Taliban Seize Kandahar, Prepare to March on Afghan Capital Kabul
KABUL—The Taliban accomplished the seizure of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s 2nd-largest town and the Islamist movement’s birthplace, and took into custody a warlord who organized the failed defenses of the western town of Herat.
Combined with other improvements, together with the capture of the provincial money of Helmand, the tumble of these two significant metropolitan areas has presented the Taliban whole command of southern and western Afghanistan, making it possible for the insurgent motion to pool its forces for a ultimate march on Kabul.
The U.S. has presently launched the drawdown of its big embassy in Kabul, sending troops to evacuate most of the personnel as it cuts the diplomatic existence to an crucial main. Other Western embassies are readying comparable strategies, fearing that the Taliban could lay siege to the Afghan money inside of times.
Business flights from Kabul have been booked strong, with expatriates and Afghans holding visas for overseas countries making an attempt to go away. Tens of thousands of people today escaping the Taliban’s improvements in the provinces, meanwhile, flocked into the Afghan money, sleeping in town parks and mosques.
“The Taliban really do not care about people today, they just like war, and now you see the town filling up with displaced people today,” claimed Yama Rashid, a 29-year-previous seller of cellular-telephone playing cards. “They say that the U.S. is going to assist people today who labored for them. But what about the relaxation of us? Really should we just burn?”
