent.
Fighting in the long-term conflict Afghanistan has increased dramatically since May, when the US-led military coalition starts the final stage of the withdrawal that will be completed before the end of the month.
Further east of Mazar, in the capital of Badakhshan, Faizabad, a local lawmaker told AFP that security forces retreated after days of severe clashes.
“The Taliban has captured the city now,” said Zabihullah Attic, confirming the last city to fall.
Government forces also struggled against the hardlines of Islamists in Kandahar and Helmand, South Pashto provinces from where the Taliban attracted their strength.
In Kandahar, fierce clashes erupted between Taliban’s guerrillas and security forces, with severe battles reported near the city prison, which was carried out by militants for weeks.
Taliban often target prisons to release imprisoned fighters and fill their rankings.
But even when government forces transferred by Taliban, US President Joe Biden did not guide to postponing all American troops on August 31, instead urged Afghan leaders to “fight for themselves” on Tuesday.
“I did not regret my decision” to attract US troops after two decades of war, he told reporters in Washington.
And as a raging battle, US diplomats desperately tried to breathe life back to all but talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, where the special envoy Washington Zalmay Khalilzad pushed the hard line of Islamists to accept ceasefire.
Biden has emphasized that Washington will continue to support Afghan security forces with air strikes, food, equipment and money for salaries.
“They must want to fight.
They have beaten the Taliban,” he said.
The Taliban had emerged largely indifferent to the demands of peace, and seemed to mean a military victory to nurture the return to power after their Ouster 20 years ago after the September 11 attacks.
The rebels seem to be consolidating their fonter in the cities captured in the north, with militants Toting rifles patrolling Kunduz streets on foot and in armored humve when smoke rising from burning shops was destroyed during the battle for the city.
After conquering the most of the north, the Taliban have now set their sights in the largest city in the region, Mazar-I-Sharif – Long A Linchpin for government control of the area – after capturing Seberghan to the west, and Kunduz and Taloqan Timur.
Mazar saw several of the most bloody battles while guiding Bumi Taliban went berserk in the country in the 1990s, with groups of rights accusing jihadists to slaughter up to 2,000 civilians – mostly Shiite Hazaras – after capturing the city in 1998.