MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/. Afghanistan’s radical movement the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) has seized the city of Tarinkot, the administrative center of Uruzgan province in the center of the country, the television broadcaster Al Jazeera said citing the Taliban’s spokesman.
He said the chief of the police force and all police units, as well as Afghan army soldiers who were defending it, have taken the Taliban’s side. Earlier, Uruzgan’s Governor Mohammad Omar Sherzad said the tribes’ elders had called for ending the war with the Taliban after several days of fighting for Tarinkot.
According to Al Jazeera, the Taliban currently controls 15 provinces. Earlier on Friday, Newsweek Pakistan magazine said the Taliban controlled about 67% of Afghanistan’s territory.
On Thursday, the Taliban said it had seized Kandahar and Herat. Sources told the news agency Pajhwok that Badghis and Helmand provinces had surrendered.
The Afghan newspaper Hasht e Sobh Daily says that not only local civil servants, but also army units were surrendering to the Taliban in some provinces. The movement has been taking over the key buildings in the provincial capitals, including police stations and governors’ offices. In some regions the authorities were calling upon the population to refrain from resistance to the Taliban to avoid casualties and destruction.
In the meantime, some Afghan media say that although the Taliban has taken over a number of provinces, the security forces did not quit these regions, but relocated with the aim to go ahead with the struggle. Clashes with the radicals are continuing. According to Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry over the past day more than 200 Taliban militants have been killed as a result of operations in Nangarhar, Ghazni, Helmand and Kapis. Combat aircraft support the operations on the ground.
On April 14, US President Joe Biden declared his decision to curtail the operation in Afghanistan, which has turned out to be the longest foreign military campaign in US history. In the meantime, the security situation in the country has deteriorated, as the radical movement Taliban has stepped up offensive operations on a number of fronts. The Taliban claims that it has established control of 60% to 85% of the country’s territory, including areas along the border with Iran, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.