Taliban sweep across Afghanistan's south; take 4 more cities
Kabul, Aug 13: The Taliban completed their sweep of the country's south on Friday as they took four more provincial capitals in a lightning offensive that is gradually encircling Kabul, just weeks before the US is set to officially end its two-decade war.
In just the last 24 hours, the country's second- and third-largest cities Herat in the west and Kandahar in the south have fallen to the insurgents as has the capital of the southern Helmand province, where American, British and NATO forces fought some of the bloodiest battles of the conflict.
The blitz through the Taliban's southern heartland means the insurgents now hold half of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals and control more than two-thirds of the country weeks before the US plans to withdraw its last troops. The Western-backed government in the capital, Kabul, still holds a smattering of provinces in the center and east, as well as the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
While Kabul isn't directly under threat yet, the resurgent Taliban were battling government forces in Logar province, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the capital. 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. They have already taken over much of the north and west of the country.
In the south, the insurgents swept through the three provincial capitals on Friday.
Attaullah Afghan, the head of the provincial council in Helmand, said that the Taliban captured Lashkar Gah following weeks of heavy fighting and raised their white flag over governmental buildings. He said that three national army bases outside of the city remain under control of the government.
Atta Jan Haqbayan, the provincial council chief in Zabul province, said the local capital of Qalat fell and that officials were in a nearby army camp preparing to leave.
Bismillah Jan Mohammad and Qudratullah Rahimi, lawmakers from Uruzgan province, said local officials surrendered Tirin Kot. Taliban fighters paraded through a main square there, driving a Humvee and a pickup seized from Afghan security forces.
In the country's west, meanwhile, Fazil Haq Ehsan, head of the provincial council in Ghor province, said its capital, Feroz Koh, also fell to the insurgents.
With security rapidly deteriorating, the United States planned to send in 3,000 troops to help evacuate some personnel from the US Embassy in Kabul. Separately, Britain said about 600 troops would be deployed on a short-term basis to support British nationals leaving the country, and Canada is sending special forces to help evacuate its embassy.
Danish broadcaster TV2, meanwhile, quoted Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod as saying that the country's embassy in Kabul is closing temporarily and staff are being evacuated. Germany is reducing its embassy staff in Kabul to the operationally necessary, absolute minimum, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters Friday, as he urged all German citizens to leave the country immediately.
Thousands of Afghans have fled their homes amid fears the Taliban will return the country to the sort of brutal, repressive rule it imposed when it was last in power at the turn of the millennium. At that time, the group all but eliminated women's rights and conducted public executions as it imposed an unsparing version of Islamic law. An early sign of such tactics came in Herat, where insurgents paraded two alleged looters through the streets on Friday with black makeup smeared on their faces.
There are also concerns that the fighting could plunge the country into civil war, which is what happened after the Soviets withdrew in 1989.
Peace talks in Qatar between the Taliban and the government remain stalled, though diplomats are still meeting, as the US, European and Asian nations warned that battlefield gains would not lead to political recognition.
We demand an immediate end to attacks against cities, urge a political settlement, and warn that a government imposed by force will be a pariah state, said Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy to the talks.
But the Taliban advance continued.
Hasibullah Stanikzai, the head of the Logar provincial council, said fighting was still underway inside Puli-e Alim, with government forces holding the police headquarters and other security facilities. He spoke by phone from his office, and gunfire could be heard in the background. The Taliban, however, said they had captured the police headquarters and a nearby prison.
The onslaught represents a stunning collapse of Afghan forces after the United States spent nearly two decades and 830 billion trying to establish a functioning state. US forces toppled the Taliban in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which al-Qaida planned and executed while being sheltered by the Taliban government. The fighters now advancing across the country ride on American-made Humvees and carry M-16s pilfered from Afghan forces.
Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the Afghan army has rotted from within due to corruption and mismanagement, leaving troops in the field poorly equipped and with little motivation to fight. The Taliban, meanwhile, have spent a decade taking control of large swaths of the countryside.
That allowed them to rapidly seize key infrastructure and urban areas once President Joe Biden announced the timeline for the US withdrawal, saying he was determined to end America's longest war.
Whatever forces are left or remaining that are in the Kabul area and the provinces around them, they're going to be used for the defense of Kabul, Roggio said. Unless something dramatically changes, and I don't see how that's possible, these provinces (that have fallen) will remain under Taliban control."
A day earlier, in Herat, Taliban fighters rushed past the Great Mosque in the historic city a structure that dates to 500 BC and was once a spoil of Alexander the Great and seized government buildings.
Herat had been under militant attack for two weeks, with one wave blunted by the arrival of warlord Ismail Khan and his forces. But on Thursday afternoon, Taliban fighters broke through the city's defensive lines.
The insurgents circulated photos and a video showing Khan in their captivity as well as video footage that appeared to show two Afghan military Black Hawk helicopters provided by the U.S. that were captured in Herat.
In Kandahar, insurgents seized the governor's office and other buildings, witnesses said, adding that the governor and other officials fled the onslaught. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the defeat has yet to be acknowledged by the government, which has not commented on the latest advances.
The Taliban had earlier attacked a prison in Kandahar and freed inmates inside, officials said.
The U.N. agency for humanitarian affairs warned that civilians in southern Afghanistan faced cut-off highways and mobile phone outages. It described aid groups as being unable to determine how many people had fled as intense fighting and airstrikes continued there.
