90 days left for Ghani govt: US

KABUL: Taliban fighters could isolate Afghanistan's capital in 30 days and possibly take it over in 90, a US defence official told a British wire service on Wednesday citing US intelligence, as militants also captured the ninth province.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the new assessment of how long Kabul could stand was a result of the rapid gains the Taliban had been making around the country as US-led foreign forces left. "But this is not a foregone conclusion," the official added, saying that the Afghan security forces could reverse the momentum by putting up more resistance.

The Taliban now control 65pc of Afghanistan and have taken or threaten to take 11 provincial capitals, a senior EU official said on Tuesday.

All entry points to Kabul, which lies in a valley surrounded by mountains, are choked with civilians fleeing violence elsewhere, a Western security source in the city told Reuters, making it hard to tell whether Taliban fighters were also entering.

"The fear is of suicidebombers entering the diplomatic quarters to scare, attack and ensure everyone leaves at the earliest opportunity," he said. Wednesday's loss of Faizabad, capital of the northeastern province of Badakhshan, was the latest setback

It came as President Ashraf Ghani flew to Mazar-i-Sharif to rally old warlords to the defence of the biggest city in the north as Taliban forces closed in.

Jawad Mujadidi, a provincial council member from Badakhshan, said the Taliban had laid siege to Faizabad before launching an offensive on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, after hours of heavy fighting the ANDSF retreated," Mujadidi told Reuters, referring to national security forces. "With the fall of Faizabad the whole of the northeast has come under Taliban control."

Badakhshan borders Tajikistan, Pakistan and China. The speed of Taliban’s advance has shocked the government and its allies. US President Joe Biden urged Afghan leaders to fight for their homeland, saying on Tuesday he did not regret his decision to withdraw. He noted that the United States had spent more than $1 trillion over 20 years and lost thousands of troops.

The United States was providing significant air support, food, equipment and salaries to Afghan forces, he said. The United States will complete the withdrawal of its forces this month in exchange for Taliban promises to prevent Afghanistan being used for international terrorism.

The Taliban promised not to attack foreign forces as they withdraw but did not agree to a ceasefire with the government. A commitment by the Taliban to talk peace with the government side has come to nothing as they eye military victory.

A senior Taliban leader told Reuters that the head of the group's Political Office, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, met US Special Envoy for Afghan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha on Tuesday.

No details of the meeting have been released. One of the meetings expected to take place on Wednesday will be of the Troika Plus - a platform led by the United States, China and Russia. The Taliban leader, requesting anonymity, said that a Taliban delegation would also take part.

During their previous rule, the Taliban were never completely in control of the north but this time they seem intent on securing it before closing in on the capital.

Ghani is now appealing for help from the old regional war lords he spent years sidelining as he attempted to project the authority of his central government over wayward provinces. In the south, government forces were battling Taliban fighters around the city of Kandahar and thousands of civilians from outlying areas had taken refuge there, a resident said.

The Taliban have captured districts bordering Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Pakistan and China. Meanwhile, the Afghan government has brought changes in key army positions.

Commander of the Special Operations Corps General Hebatullah Alizai has been appointed as Chief of Army Staff, replacing General Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai. Ahmadzai was removed as Chief of Army Staff after the Taliban advanced on major cities in the past week.

Meanwhile, General Sami Sadat commander of the 215 Maiwand Corps has been appointed as Commander of the Special Operations Corps, replacing Alizai.

Also Afghanistan’s acting finance minister Khalid Payenda resigned and left the country after the Taliban captured key customs posts bleeding the administration of revenue, reinforcing the government’s isolation as the militants made swift gains.

Payenda has “resigned and left the country because Afghanistan is grappling with declining revenues after the takeover of the custom posts,” Finance Ministry spokesman Mohammad Rafi Tabe said in a phone interview to a foreign media outlet Wednesday. “The deteriorating security situation” and traveling to be with his ailing wife abroad, were the other reasons Tabe gave.

On Wednesday, the Taliban seized the ninth provincial capital in Afghanistan and a local army headquarters, completing their blitz across the country’s northeast and pressing their offensive elsewhere, officials said Wednesday.

Hujatullah Kheradmand, a lawmaker from Badakhshan, said the Taliban had seized his province’s capital, Faizabad.

The fall of the capitals of Badakhshan and Baghlan provinces to the northeast and Farah province to the west put increasing pressure on the country’s central government to stem the tide of the advance, even as it lost a major base in Kunduz. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rushed to Balkh province, already surrounded by Taliban-held territory, to seek help in pushing back the militants from warlords linked to allegations of atrocities and corruption.

The success of the Taliban offensive also calls into question whether they’d ever rejoin long-stalled peace talks in Qatar aimed at moving Afghanistan toward an inclusive interim administration as the West hoped.

Humayoon Shahidzada, a lawmaker from the western province of Farah, confirmed Wednesday to The Associated Press his province’s capital of the same name fell. Neighboring Nimroz province was overrun in recent days after a weeklong campaign by the Taliban.

“The situation is under control in the city, our mujahedeen are patrolling in the city,” one Taliban fighter who did not give his name said, referring to his fellow insurgents as “holy warriors.”

The Taliban earlier captured six other provincial capitals in the country in less than a week. On Wednesday, the headquarters of the Afghan National Army’s 217th Corps at Kunduz airport fell to the Taliban, according to Ghulam Rabani Rabani, a provincial council member in Kunduz, and lawmaker Shah Khan Sherzad. The insurgents posted video online they said showed surrendering troops.

The corps is one of seven across the army and its loss represents a major setback. The province’s capital, also called Kunduz, was already among those seized, and the capture of the base now puts the country’s northeast firmly in Taliban hands.

It wasn’t immediately clear what equipment was left behind for the insurgents, though a Taliban video showed them parading in Humvees and pickup trucks. Another video showed fighters on the airport’s tarmac next to an attack helicopter without rotor blades.

In addition to the northeast, much of northern Afghanistan has also fallen to the Taliban, except for Balkh province. There, warlords Abdul Rashid Dostum, Atta Mohammad Noor and Mohammad Mohaqiq planned to mobilize forces in support of the Afghan government to push back the Taliban.

Dostum in particular has a troubled past, facing investigations after the 2001 US-led invasion for killing hundreds of Taliban fighters last year by letting them suffocate in sealed shipping containers.

On Wednesday, Dostum said that the Taliban “won’t be able to leave north and will face the same fate” as the suffocated troops. After a 20-year Western military mission and billions of dollars spent training and shoring up Afghan forces, many are at odds to explain that collapse.