PATROL: Taliban fighters on a motorbike in the Afghan city of Ghazni on Thursday. The city is just one of a number of cities that have been hijacked by the Taliban in recent days. Photo: Gulabuddin Amiri / AP
The Taliban captured Kandahar, the second largest city in Afghanistan. The same group claims to control the city – as well as the third largest in the country.
City after city fell under Taliban control. With just hours left, the Afghan authorities lost some of their most important cities: Herat, Ghazni and Fort Nau, all of which fell on Thursday.
Late Thursday night, the Taliban then made allegations that they had captured Kandahar. The messages reached the AP via what they refer to as local sources.
“Kandahar has been completely occupied,” a Taliban spokesman told the BBC on Friday night.
According to the Associated Press, the sources will be anonymous, as the government has not yet acknowledged the city’s fall. It is said that they said so and that the local authorities in the city managed to escape from the city with their entourage and escape by plane from the airport.
Pictures on social media showed Taliban militants on the streets of Kandahar on Thursday. The day before, they had stormed and seized a prison in the city.
The Afghan authorities have not confirmed these allegations so far.
strategically important
The Taliban now controls most of northern Afghanistan, controlling more and more cities of strategic importance. And the last of them is Kandahar – the city in which the Taliban movement originated.
The city also has an international airport, and is an important center of commerce in the country.
– the worst is about to happen, Norway’s defense chief, Erik Kristoffersen, has warned At VG Thursday.
Abandoned: A market in Kandahar is much more empty than usual as a result of the conflict between Afghan forces and the Taliban in several places in the country. The photo is from Tuesday this week. Photo: M Sadiq/EPA
He fears that developments in the country will lead to a full-fledged civil war.
sesame islandAnother spokesman for the group says that the large number of cities that have fallen under Taliban control shows that “the Afghan people welcome them.
The Security Council considers condemning
On Friday evening, Reuters news agency reported that a statement condemning the Taliban’s advance in Afghanistan is up for discussion at the UN Security Council. Estonia and Norway will summarize the draft statement.
– The United Nations declares that we do not support and will not support the establishment of any authority in Afghanistan that is entered through military force, as stated in the draft.
Watching: A Taliban fighter at the entrance to the police headquarters in Ghazni. Photo: AFP
Reuters also reported that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken held talks with the foreign ministers of several partner countries – as well as with NATO President Jens Stoltenberg.
On Thursday, it also became known that Both the United States and Britain are sending additional forces to assist their citizens abroad. Almost all US Embassy staff have been evacuated.
600 British soldiers and 3,000 American soldiers were sent to the country to evacuate their ambassadors and diplomats in the country, among others.
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