Afghanistan, Taliban advance: “Kabul could fall in a month”

The advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan continues. During the night they took control of another provincial capital, that of Faizabad in the north-east. It is the ninth provincial capital that fell under their control in six days of fighting and after the withdrawal of American troops. The confirmation comes from local deputies and from the Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, who explained on Twitter that the insurgents have taken ” complete ” control of the provinces of Badakhshan and Baghlan. “No one was injured in these operations since the enemy fled,” he said. “After several days of resistance, the Badakhshan security forces withdrew because requests for air and ground reinforcements were not met,” a local official told the Pajhwok news agency. In Pul-e-Jumri, the capital of Baghlan province, the Taliban took control of the governor’s office, police barracks, intelligence center and “ all government institutions, ” the official said. quoted by the Dpa on condition of anonymity: Hundreds of Afghan soldiers surrendered to the Taliban at Kunduz airport, handing it over to insurgents, local sources said, while images of soldiers leaving the air base are spread on social media. The Taliban therefore also conquered the district of Ali Abad, the only one that was still in the hands of the authorities in the province of Kunduz.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is preparing for the fall of Kabul, which could come much sooner than feared. The Afghan capital, according to intelligence forecasts updated in light of the rapid advance of the Taliban. This is what administration officials report to the Washington Post, explaining that the US military believes that Kabul may capitulate within the next 90 days, while other more pessimistic forecasts bring the date of the Taliban conquest to the next 30 days. who wanted to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue, say that the situation in Afghanistan is much more compromised than it was thought last June, when intelligence predicted that the fall of Kabul could take place within six months since the withdrawal of American troops. “Everything is moving in the wrong direction,” said an official familiar with the new intelligence report. Yesterday, President Joe Biden, despite the rapid military successes of the Taliban, including the conquest of seven provincial capitals, said he did not “regret. “the decision to put an end to the twenty-year US military intervention in Afghanistan and not to consider any changes to the withdrawal plans.