The Afghan Ministry of Interior imposed a curfew in 31 out of 34 provinces to stop the expansion of the Taliban movement to control more districts, while the Taliban criticized the air strikes launched by US forces on the movement's fighters.

"With the aim of curbing violence and Taliban movements, a night curfew was imposed in 31 provinces, with the exception of Kabul, Panjshir and Nangarhar, and the curfew is in effect between 10 pm and 4 am local time (between 5:30 and 1:30 pm GMT)," the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The Taliban have launched a comprehensive attack against Afghan forces since May, at a time when international forces began the process of their final exit from the country, which is scheduled to be completed at the end of next August.

Since then, the movement has captured large tracts of rural land, as well as many major frontier posts, and encircled large cities.

The Taliban claim that they currently control half of Afghanistan's 400 provinces.

Al-Jazeera correspondent in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, Adnan Borini, said that the curfew decision comes within the ongoing conflict between the Afghan forces and the Taliban and focuses on the equation of control over the centers and parties, as the Taliban are expanding in the districts surrounding the centers of the states, but without the ability to control these centers.


In order for the Afghan forces to prevent the Taliban from controlling other districts, a curfew was decided to cut off the road between the districts, and to prevent the ease of movement of Taliban militants.

Taliban dead

The Afghan authorities added that they had killed 15 Taliban in Takhar province (northeastern Afghanistan), 17 in Logar (far west), 15 in Kaldar (far north) and 19 in Jawzjan (far north), and the Defense Ministry said that 69 Taliban militants were killed in raids. Air states of Balkh, Helmand and Jawzjan.

The ministry has launched a military campaign to restore the Dorat Sof Bayin district in the northern state of Samangan.

The reporter added that there is a war of numbers between the government and the Taliban, and neither party comments on the other party's statements regarding losses, and there is no independent third party that talks about the losses of both parties.

On the other hand, the Taliban said that its fighters damaged 4 military vehicles of the government forces of the Humvee and killed 17 soldiers in attacks by the movement in the city of Lashkargah in Helmand province in the south of the country. Nangarhar Province (east).

# Statement of the


statements of the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate about the air raids of the occupying US forces in some states https://t.co/yszZjFXDiQ pic.twitter.com/50JDuNdG7M

— Islamic Emirate (@alemara_ar) July 24, 2021

US raids

The Taliban denounced the air raids launched by the US forces in the past few days against the movement's militants in the provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, describing them as a clear violation of the Doha agreement concluded two years ago between the movement and the United States.

The movement also considered the Afghan president’s announcement of plans to launch a major operation against the Taliban in the coming months as a military escalation. The government in Kabul must bear its repercussions, and the movement stressed that it will defend with all its strength its areas of control and will choose for this purpose the strategy of attack, not defense.

In a related context, US President Joe Biden stressed, during a phone call with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the US commitment to supporting Afghan forces, and its continuation in providing development and humanitarian assistance.

The White House said, in a statement, that Biden and Ghani agreed that what the statement called a "Taliban attack" contradicts the movement's demands to support a negotiated settlement of the conflict.

He added that Biden affirmed the continued US diplomatic engagement in support of a lasting and just political settlement in Afghanistan, and the statement indicated that the United States had allocated $3.3 billion to support the Afghan security forces.