The radical Islamic Taliban in Afghanistan have advanced further towards the capital Kabul. On Friday they captured the provincial capital Pul-i-Alam, which is only 50 kilometers south of Kabul, as a regional parliamentarian told the AFP news agency. NATO scheduled an emergency meeting for Friday. The central topic should be the planning for evacuation measures in Afghanistan.
Pul-i-Alam is the capital of Logar Province. By conquering this city, the Islamists opened up access for the further advance towards Kabul. The Taliban had “100 percent” taken control of Pul-i-Alam, said MP Said Karibullah Sadat. The Islamists have taken all government institutions in the city. There is currently no more fighting in Pul-i-Alam.
Taliban take half of the provincial capitals in 8 days
The conquest of three other provincial capitals by the Taliban had previously been announced from various sources. According to the Islamists, this includes Kandahar in the south, the second largest city in the country. The Taliban are thus continuing their almost unchecked advance that they began after the US and NATO allies began withdrawing at the end of April.
In the past eight days, the Taliban captured around half of the provincial capitals. The Afghan government, on the other hand, controls only two major cities in addition to Kabul: Jalalabad in the east and Mazar-i-Sharif in the north.
Embassy staff is evacuated
The US announced on Thursday that it would send around 3,000 soldiers to Kabul because of the worsening conflict. You are supposed to help evacuate US embassy workers.
The government in London plans to send around 600 soldiers to Kabul to secure the embassy and to support the departure of British citizens and former Afghan local staff.
British Defense Minister Ben Wallace described the Doha Agreement, which the United States concluded with the Taliban under then-President Donald Trump, as a “mistake”. The international community will “probably have to bear the consequences”, Wallace told Sky News.
The decision to withdraw US troops caused “a big problem”. The Al-Qaeda terrorist network will “probably” come back and “pose a threat to us and our interests”. Failed states are “breeding grounds” for “these kinds of people,” said Wallace.
Before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington, Afghanistan was one of the retreats for the extremists of the al-Qaeda network that carried out the attacks. Then the US invaded Afghanistan with allies and overthrew the Taliban then ruling there.