Taliban forces captured a major city in northern Afghanistan on Saturday, sending Afghan forces fleeing, and drew closer to Kabul, where Western countries scrambled to evacuate their citizens from the capital.
The fall of Mazar-i-Sharif, confirmed by a provincial council official, was another major capture for the hardline militants, who have swept through the country in recent weeks as US-led forces withdrew.
The United States and Britain are now rushing several thousand troops back into the country to evacuate citizens amid concern Kabul could soon be overrun.
Security forces from Mazar-i-Sharif were escaping towards the border, Afzal Hadid, head of the Balkh provincial council, told Reuters.
"The Taliban have taken control of Mazar-I-Sharif," he said. "All security forces have left Mazar city." The city appeared to have fallen largely without a fight, although sporadic clashes were continuing nearby, he said.
Earlier in the day, the rebels seized a town south of Kabul that is one of the gateways to the capital.
Many Afghans have fled from the provinces to the capital, driven out by fighting and fearful of a return to Taliban’s rule, as resistance from Afghan government forces crumbles.
As night fell on Saturday, hundreds of people were huddled in tents or in the open in the city, by roadsides or in carparks, a resident said. "You can see the fear in their faces," he said.
President Ashraf Ghani held urgent talks with local leaders and international partners but gave no sign of responding to a Taliban demand that he resign as a condition for any ceasefire.
His focus was "on preventing further instability, violence, and displacement of my people", he said in a brief televised address, adding that security and defence forces were being consolidated.
Qatar, which has been hosting so-far inconclusive peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, said it had urged the insurgents to cease fire during a meeting with their representatives on Saturday.
Earlier the Taliban, facing little resistance, took Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province and 70 km (40 miles) south of Kabul, according to a local provincial council member, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Police officials however denied reports that the Taliban had advanced closer to Kabul from Pul-e-Alam, which is a staging post for a potential assault on the capital.
The town's capture came a day after the insurgents took the country's second- and third-biggest cities.
The Taliban says it is close to capturing Maidan Shahr, another town close to Kabul.The fighters have captured much of northern, western and southern Afghanistan in a breakneck military operation less than three weeks before the United States is set to withdraw its last troops, raising fears of a full takeover or another Afghan civil war.
With the Taliban in control of two-thirds of the war-torn country, thousands have fled via the capital’s international airport. The US and European countries also started evacuating their embassy staff as the Taliban moves closer to the capital, Kabul.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Afghanistan is “spinning out of control”, and urged the group to immediately halt its offensive.
President Ghani no longer ‘in control’: Analyst
Haroun Rahimi, a law professor at the American University of Afghanistan, said the Afghan government’s leverage is “shrinking”.President Ghani is “not in control anymore,” Rahimi told Al Jazeera. “It’s not about President Ghani anymore, it’s about making the transition as bloodlessly, as orderly and as swiftly as possible.”
According to him, if Kabul falls under pressure, all hopes for a political settlement will be lost.
Rahimi believes that the government needs to be handed over to a transitional authority – one that has the “credibility to negotiate on behalf of the anti-Taliban camp”, with the Taliban for some sort of power sharing agreement.
Transition to different government still a possibility, analyst says
Victoria Fontan, professor of peace studies in the American University of Afghanistan, said the ‘consultations’ Ghani referred to in his speech may be for a transition to a different government.“This is something that the Afghan government proposed a few days ago, and it could be that this solution could end the current violence,” Fontan said.
“However, the Taliban have asked for Ashraf Ghani to step down, and have already rejected this type of negotiated settlement – so, it remains to be seen what happens with the position of President Ghani.”
Fontan added that she does not think the government can withstand the Taliban tide.
“There is a lot of talk in Kabul about the impending independence day on Thursday … Many think that the Taliban are going to go for Kabul this weekend and declare independence,” she said.
President Ashraf Ghani: ‘Consultations with int’l partners’ under way
In a televised speech, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani addressed the nation for the first time since the Taliban made major gains in recent days.
