Advance of the Taliban: USA sends 3,000 additional soldiers to Kabul airport

The USA will temporarily relocate around 3,000 additional soldiers to Afghanistan in order to strengthen security at Kabul Airport.

It is about supporting the reduction of the US embassy staff, said the spokesman for the US Department of Defense, John Kirby, on Thursday.

This could also include securing convoys to and from the airport, he said.

The troops could also assist the State Department in evacuating former Afghan US military personnel. The temporary reinforcement is a precautionary measure and "appropriate" given the recent advance of the militant Islamist Taliban in parts of Afghanistan, said Kirby. The US military actually wants to leave the country by the end of August. According to reports, only a few hundred soldiers are supposed to stay behind - mainly to protect the US embassy.

The US wants to get its former local staff in Afghanistan out of the country faster than before. For interpreters and other Afghan employees who would have to fear reprisals if the Taliban came to power, there should be daily flights to take them out of the country, said the spokesman for the US State Department, Ned Price, in Washington on Thursday.

With a view to the recent advance of the militant Islamist Taliban in Afghanistan, he said that the international community would not recognize a new Afghan government if it had seized power by force. This "message to the Taliban" will later be expressed in a joint statement with several international partners, including Germany, said Price. A violent seizure of power by the Taliban would isolate Afghanistan internationally, whereupon aid payments would also be suspended, Price stressed. In view of the ongoing negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government in the Emirate of Qatar, Price appealed to all parties to agree on a common political process for the future of the country.

Taliban capture several provincial capitals

It had previously become known that after the third largest city of Herat, another provincial capital in Afghanistan had fallen to the Taliban. Kala-e Nau in the Badghis province in the north-west of the country had been taken over by the Islamists, a provincial council and a parliamentarian from the German press agency confirmed on Thursday. The twelfth provincial capital thus fell to the Taliban within less than a week. In early July, Kala-e Nau was the first provincial capital that the Taliban had attacked in the course of their offensives since the official withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan in early May. According to local officials, after several days of fighting with the Islamists, they had agreed on a ceasefire. However, this was broken on Thursday by the Taliban.The Taliban never officially confirmed the ceasefire.

The most important government institutions in the city with around 80,000 inhabitants are now in the hands of the Islamists, said the provincial councils.

The security forces had withdrawn to a military base.

The officials speculated that they were surrounded and would have to surrender sooner or later.

With Kala-e Nau, the Taliban captured the third provincial capital within a day.

On Thursday morning (local time) the strategically important city of Gasni, which is only 150 kilometers from Kabul, fell to them.

The fall of the historic city of Herat, with an estimated 600,000 inhabitants, was preceded by weeks of attacks on the city. The Taliban were initially kept in check by the security forces and militias of the local politician and former warlord Ismail Chan, and in some cases were also pushed back. Provincial councils have reported increasing fighting in Herat since Thursday afternoon (local time). The Taliban had advanced into the city from the east and reached the governor's seat up to 200 meters. Ismail Chan's militias were busy repelling an attack by the Islamists in the west of the city. They have also advanced from the north, said another provincial council.