On Thursday, Nasima Niazi, a lawmaker from Helmand, said civilians likely had been wounded and killed in airstrikes. US Central Command has acknowledged carrying out several strikes in recent days, without providing details or commenting on the concerns over civilian casualties.
Pakistan, meanwhile, opened its Chaman border crossing for people who had been stranded in recent weeks. Juma Khan, the Pakistan border town's deputy commissioner, said the crossing was reopened following talks with the Taliban.
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New strikes light up the night in Tehran as Israel vows 'many surprises'
Dubai (AP): The Iran war exploded further late on Saturday as pillars of flame rose above an oil storage facility in Tehran, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised "many surprises" for the next phase of the week-old conflict.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said he has ruled out having Kurds join the Iran war. Trump said Kurdish fighters in the region are willing to assist in efforts to topple the Iranian government, but their involvement would make the conflict more complicated.
"The war is complicated enough without having -- getting the Kurds involved," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Iranian state media confirmed the strike on the oil facility as Associated Press video showed the horizon glowing against the night sky. Israel's military confirmed new strikes that shook neighbourhoods in Tehran's east and south but did not comment on targets.
It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war. State media blamed "an attack from the US and the Zionist regime" at the facility that supplies the capital and neighbouring provinces in the north.
Earlier in the day, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian apologised for attacks on "neighbouring countries", even as his country's missiles and drones flew toward Gulf Arab states and hard-liners asserted that Tehran's war strategy would not change.
A rift between more pragmatic politicians looking to de-escalate the war and others committed to battling the United States and Israel could complicate any diplomatic efforts. Conflicting statements emerged from two of the three members of the leadership council overseeing Iran since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the war's opening airstrikes.
Trump threatened that Iran would be "hit very hard" and more "areas and groups of people" would become targets, without elaborating. Already, the conflict has rattled global markets and left Iran's leadership weakened by hundreds of Israeli and American airstrikes.
Along with his apology, Pezeshkian dismissed Trump's call for Tehran to surrender unconditionally, saying: "That is a dream that they should take to their grave."
Iran makes varying statements on attacks
Pezeshkian's message, seemingly filmed in a hurry, underlined the limited powers exercised by the theocracy's leaders over the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which controls the hundreds of ballistic missiles targeting Israel and other countries. It answered only to Khamenei and appears to be picking its own targets.
Pezeshkian's statement said Iran's leadership council had been in touch with the armed forces and "from now on, they should not attack neighbouring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked by those countries. I think we should solve this through diplomacy".
The US strikes have not come from the Gulf Arab governments under attack, but from US bases and vessels in the region.
But hard-line judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, another member of the three-man leadership council, suggested that war strategy will not change.
"The geography of some countries in the region -- both overtly and covertly -- is in the hands of the enemy, and those points are used against our country in acts of aggression. Intense attacks on these targets will continue," he posted on X.
"As long as the presence of US bases in the region continue, the countries will not enjoy peace," Iran's Parliament speaker and a former Revolutionary Guard general, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on X. He called defence policies in line with the late supreme leader's guidance.
Iran's UN mission later suggested, without offering evidence, that strikes on non-military sites "may have resulted from interception by US electronic defence systems".
Late on Saturday, top Iranian security official Ali Larijani asserted in an address carried by state media that "our leaders are united on this issue and have no disagreements with one another".
He also said the leadership council has requested that "arrangements be made" to convene the Assembly of Experts to choose the next supreme leader, but did not say when.
US says more intense bombing lies ahead
Earlier, AP video showed explosions over western Tehran as Israel said it struck a Tehran airport it said was used to transfer weapons and cash to militant groups.
"Tehran is under severe bombardment" and even people far from military and government targets are living in fear, said a university student in western Tehran, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
The US and Israel have battered Iran, targeting its military capabilities, leadership and nuclear programme. The war's stated goals and timelines have repeatedly shifted as the US has at times suggested it seeks to topple Iran's government or elevate new leadership from within.
The fighting has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 290 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six US troops have been killed.
In Lebanon, Israel carried out a commando raid to search for clues about a navigator who went missing 40 years ago that left dozens of people dead and dozens more wounded overnight.
Incoming missiles from Iran had people heading to bomb shelters again across Israel, with no reports of casualties.
Missile lands at US Embassy compound in Iraq
Three Iraqi security officials said a missile landed on the helicopter landing pad in the US embassy complex in Baghdad. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly. An embassy spokesperson declined to comment. There were no reports of casualties.
It was the first reported strike to land in Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone since the Iran war began. Iran and allied Iraqi militias have launched dozens of attacks on US military bases and other facilities in Iraq since then.
Iraq's caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani called the embassy attack a "terrorist act" carried out by "rogue groups".
Strikes target Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Dubai
US allies in the Gulf have said the Trump administration did not give them adequate time to prepare for the war.
Hours after Pezeshkian's apology, the United Arab Emirates said debris from an aerial interception fell onto a vehicle and killed an "Asian driver". Four people have now been killed in the UAE since the war began. Authorities have said all were foreign nationals.
Sirens sounded earlier on Saturday in Bahrain as Iran targeted the island kingdom. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed drones headed toward its vast Shaybah oil field and shot down a ballistic missile launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts US forces.
In Dubai, several blasts were heard on Saturday morning and the government said it had activated air defences. Passengers waiting for flights at Dubai International Airport were ushered into train tunnels. Long-haul carrier Emirates briefly said all flights to and from Dubai were suspended.
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