Ghani said “widespread consultations with representatives of the people and leaders and with our international partners” are being carried out in a “speedy manner”.
“In the current situation, the remobilisation of our security and defense forces is our top priority, and serious steps are being taken in this regard,” he said.
“I would like to assure you as your president … we are going to prevent further displacement of people,” Ghani added, without providing more details.
Rob McBride, reporting from Kabul, said the president has become “increasingly embattled by this crisis”.
“There has been an awful lot of speculation that there might be some kind of change in leadership … Even possibly that he might be standing back from government,” McBride said.
But, Ghani seems to have “recommitted himself to carrying on the struggle,” McBride said, despite having a lot of pressure on him that there needs to be a political solution to the crisis.
Afghan president addresses nation
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is delivering a televised address, his first public remarks since the Taliban made major gains in recent days.
Ghani’s last public appearance was on Wednesday in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, where the armed group launched a multi-pronged attack early Saturday.
Taliban capture Pul-e-Alam, local provincial council member says
The Taliban captured the city of Pul-e-Alam, around 70 kilometres (40 miles) from the capital Kabul, a local provincial council member said.
The Taliban fighters did not face much resistance, he told Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity.
The gain of the city is a key staging post for a potential assault on Kabul.
Kabul seen as relative ‘place of refuge’
Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Kabul, said people who are fleeing from the fighting seem to be “drawn towards Kabul”, seeing it as a “place of refuge and relative safety”.
The humanitarian situation, he said, is an “unfolding catastrophe” as influxes of people are coming into the city.
“In the recent weeks or so, we’ve seen people coming mainly from the north where we’ve had fighting. Now that we’ve had an uptick in fighting … [in the south], we will expect to see that reflected in influxes coming into the south of the city,” McBride said.
The government is struggling to cope with the influxes and move people to other temporary camps, he added, while international aid organisations have vowed to help more.
4 hours ago (08:07 GMT)
Taliban seize province near capital
The Taliban seized a province just south of Afghanistan’s capital.
The armed group captured all of Logar and detained its provincial officials, Hoda Ahmadi, a lawmaker from the province, said. She said the Taliban have reached the Char Asyab district, just 11km (7 miles) south of the capital, Kabul.
The Taliban have made major advances in recent days, including capturing Herat and Kandahar, the country’s second- and third-largest cities. It now controls 18 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces
Taliban closes in on Kabul as US ramps up Afghan evacuations
The Afghan Taliban tightened its territorial stranglehold around Kabul as refugees from the group’s relentless offensive flooded the capital and about 3,000 US marines returned to oversee emergency evacuations from Afghanistan.
With the country’s second and third-largest cities having fallen into Taliban hands, Kabul has effectively become the besieged, last stand for government forces who have offered little or no resistance elsewhere.
The US and other countries are scrambling to airlift their nationals out of Kabul ahead of a feared all-out assault.
Taliban launches multi-pronged assault on Mazar-i-Sharif
An Afghan official said the Taliban launched a multi-pronged assault on Mazar-i-Sharif, a major city in northern Afghanistan defended by powerful former warlords.
Munir Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman for the provincial governor in northern Balkh province, says the Taliban attacked the city from several directions.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had flown to Mazar-i-Sharif on Wednesday to rally the city’s defences, meeting with several militia commanders, including Abdul Rashid Dostum and Ata Mohammad Noor, who command thousands of fighters
Weapon seizures ‘massive boon’ for Taliban
The US spent billions supplying the Afghan military with the tools to defeat the Taliban, but the rapid capitulation of the armed forces means that weaponry is now fuelling the armed group’s battlefield successes.
The Taliban’s social media is awash with videos of Taliban fighters seizing weapons caches – the majority supplied by Western powers.
Footage of Afghan soldiers surrendering in the northern city of Kunduz shows army vehicles loaded with heavy weapons and mounted with artillery guns in the hands of the group’s rank and file.
In the western city of Farah, fighters patrolled in a car marked with an eagle swooping on a snake – the official insignia of the country’s intelligence service.
