Afghanistan: Afghan army intends to dislodge the Taliban from the city of Lashkar Gah

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The Afghan army was preparing a counterattack on Wednesday to drive out the Taliban from the southern city of Lashkar Gah, asking its residents to evacuate, the day after a suicide bombing in Kabul near the home of the Minister of Defense.

In the aftermath of a suicide bombing in Kabul near the home of the Minister of Defense, which killed at least 5 people, the Afghan army announced on Wednesday August 4 that it was preparing a counter-attack in Lashkar Gah in order to dislodge it. “harshly” the Taliban.

Occurring very close to the green zone, an ultra-fortified enclosure housing the presidential palace and embassies in particular, this attack in the Afghan capital once again illustrates the difficulties facing the government, which is faltering in the face of coordinated attacks by the Taliban throughout the country. country.

The Taliban have captured Afghanistan’s vast rural areas and key border crossings over the past three months in a blitz offensive amid the withdrawal of international forces, which is due to be fully completed by August 31.

After encountering weak resistance in the countryside, for several days they have turned their attention to the large urban centers, encircling several provincial capitals. These towns remain controlled by the army, but the fall of one of them would have a devastating psychological effect on the authorities.

A counterattack

In Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, an insurgent stronghold where some of the most violent fighting in 20 years of international intervention has taken place, the Taliban have gained a foothold in the city in recent days.

Civilians, trapped in the fighting, have already paid a heavy price in the conflict in Laskar Gah, a town of 200,000 inhabitants. At least 40 civilians have been killed and 118 injured in the past 24 hours, the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (Unama) announced on Tuesday.

General Sami Sadat, the highest ranking army officer in southern Afghanistan, in an audio message he asked the media to broadcast, on Tuesday called on residents to evacuate the city in anticipation of a major counterattack. “We ask you to leave your homes as soon as possible. We will face (the insurgents) and fight them hard,” he said, promising not to leave “a single Taliban alive.”

A resident of Lashkar Gah who requested anonymity told AFP on Tuesday a town where “there is no more electricity, no more food, (where) shops are closed”, where belligerents clash “street by street” and that the Afghan air force “bombs almost every minute”.

“The Taliban are everywhere in town”, riding a motorbike, added the resident, according to which “hospitals are overwhelmed even if most people do not dare to take their relatives there in a private vehicle for fear of being killed by the Taliban or bombed by the government “. The insurgents also took control of several radio and television stations, which ceased broadcasting.

The specter of a return to power of the Taliban

The Taliban have also been fighting for several days against government forces on the outskirts of Kandahar and Herat, the second and third largest cities in Afghanistan.

However, authorities in Herat province said on Tuesday that Afghan forces had recaptured several areas of the outskirts of the provincial capital from the Taliban, who had reached the city gates in recent days. Monday evening in Herat and Tuesday evening in Kabul, Afghans climbed to the roofs or took to the streets to express, to the cries of “Allah Akbar” (God is the greatest), their support for the army and their hatred of the Taliban.

The specter of a return to power of the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and the end of 2001 by imposing an ultra-rigorous Islamic regime, before being driven out by an international coalition led by the United States because of their refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden, in the wake of the September 11 attacks, worries many Afghans, who have taken a liking to the freedom acquired since then.

With AFP

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