Taliban take first provincial capital as US pullout nears completion

Fierce fighting has erupted in the western city of Qala-i-Naw with the militants seizing police headquarters.

An Afghan soldier takes a selfie inside the Bagram US air base after all US and NATO troops left. Picture: AFP

The Taliban on Wednesday launched their first assault on a provincial capital in Afghanistan since waging a major offensive against Afghan forces, as the pullout of US troops from the country nears completion.

Fierce fighting has erupted in the western city of Qala-i-Naw, the capital of Badghis, with the militants seizing police headquarters and offices of the country’s spy agency.

The insurgents have pressed ahead with an onslaught since US and NATO forces began the final withdrawal from the country, seizing dozens of rural districts and stirring fears that the Afghan government are in crisis.

But the attack on the city of Qala-i-Naw, in western Badghis province, marks the first time the Taliban have attempted to overrun a provincial capital.

“The enemy has entered the city, all the districts have fallen. The fighting has started inside the city,” Badghis governor Hessamuddin Shams said in a text.

Badghis provincial council chief Abdul Aziz Bek said some security officials had surrendered to the Taliban during the night.

“The provincial council officials have fled to an army camp in the city. Fighting continues in the city,” added Badghis provincial council member Zia Gul Habibi.

She said that the Taliban were inside the city’s police headquarters and the local office of the country’s spy agency, the National Directorate of Security.

An Afghan government delegation met with Taliban representatives in Tehran on Wednesday, the Iranian foreign ministry said, following months of stalled negotiations between the two warring sides.

Opening the Tehran talks, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif welcomed the US departure from its eastern neighbour but warned: “Today the people and political leaders of Afghanistan must make difficult decisions for the future of their country.”

Last Friday, all US and NATO forces left Bagram Air Base near Kabul — the command centre for anti-Taliban operations — effectively wrapping up their exit after 20 years of military involvement that began in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

For months the Taliban have been effectively surrounding several provincial capitals across the country, with observers predicting that the militants were waiting for the complete withdrawal of foreign forces before ordering an onslaught on urban areas.

After routing much of the north, the fall of Badghis would further tighten the Taliban’s grip on western Afghanistan as its forces have also inched closer to the nearby city of Herat near the border with Iran. Afghan defence officials have said they intend to focus on securing cities, roads and border towns in the face of the Taliban onslaught, launched as US and NATO troops pressed ahead with their final withdrawal in early May.

Hundreds of commandos were deployed to counter the insurgents’ blistering offensive in the north on Tuesday, a day after more than 1000 government troops fled into Tajikistan.

The US Central Command announced that the American withdrawal from the country, ordered in April by President Joe Biden, was now more than 90 per cent completed, underscoring that Afghan forces were increasingly on their own in the battle with the Taliban.

“There is war, there is pressure. Sometimes things are working our way. Sometimes they don’t, but we will continue to defend the Afghan people,” said National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib. “We have plans to retake the districts,” he said.

The Pentagon said on Wednesday they were well on track to completing their pullout of thousands of American forces and civilian contractors by the end of next month, just days after turning over the last and largest of seven US bases, Bagram air base north of Kabul, to the Afghan government.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby underscored that the US and NATO coalition partners would continue to support Afghan security forces in the fight with the Taliban, even if there were no coalition troops on the ground. “We still have the authority to assist the Afghans in the field if they need it,” Rear Admiral Kirby said, specifying the possibility of air strikes.

He also said negotiations were underway to ensure that US civilian technicians, who have been essential to keeping Afghan air force aircraft flying, would be able to stay. But he underscored that US forces were leaving by August.

“We have spent a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of resources in improving the competency and the capability of the Afghan national security forces, and now it’s their turn, it’s their time, to defend their people.”

AFP