Afghanistan: Herat fallen into the hands of the Taliban, Kandahar on the verge of falling
Afghan security forces stand guard along the road in Herat on August 12, 2021, as the Taliban took control of the police headquarters in Herat.
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The Taliban are advancing hour by hour in Afghanistan with an acceleration of their breakthrough this Thursday, August 12.
To the west, Herat, the country's third largest city, fell at the end of the day and to the south, Kandahar, the second largest agglomeration in Afghanistan, is also said to be on the verge of tipping over.
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We knew that the Taliban had held 10 of the 34 provincial capitals since Thursday morning.
But now everything is going very fast.
All eyes were on Herat as well, the great city of the West.
Former warlord Ismail Khan's army and volunteer fighters resisted for weeks.
In vain: the Taliban took the upper hand this Thursday evening.
The capture of Herat, Afghanistan's third largest city, is a major step in the Taliban offensive a few hours after the capture of Ghazni, 150 km southwest of Kabul, which brought them dangerously close to the capital.
The Taliban "
took everything
," a senior security force official told AFP.
Afghan forces have retreated "
to prevent further damage in the city,
" he said, and are withdrawing to a military base in Guzara, a neighboring district.
The Taliban had hoisted their flag above the Herat police headquarters at the end of the day without encountering resistance.
Border crossing with Iran
Herat, located 150 km from the Iranian border and capital of the province of the same name, was already under siege, with heavy fighting on its outskirts.
The insurgents have taken control in recent weeks of almost all of the rest of the province, including Islam Qala, the border post with Iran, the most important in Afghanistan.
Earlier today, the government admitted that Ghazni had fallen, but assured that fighting was still ongoing there.
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See also: Afghanistan: the Taliban seize the city of Ghazni, located southwest of Kabul
The Taliban in downtown Kandahar
The Taliban march through downtown Kandahar. This is what local residents say, reports our correspondent in Kabul,
Sonia Ghezali.
On videos posted on social networks, we see
humvees,
tanks of the Afghan army driving at full speed towards the airport. This is the headlong rush of Afghan security forces that we have seen over the past week in all the provincial capitals that have fallen into the hands of the Taliban. They would now be 12 with Herat and Kandahar. Kandahar, the former capital of the Taliban regime between 1996 and 2001, a strategic city in the South which opens the way by road to Kabul in the North.
In
Lashkar Gah
, the capital of neighboring Helmand province, the Taliban released all prisoners.
If Mazar-i-Sharif, where the fighting rages on, falls, the North will be totally in the hands of the Taliban.
Kabul proposes a sharing of power
Faced with the deterioration of the military situation, Kabul offered "
to the Taliban to share power in exchange for an end to the violence in the country,
" a government negotiator told AFP on condition of anonymity. to the peace talks in Doha.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has so far rejected calls for the formation of an unelected interim government that includes the Taliban.
But his turnaround is likely to be very late, the insurgents having shown no sign, since the opening of peace negotiations in September 2020, that they were ready for a compromise.
They will undoubtedly be even less inclined to it after having advanced at a frantic pace in recent days.
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To listen: Afghanistan: "Nobody expected such a rapid advance of the Taliban"
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Afghanistan
Taliban
Ashraf Ghani