Afghanistan: Insurgents are capitalising on remaining phases of withdrawal of US-led international forces. (File)
Kabul:
The Taliban have captured their first provincial capital since launching an offensive to coincide with the departure of international troops, a senior official confirmed Friday, a major psychological blow to a authorities desperately defending a string of cities towards the insurgents.
“The city of Zaranj, provincial capital of Nimroz, has fallen to the Taliban,” Roh Gul Khairzad, the deputy governor, informed AFP.
She mentioned town — in southwest Afghanistan close to the Iranian border — had fallen “without a fight”, and social media confirmed clips of insurgents roaming the streets, being cheered by residents.
The veracity of the movies couldn’t instantly be confirmed.
The fall of Zaranj comes the identical day the Taliban claimed accountability for killing the pinnacle of the Afghan authorities’s media info division.
The insurgents warned simply days earlier they might goal senior administration figures in retaliation for elevated air strikes.
The assassination of Dawa Khan Menapal, one of many authorities’s main voices, adopted one other bloody day of combating because the conflict more and more spills into Kabul.
The information from southwestern Afghanistan additionally comes because the UN Security Council meets in New York to debate the battle.
“Unfortunately, the savage terrorists have committed a cowardly act once again and martyred a patriotic Afghan,” inside ministry spokesman Mirwais Stanikzai mentioned of the demise of Menapal.
Menapal was fashionable in Kabul’s tight-knit media group, and identified for pillorying the Taliban on social media — even jokingly at instances.
The Taliban claimed accountability for the demise, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid sending a message to media saying “he was killed in a special attack carried out by mujahideen”.
The homicide comes after the militants warned Wednesday of extra assaults focusing on Afghan authorities leaders.
The day earlier than, defence minister Bismillah Mohammadi escaped an assassination try in a bomb-and-gun assault.
The Afghan and US militaries have stepped up air strikes of their battle towards the insurgents in a string of cities, and the Taliban mentioned Tuesday’s Kabul raid was their response.
Fighting in Afghanistan’s long-running battle has intensified since May, when international forces started the ultimate stage of a withdrawal because of be accomplished later this month.
The Taliban already management massive parts of the countryside, and are actually difficult authorities forces in a number of provincial capitals.
‘Nothing left’
Government forces proceed to hit Taliban positions with air strikes and commando raids, and the defence ministry boasted Friday of eliminating greater than 400 insurgents previously 24 hours.
Both sides often exaggerate battlefield casualty figures, making unbiased verification nearly inconceivable.
But at the same time as Afghan officers claimed to be hitting the Taliban onerous, safety forces have but to flush out the militants from provincial capitals they’ve already entered — with a whole lot of hundreds of civilians compelled to flee in latest weeks.
Social media was additionally full of movies of the devastating toll the combating has taken within the southern metropolis of Lashkar Gah, with posts displaying a serious market space in flames.
Aid group Action Against Hunger mentioned its places of work had been hit by an “aerial bomb” within the metropolis earlier this week, in accordance with an announcement launched by the organisation on Friday.
“The building was marked from the street and roof as a non-governmental (NGO) organisation, and the office location has been communicated often to the parties involved in the conflict,” mentioned the group, including that no employees had been harmed.
In the western metropolis of Herat, a gradual stream of individuals had been leaving their houses in anticipation of a authorities assault on positions held by the Taliban.
“We completely evacuated,” mentioned Ahmad Zia, who lived within the western a part of town.
“We have nothing left and we do not know where to go,” he informed AFP.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)