Kabul / Peshawar: Taliban militants have transferred the strategy from targeting Rural Afghanistan to attack the provincial cities, in response to the increase in US air strikes after the United States said it ended the longest war, said three militant commanders.
The Taliban has increased their campaign to defeat US-backed government as foreign forces completing their withdrawal after 20 years of conflict.
The regional US commander said the late last month of the United States increased air strikes to fight the growth of the Taliban attack, a step condemned by the Islamic group.
The fight has been very heavy in Herat City, near the Western border with Iran, Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province in the southwest, and Kandahar in the south.
Three Taliban commanders, who spoke with the terms of anonymously, told Reuters that they focused on arresting Herat and Kandahar, with Lashkar in their view.
“Mullah Yaqoob argues that when we do not fulfill their commitment, why should the Taliban be made to follow the agreement?” Said one commander, based in Kandahar, referring to the head of the military group.
“Mullah Yaqoob has decided to arrest Kandahar and Herat and now Helmand and then can be Kunduz, Khost or other province,” said the commander, said the military leader’s argument had won over the group’s political position.
A Taliban spokesman did not respond to a comment request.
Taliban negotiator Suhail Shaheen told Reuters that the group continued his policy to seize the control of rural areas and implement Islamic sharia there, rather than focusing on the city.
The Taliban, who ruled with iron hands from 1996 to 2001, said that before they would focus on profitable border crossings and large rural areas, even though they had shipped and sometimes entering the provincial capital.
The Group has carried out a massive national attack since April when President Joe Biden announced the troops would resign in September and when officials warned peace negotiations in Doha failed to make substantive progress.
In recent weeks, there have been sustainable attacks on Herat, Kandahar and Lashkar Gar, stretching Afghan troops and killing dozens of civilians.
“Operations in Kandahar and Herat are very important for us and our priority is to capture two important airports or airbases in Kandahar and Herat,” the Taliban Commander in Kandahar.
Officials and experts said they saw signs of strategy changes last month.
“The Taliban encouraged the provincial capital …
not only to put pressure but to arrest them,” said Asfandyar Mir, a South Asian analyst from Stanford University.
“The main evidence is the violation rate of these cities..
The battle is not limited to peripheral.
This switch in the Taliban strategy has been formalized after Eid al-Fitr, even though Taliban troops put a serious pressure on Kandahar even before Eid.
then.
Kandahar and Herat are the second and third largest cities.
Afghanistan by the population.
Experts say their losses will become the main political blow for the government and have the potential to trigger large arrangements for the sake of the Taliban.
“The arrest of Kandahar is very meaningful for the Taliban.
It is a capital and occupies this city extraordinary moral encouragement for the Taliban …
this is something they appreciate and for Kandahar, the Taliban can be risked by international IRE,” said an Asian diplomatic source following the Taliban .
Western security officials said: “The fact they attack (city) is a sharp reaction to air support offered by the US …
Taliban has proven that now they will not stop by controlling trade points.” It is not clear whether the US air strike will continue after a foreign force completes their withdrawal.
A spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan and the US Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
Experts and officials say that for now the North Military Takeover will be much more difficult for the Taliban than the provincial capital, but that the group can increase bombings and attacks to damage public security and morale.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack at the residence of the insuranceer on Tuesday and warned further violence.