News / Afghanistan

Taliban reportedly seizes key district in central Afghanistan

Saturday, 22 May 2021 1:07 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 22 May 2021 1:07 PM ]

An Afghan soldier keeps watch at an outpost set up against the Taliban in Kajaki, northeast of Helmand Province.

The Taliban has reportedly overrun a key district not far from the Afghan capital, Kabul, following days of heavy fighting with the government forces.

Mahdi Rasikh, a district lawmaker, says clashes have continued in Jalrez district of Maidan Wardak, southwest of Kabul, over the past three days.

The Taliban, he said Saturday, eventually managed to take over the police headquarters the day before.

Rasikh claimed that the central government had taken “no action” in dealing with the circumstances.

The Afghan Ministry of Defense said in a statement that Afghan forces had launched an operation to clear the district. It said at least ten members of the Taliban had been killed in the clashes.

The ministry did not comment on the reports of the district’s fall to the Taliban.

Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry says what is happening in Jalrez is “a tactical retreat” on the part of the government forces.

Citing a member of the provincial council, Turkey’s Anadolu news agency said Jalrez’s police chief had “surrendered to the Taliban along with 35 security forces.”

Sharifullah Hotak told Anadolu “the district administrative compound has completely fallen to the Taliban.”

Taliban seize key district on outskirts of Afghan capital despite ceasefire

The Taliban militant group captures a key district in Afghanistan’s central province of Wardak, despite the announcement of a three-day ceasefire for the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed the group has seized the district administration compound as well as the police headquarters by inflicting “heavy casualties” on the government forces.

The recent incidents in Jalrez coincide with the United States’ process of withdrawing forces from Afghanistan. NATO is also pulling out its forces.

All foreign troops were supposed to have been withdrawn by May 1, as part of an agreement that the US had reached with the Taliban in the Qatari capital, Doha, last year. But US President Joe Biden last month pushed that date back to September 11.

The Taliban warned that the passing of the May 1 deadline for a complete withdrawal “opened the way for” the militants to take every counteraction they deemed appropriate against foreign forces in the county.

The withdrawal of foreign forces has now raised fears of a Taliban takeover of the country, in the absence of a peace deal between the militant group and the Afghan government.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, however, said his government was ready to fight against the Taliban after the full withdrawal of foreign forces.

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