KABUL: The Taliban has claimed to have taken Kandahar on Friday, Afghanistan’s second biggest city, in what would be a major blow to Afghan government forces.
According to reports, the Taliban had seized the governor’s office and other buildings but the government had not yet acknowledged the defeat. “Kandahar is completely conquered. The Mujahideen reached Martyrs’ Square in the city,” a Taliban spokesman tweeted on an officially-recognised account, adding they were in control of the city.
Hours before that the United States announced that it will send troops to evacuate personnel from the US embassy in Kabul. The Pentagon said 3,000 US troops would be deployed to Kabul within the next 24 to 48 hours and stressed that they would not be used to launch attacks against the Taliban.
“We are further reducing our civilian footprint in Kabul in light of the evolving security situation,” US State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters. “This is not abandonment. This is not an evacuation. This is not the wholesale withdrawal,” he said.
UK defence secretary Ben Wallace said London would send 600 of its troops to evacuate its nationals and “support the relocation of former Afghan staff who risked their lives serving alongside us”.
Earlier, residents and local journalists reported Herat, the country’s third-largest city, had fallen to the armed group. Ghazni, about 130km (80 miles) southwest of the national capital, Kabul, also fell on Thursday.
The seizure of Kandahar and Herat marks the biggest prizes yet for the Taliban. The insurgents have taken at least 11 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals over the past week. If confirmed, Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, would be the 12th provincial capital.
The Afghan interior ministry also confirmed the fall of Ghazni. “The enemy took control,” the ministry’s spokesperson Mirwais Stanikzai said in a message to the media. He also said that the city’s governor had been arrested by Afghan security forces
The Taliban attacks have forced thousands of Afghans to flee their homes as videos and photographs on social show the group’s fighters killing and torturing civilians.
A US military intelligence assessment suggests Kabul could come under Taliban within 30 days and that the group could gain full control of the country within a few months. Most of the country is now under the Taliban’s control as the US and NATO forces will complete withdrawal by the end of the month.
