Taliban

With the Taliban claiming to have taken control of 85 per cent of Afghanistan, which the US government officials dispute, Kirby told Fox News on Sunday that the Pentagon was "not unmindful" of the situation. "We're certainly watching with deep concern, the deteriorating security situation and the violence which is of course way too high, and the advances and the momentum that the Taliban seems to have right now," he said.

Afghan commando units were back on patrol Thursday in the capital of Badghis Province in western Afghanistan, just a day after they beat back Taliban militants who tried to storm the city. Unverified videos posted on social media appeared to show Taliban fighters speeding towards the centre of the Qala-i-Naw city on motorcycles. Amid the chaos, there was a jailbreak at the local prison.

The American-built Sher Khan Bandar crossing, north of the city of Kunduz, fell to the Taliban on June 22, with 134 border guards and other Afghan government troops fleeing to neighbouring Tajikistan. Since then, the insurgents have seized most of the rest of Afghanistan's border with Tajikistan. Nearly 1,000 Afghan troops sought refuge in Tajikistan on Sunday and Monday.

Earlier in the day, 35 militants were killed following a pre-dawn airstrike in surrounding areas of Alishing district of Laghman province, the Ministry said in a statement. A footage released by the Ministry showed heavily armed militants gathering in a muddy house before launching attacks on security checkpoints in the area, reports Xinhua news agency.

Under the new rules, the men have been asked to grow beards and the women have been forbidden to leave home. The Taliban also has set dowry rules for girls. The fears had been swirling for months after it became clear that US and NATO troops would be vacating Afghanistan after a stay of two decades—in the aftermath of the devastating attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York on 11 September 2001.

Those shocking numbers reflect that local defence forces in some districts are evaporating in the face of the Taliban pressure, sometimes without a fight, due in part to the perception that the government is doomed due to the imminent US withdrawal from Afghanistan later this year. And that in turn implies huge volumes of military equipment donated or sold to Afghanistan to help it fight the Taliban.

In Laghman province, nine militants were killed and 17 wounded after Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) targeted their position in Alishing district on Saturday night, the Ministry said in a statement. On Saturday afternoon, three civilians were killed and 30 others wounded during fierce clashes in Omarzai, a locality near Mehtarlam, capital of Laghman.

This week, the top US military commander in Afghanistan warned that chaos and civil war could be on the horizon. US intelligence analysts fear the Afghan government could fall swiftly in the wake of US departure. While US President Joe Biden has sought to reassure Afghan leaders of Washington's "humanitarian commitment to the Afghan people", aid agencies say there's much to fear, the report said.

In Kunduz province, four policemen, including a police officer, were killed and five others captured in a Taliban attack on a security checkpoint in Tapa-e-Nasiri, an area in Police District 4 in the provincial capital Kunduz city, the group, Reduction in Violence (RiV) said on social media. The northern Afghan provinces have been the scene of heavy clashes and battles in recent weeks as Taliban militants continue fighting against government forces.

The report titled "Pakistan: Shoring Up Afghanistan's Peace Process", compiled by the Washington/Brusselsbased think tank, warns that the quick withdrawal of foreign troops would have a direct impact on Pakistan-US and Pakistan-Kabul ties. "Should the Afghan peace process continue to sputter or altogether fail, Islamabad's relations with Kabul and Washington would sour," it warns.