Taliban fighters have launched an attack on Ghazni, clashing with Afghan forces and using explosives in an attempt to seize the central Afghan city, local officials have said.
Tuesday’s assault on Ghazni, on the highway linking the capital Kabul with the southern province of Kandahar, ramps up the Taliban’s offensive against the government and comes as foreign troops prepare to exit from the war-torn country in less than three months.While senior Afghan officials confirmed the Taliban’s offensive, they also said that Afghan forces were trying to regain control of lost ground.
The Taliban have had a strong presence in the province of Ghazni for years, but provincial police officials said the overnight attack from several directions was the fiercest launched by the armed group.
Clashes intensified near security checkpoints in the Shaikh Ajal and Ganj area of Ghazni city, forcing shopkeepers to shut the main market.
“The situation in Ghazni is changing, most of the lost areas in the outskirts are being taken back by the Afghan forces,” said Abdul Jami, a provincial council member in Ghazni.
Roads into the area were closed and telecoms interrupted making it hard for aid groups and officials to assess the number of casualties.
As Afghan forces battled the Taliban in Ghazni and other parts of the country, officials said some civilians were actively joining the battle against the group.Ajmal Omar Shinwari, a spokesman for the Afghan defence and security forces, said Afghans keen to take up arms against the Taliban are being absorbed in the structure of territorial army forces.
“First they will be trained then they will be deployed to the battlefield along with other Afghan security forces,” said Shinwari in capital city Kabul.
Violence surged after the United States and NATO military began the withdrawal of their last remaining troops to meet a September 11 deadline announced by President Joe Biden to end the US’s longest war.
Since early May, the Taliban has launched several bloody offensives against government forces across the rugged countryside and says it has seized nearly 90 of the country’s more than 400 districts.
However, many of the armed group’s claims are disputed by the government and have not been independently verified.
On Saturday officials said about 5,000 Afghan families fled their homes in the northern city of Kunduz after days of fighting between Taliban fighters and government forces.
Pakistan was not expecting the Afghan Taliban to make rapid inroads after the US and Nato forces began their drawdown from May 1, officials who deal with the Afghan situation said.
Since May 1 when the US and Nato forces started pulling out their troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban have captured 69 of the country's 407 districts including territory in northern provinces once seen as off-limits for the insurgents and a stronghold for the government, according to the Long War Journal.
The Taliban now hold 142 districts, and are fighting for control of about 170 more. Just this week, the insurgent seized Shir Khan Bandar, the main northern border gateway to Tajikistan.
"This is unprecedented. In our assessment we never thought Taliban could make inroads that fast after the beginning of the US withdrawal," said a senior official while speaking to The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity.
"They (Taliban) have stretched their influence as far as along the Tajikistan border," he said
What worries Pakistan is the lack of resistance or little resistance offered by the Afghan security forces in the face of Taliban onslaught. The Afghan National Army has a total strength of 300,000 troops while the Taliban are believed to have 10,000 well armed foot soldiers.
"The information we are getting from the ground is that Taliban riding on bikes are taking control of APCs [Armoured Personnel Carriers]. This is unbelievable," the official added. The Afghan Taliban claimed that in many districts they took control after Afghan security forces either surrendered or fled.
President Ashraf Ghani, who was in Washington recently, insists that the Afghan security forces are putting up resistance and have retaken the control of six districts from the Taliban. But President Ghani is seen as an obstacle to peace efforts by many within Afghanistan and outside.
“The reason is that he is neither interested in peace talks nor willing to fight the Afghan Taliban. If he thinks someone else will fight the Taliban he is surely mistaken," the official said.
An unnamed western diplomat in Kabul told Al-Jazeera that President Ghani is a lonely figure in the Afghan government. According to the diplomat, Ghani only consults with his chief of staff, his national security adviser and perhaps his wife.
While his visit to Washington may have given him some boost, the message from President Biden was clear that Afghans themselves have to decide their future.
"This is exactly our position. We believe Afghans have to make a clear choice. If they can't sit and talk among themselves nothing can work," another Pakistani official said.
As the Afghan situation hangs in balance, Pakistan is nevertheless still making efforts on its part to seek a political solution. Islamabad has reached out to Afghan leaders from across party lines, encouraging them to seek a political solution.
After the failure to organize a conference in Turkey, efforts are being made to bring Afghan government and Taliban to the negotiating table either in Doha or Islamabad.
But given the differences and rapid gains being made by Taliban on the battlefield, observers are not hopeful for any breakthrough in the near future.