Kandahar:
Afghan forces battled to quit a 1st main city from falling to the Taliban Monday as the United States and Britain accused the insurgents of “massacring civilians” in a town they not too long ago captured close to the Pakistan border.
Taliban fighters assaulted at least 3 provincial capitals overnight — Lashkar Gah, Kandahar and Herat — just after a weekend of heavy fighting that saw thousands of civilians flee the advancing militants.
Fighting raged in Helmand’s provincial capital Lashkar Gah, exactly where the Taliban launched coordinated attacks on the city centre and its prison — just hours just after the government announced the deployment of hundreds of commandos to the location.
The war has intensified due to the fact early May, with the insurgents capitalising on the final stages of the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces just after practically 20 years.
As the country’s safety forces struggled to hold the Taliban at bay, President Ashraf Ghani blamed Washington for the deteriorating safety.
“The reason for our current situation is that the decision was taken abruptly,” Ghani told parliament, referring to the withdrawal of foreign forces.
Ghani stated he had warned Washington that the withdrawal would have “consequences”.
His comments came as the United States stated it will take in thousands more Afghan refugees as violence surged across the nation.
“In light of increased levels of Taliban violence, the US government is working to provide certain Afghans, including those who worked with the United States, the opportunity for refugee resettlement,” the State Department stated in a statement.
Washington has currently began evacuating thousands of interpreters and their households who worked with the military and embassy more than the previous two decades.
‘Life is at a standstill’
The United States and Britain on Monday accused the Taliban of atrocities that may well quantity to “war crimes” in the town of Spin Boldak, which the insurgents captured last month along the border with Pakistan.
“The Taliban massacred dozens of civilians in revenge killings. These murders could constitute war crimes,” the embassies of Washington and London stated in separate tweets.
“The Taliban’s leadership must be held responsible for the crimes of their fighters. If you cannot control your fighters now, you have no business in governance later.”
The diplomatic lashing comes just after Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission stated the insurgents had indulged in revenge killings in Spin Boldak.
“After taking over Sping Boldak district, the Taliban chased and identified past and present government officials and killed these people who had no combat role in the conflict,” the group stated, adding at least 40 individuals had been killed by the Taliban.
Fighting meanwhile continued in the southern Afghan city of Lashkar Gah overnight as Afghan forces beat back a fresh assault from the Taliban.
“Afghan forces on the ground and by air strikes repelled the attack,” the military in Helmand stated.
Resident Hawa Malalai warned of a expanding crisis in the city: “There is fighting, power cuts, sick people in hospital, the telecommunication networks are down. There are no medicines and pharmacies are closed.”
Medical charity Doctors Without Border stated casualties have been mounting in Lashkar Gah.
“There has been relentless gunfire, air strikes and mortars in densely populated areas. Houses are being bombed, and many people are suffering severe injuries,” stated Sarah Leahy, the help group’s coordinator for Helmand, in a statement.
Helmand for years was the centrepiece of the US and British military campaign in Afghanistan — only for it to slip deeper into instability.
The vast poppy fields in the province provide the lion’s share of the opium for the international heroin trade — generating it a profitable supply of tax and money for the Taliban.
The loss of Lashkar Gah would be a enormous strategic and psychological blow for the government, which has pledged to defend provincial capitals at all fees just after losing considerably of the rural countryside to the Taliban more than the summer season.
‘Strategic blunders’
Fighting also surged in some districts of Kandahar province, the former bastion of the insurgents, and on the outskirts of its capital.
In the west, hundreds of commandos have been also defending Herat just after days of fierce fighting.
Kabul has repeatedly dismissed the insurgents’ steady gains more than the summer season as lacking strategic worth, but has largely failed to reverse their momentum.
The capture of any main city by the Taliban would take their existing offensive to an additional level and fuel issues about the capacity of the Afghan military.
“If Afghan cities fall… the US decision to withdraw from Afghanistan will be remembered as one of the most notable strategic blunders in American foreign policy,” Australia-based Afghanistan specialist Nishank Motwani told AFP.
The Taliban have seized Afghan cities in the previous but have retained them only briefly.
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