After two days of fierce fighting, the Islamists were able to take the important provincial capital Kunduz in the north of the civil war country yesterday. This is one of their major achievements since international troops began their withdrawal.
“The city of Kunduz, including all the facilities for the province, fell to the Taliban,” said Ghulam Rabani Rabani, the provincial council in Kunduz, yesterday in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. The Taliban thus brought four provincial capitals under their control in just three days. Yesterday evening, Talokan, the capital of the Tachar province, fell to the Islamists.
The advance of the Taliban in northern Afghanistan could prove to be a turning point in the struggle with the government army. The north has long been considered a stronghold of resistance against the Islamists. The region is home to several militias and an important recruiting area for the Afghan armed forces. The city is also an important trading center near the border with neighboring Tajikistan.
The Taliban briefly captured Kunduz in 2015 and 2016. Both times the Islamists were pushed back with US air strikes. The US is currently flying air strikes – still. Because the US troops have practically already withdrawn from the country. The planes soar outside of Afghanistan. “That means: There are no longer enough funds to defend every attacked city in the country,” wrote the “New York Times”.
“Total chaos” in the city
According to the Ministry of Defense in Kabul, the government troops immediately launched an offensive to recapture important facilities in Kunduz. “Some areas, including those with the buildings of the national radio and television, have been evacuated by the terrorist Taliban,” it said in a statement. The city is in “total chaos”, reported a resident.
Sar-i Pul had previously fallen to the Islamists in the province of the same name, the provincial councils Asadullah Khuram and Mohammad Noor Rahmani confirmed to the international agencies. According to officials, the Taliban in Sar-i Pul now have the most important government buildings under their control. All government representatives have retired to a military base around one kilometer from the center of the city, which is under siege. The Taliban would fire mortar shells at the base. On Friday, the small provincial capital Zaranj in Nimroz on the Iranian border fell to the Taliban practically without a fight.
This was followed on Saturday by the city of Sheberghan in Jowzjan in the north, seat of power of the controversial former warlord and ex-vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum, a leading anti-Taliban figure.
Targeted killing of pilots
Since the start of the withdrawal of US and NATO troops in early May, the Taliban have made massive territorial gains in several offensives, and they now hold half of all districts in the country. The Islamists also captured several border crossings. The US military mission in Afghanistan ends on August 31. According to the US, the withdrawal is more than 95 percent complete.
Meanwhile, it became known that the Taliban were targeting Afghan army pilots. It was not until Saturday that another Luftwaffe pilot was killed in plain clothes. Hamidullah Asimi was sitting in his car when a bomb placed on the vehicle exploded, the Afghan authorities said. Five civilians were also injured in the attack in the capital, Kabul. A Taliban spokesman said shortly thereafter that fighters from his organization had killed Asimi.
Air force vital
Reuters reported in July, citing Afghan government circles, that the Taliban had now killed at least seven Afghan air force pilots. The extremists said their aim was to kill US-trained pilots. It was said from those around the Afghan and US governments that the Taliban wanted to gain advantages in the fight for the country in this way.
The Taliban themselves have no air force. For the Afghan government, which is supported by Western countries, the air force is very important. It can attack Taliban fighters and provide air cover for Afghan ground troops. The training of the pilots takes years, so they are difficult to replace.
A report by the US Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan to the US Congress recently stated that the Afghan Air Force was under great pressure. The availability of UH-60 attack helicopters fell to 39 percent in June, less than half the rate that was in April and May. The Afghan military is now hardly receiving any US air support.
