Taliban Stares Kabul Next After Claiming Control Over Jalalabad, 3rd Major City

The Taliban later released a statement in which they said that the rapid control they are gaining over the country showed that the Taliban was popularly accepted.

Taliban fighters patrol the streets in Herat on August 14, 2021. (AFP)

New Delhi: The control by the Afghan government is shrinking rapidly, on Sunday, the Taliban took over the key eastern city of Jalalabad Reuters reported. The city connects roads between Afghanistan & Pakistan. 

This was followed by the Taliban taking over a major northern city, Mazar-i-Sharif.

"There are no clashes taking place right now in Jalalabad because the governor has surrendered to the Taliban," a Jalalabad-based Afghan official told Reuters. "Allowing passage to the Taliban was the only way to save civilian lives."

In the meanwhile, the US continues to send military troops to help evacuate Americans living in Afghanistan. According to the report, U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday authorized the deployment of 5,000 troops to help evacuate citizens. U.S. defence official told Reuters that it included 1,000 newly approved troops from the 82nd Airborne Division.

On Saturday, the Taliban militia entered Mazar-i-Sharif without even a fight, as security forces escaped up the highway to neighbouring Uzbekistan. The Taliban later released a statement in which they said that the rapid control they are gaining over the country showed that the Taliban was popularly accepted and that no foreigners or the people of Afghanistan would be harmed. 

The Islamic Emirate (Taliban) "will, as always, protect their life, property and honour and create a peaceful and secure environment for its beloved nation," it said according to Reuters, diplomats and aid workers would also face no problems, they added.

Biden faces criticism

The U.S. President was criticsed domestically as the Taliban took control over Afghanistan more quickly than anticipated. He has stuck to the plan by the former president, Donald Trump of ending the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan by Aug 31, 2021.

Defending the decision, Biden said it is up to the Afghan military to hold its own territory.

"An endless American presence in the middle of another country's civil conflict was not acceptable to me," Biden said on Saturday.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s address to the nation came as the number of civilians fleeing the Taliban onslaught is increasing. Asserting the remobilisation of the country’s armed forces was a “top priority”, Ghani has assured to prevent further instability, violence and displacement of people.

Ghani said that he would “not allow imposed war on Afghans to bring further killings, loss of the gains of the last 20 years, destruction of public property”.