Afghan govt to ‘remobilise’ forces against Taliban

The Taliban, facing little resistance, captured all of Logar province, just south of the capital and detained local officials, said Hoda Ahmadi, a lawmaker from the province. She said the Taliban have reached the Char Asyab district, just 11km (7 miles) south of Kabul.

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani vowed on Saturday to prevent further bloodshed, as Taliban fighters closed in on Kabul after routing his armed forces over the past 10 days.

In a recorded address to the nation – his first since the Taliban launched their sweeping offensive – President Ashraf Ghani said he wanted to stop the violence “as a historic mission”. (Reuters file photo)

The Taliban, facing little resistance, captured all of Logar province, just south of the capital and detained local officials, said Hoda Ahmadi, a lawmaker from the province. She said the Taliban have reached the Char Asyab district, just 11km (7 miles) south of Kabul. The capital of the province, Pul-e-Alam, is a staging post for a potential assault on Kabul.

The insurgents also captured Mazar-i-Sharif, the northern city that was the Afghan government’s last northern stronghold, with security forces fleeing to the Uzbekistan border, a provincial official said late on Saturday.

In a recorded address to the nation – his first since the Taliban launched their sweeping offensive – Ghani said he wanted to stop the violence “as a historic mission”. “I will not let the imposed war on people cause more deaths,” he said.

A Pentagon spokesperson said on Friday “Kabul is not right now in an imminent threat environment, while acknowledging that Taliban fighters were “trying to isolate” the city.

The Taliban have made major advances in recent days.

The president gave no hint he would resign or take responsibility for the calamitous military collapse, but said the armed forces could be “remobilised” and consultations were taking place to try to help end the war.

He offered few specifics on what his administration was planning, with government control over Afghanistan all but collapsed, but the presidential palace later said in a statement that “a delegation with authority should soon be appointed by the government and be ready for negotiation”.

The Taliban have made major advances in recent days, including capturing Herat and Kandahar, the country’s second- and third-largest cities, with less than three weeks left before the United States is set to withdraw its last troops. They now control 19 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, leaving the Western-backed government in control of a smattering of provinces in the centre and east. The breakneck offensive has raised fears of a full militant takeover or another Afghan civil war.

The US military has estimated that Kabul could come under insurgent pressure within 30 days and that the Taliban could overrun the rest of the country within a few months.

Ghani’s speech came as US Marines were sent in to oversee an evacuation of embassy employees and thousands of Afghans and their families, who fear retribution for working for the United States during its 20-year occupation.

With the country’s second-and third-largest cities having fallen into Taliban hands, Kabul has effectively become the besieged last stand for government forces who have offered little or no resistance elsewhere.

As the Taliban closed in on Kabul, panicked residents formed long lines outside banks, hoping to withdraw their savings. Some branches appeared to have already run of cash.

Insurgent fighters are now camped just 50km away from Kabul, with the United States and other countries scrambling to airlift their nationals out of the Afghan capital ahead of a feared all-out assault.

In Kabul, US embassy staff were ordered to begin shredding and burning sensitive material, as the first American troops started arriving to secure the airport and oversee evacuations.