KABUL: The Taliban claimed to control 85 percent of Afghanistan as the authorities on Saturday was ready to reclaim the main border intersection confiscated by the rebels in the sweeping attack which was launched when the US forces dropped from a war-hit country.
Hours after President Joe Biden issued a plain defense on US withdrawal on Thursday, the Taliban said his fighters had confiscated two crossings in Western Afghanistan – complementing the Iranian Arc to the border with China.
In Moscow, the Delegation of Taliban officials said they controlled around 250 Afghan districts – a claim that was impossible to verify independently, and debated by the government.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid separately told AFP their fighters had captured the qala Islamic border city on the Iranian border and Torghundi crossing Turkmenistan.
Spokesman for the Governor of Herat Jilani Farhad said the authorities were preparing to mobilize new forces to reclaim the Islamic port of Qala, the biggest trade intersection between Iran and Afghanistan.
“Bala aid hasn’t been sent to Islam Qala.
They will be sent there soon,” he told AFP.
The Afghan government has repeatedly dismissed the increase in Taliban having little strategic value, but seizures from several border crossings along with mineral-rich areas are likely to fill the group coffers with several new sources of income.
Biden said the US military mission would end on August 31 – almost 20 years after it began – but he admitted it was “very impossible” kabul would be able to control the entire country.
“Quo status is not an option,” said Biden to live in this country.
“I will not send another generation of Americans to fight in Afghanistan.” With the Taliban have directed most of the North Afghanistan in recent weeks, the government has a slightly more than the constellation of provincial capital which most must be strengthened and guaranteed by air.
The air force was under severe pressure even before the Taliban lightning offensive beat the north and west of the government, putting further pressure on the airplane and the country’s pilot.
Biden said the Afghans had only determined their future, but he acknowledged uncertainty about what would be seen.
Asked whether the Taliban takeover was unavoidable, the President said: “No, no.” But, he admitted, “It is likely that there will be one integrated government in Afghanistan who control the whole country is very impossible”.
The Afghan command clashed with rebels this week in the provincial capital, with thousands of people fled Qala-i-NAW in the Northwest Badghis province.
On the Friday Ministry of Defense Afghanistan said the government forces had a “full control” of the city, but a local official said on Saturday, the rebels had attacked the city again at night.
Ismail Khan, a veteran warlord whose militia helped us force the Taliban in 2001, vowed to return government forces in fighting rebels.
“We will immediately go to the front line and with the help of God change the situation,” Khan told reporters in the western city of Herat.
The Taliban has been propagated by the withdrawal of troops and – with peace negotiations in Doha meet the deadlock – it seems urgent for the full military victory.
However, on Thursday, Suhail Shaheen, who is also a member of the Taliban negotiating team, insisted on the rebels looking for “negotiated settlement”.
US defense secretary Lloyd Austin called for international pressure to force agreement.
“The security situation in Afghanistan only argues more for international pressure to have a negotiated political settlement,” Austin said in a tweet on Friday.
“The whole world can help by continuing this encouragement.” The head of the Pentagon does not determine which countries are urgent to help, but Pakistan is widely believed to have a significant influence on the rebels.