Afghanistan

Afghan forces are battling to stop a first provincial city from falling to the Taliban following weekend offensives from the insurgents on urban centres in a major escalation in fighting.

Taliban fighters assaulted at least three provincial capitals overnight – Lashkar Gah, Kandahar and Herat – after a weekend of heavy fighting that resulted in thousands of civilians fleeing the advancing militants.

Fighting raged in Lashkar Gah, Helmand’s provincial capital, where the Taliban launched coordinated attacks on the city centre and its prison hours after the government announced the deployment of hundreds of commandos to the area.

The Taliban have rarely experienced difficulty handling Afghan forces.

Fighting is raging around three major cities in southern and western Afghanistan as Taliban militants seek to seize them from government forces.

Taliban fighters have entered parts of Herat, Lashkar Gah and Kandahar.

They have made rapid gains in rural areas since it was announced almost all foreign troops would go by September.

But the fate of these key cities could be crucial amid fears of a humanitarian crisis and how long government forces will be able to hold out

The Taliban’s surge in Afghanistan as the United States completes its withdrawal could lead to an “existential crisis,” a U.S. oversight report said.

The situation in Afghanistan is “bleak,” and the “overall trend is clearly unfavorable to the Afghan government,” a letter from the Special Inspector General John Sopko that accompanied Wednesday’s quarterly report to Congress read.

Plainly stated the corrupt Afghan government will be replaced by a corrupt Taliban government.

The resurgent Taliban have taken more territory in Afghanistan in the last two months than at any time since they were ousted from power in 2001.

Over the last 20 years, the control map of Afghanistan has been an ever-changing canvas. Here, we look at the fluctuating picture of who controls which areas.

It appears the Taliban have been emboldened in recent weeks by the withdrawal of US troops – retaking many districts from government forces.

Afghan authorities on Saturday imposed a night-time curfew across 31 of the country’s 34 provinces to curb surging violence unleashed by a sweeping Taliban offensive in recent months, the interior ministry said.

The widespread Taliban offensive has seen the insurgents capture key border crossings, dozens of districts and encircle several provincial capitals since early May.

“To curb violence and limit the Taliban movements a night curfew has been imposed in 31 provinces across the country,” except in Kabul, Panjshir and Nangarhar, the interior ministry said in a statement.

With the withdrawal of American-led foreign forces all but complete, the resurgent Taliban now controls about half of Afghanistan’s roughly 400 districts.

After a brief lull in violence during this week’s Muslim holidays of Eid al-Adha, fighting continued again with the authorities claiming to have killed more than 260 Taliban fighters in the past 24 hours across several provinces.

Both the authorities and the Taliban exaggerate their claims, which cannot be independently verified.

Islam plus a Tribal culture equals brutal chaos.

You would hope that the Afghan public is strenuously opposed to a return to an intolerant caliphate

Alast-ditch effort to broker peace in Afghanistan will be made in the Qatari capital of Doha this weekend. A senior Afghan government delegation which includes Abdullah Abdullah, chair of the country’s High Council for National Reconciliation, and former national president Hamid Karzai will engage in talks with the Taliban. Afghanistan’s unending 42-year civil war has intensified with the imminent departure of western armed forces led by the United States.

The Taliban are reported to have raised their flag above a key border post between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and claim it is now under their control.

Videos being shared on social media show the white flag fluttering above the Spin Boldak crossing near Kandahar.

Afghan officials have denied the post has fallen, although pictures on social media show the militants chatting to Pakistani border guards.

The BBC has been told the Taliban took the border crossing with no resistance.

Insurgents make full covering mandatory and ban movement without guardians, say residents of recently captured areas

As the Taliban and government battle for control of Afghanistan, residents of areas seized recently by the insurgents are already experiencing life under the repressive regime toppled two decades ago.

Emboldened by the withdrawal of US and Nato troops, the Taliban launched major offensives into new territory in northern and western provinces. Afghan forces have kept control of provincial capitals, but the insurgents have made gains in surrounding districts.

When the war ended in 1988, it was not because the Soviets had been beaten on the battlefield but because they had been exhausted

As US and British forces pull out of Afghanistan, further victims of the ‘grave of empires’, Russia is experiencing a mix of satisfaction, exasperation and trepidation.

It has its own bitter memories of the country, after all. In 1979, as a friendly regime was falling back in the face of a mounting Islamic fundamentalist insurgency, Soviet forces rolled into Afghanistan. The idea was that by installing a new leader and mounting a brief show of force, the rebels would be intimidated back into line. Six months, the old men in the Kremlin told themselves, that is all it would take.