Today, Saturday, Taliban fighters captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, capital of Balkh province, the last stronghold of the Afghan government in the north, while government forces fled towards the border with Uzbekistan.

"We have captured Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province in northern Afghanistan," a Taliban spokesman said.

Al-Jazeera correspondent confirmed that the government forces had evacuated the central base in Mazar-i-Sharif and were heading to the airport.

In turn, Reuters quoted the head of the local council in Balkh province, Afzal Hadid, as confirming the Taliban's control of the city, adding that it apparently fell without a fight.

He said that the soldiers left their equipment and headed towards the border crossing, although sporadic clashes continued in one area near the city center.

Earlier on Saturday, the Taliban expanded its control into new provinces, most notably Paktia, Paktika and Logar, bringing the movement 70 kilometers from the capital, Kabul.

Government sources said that government forces repelled attacks on the outskirts of Mazari Sharif city, the center of Balkh province in the north of the country.

Reuters news agency quoted a member of a local regional council that the Taliban took control of the city of "Bal Alam", about 70 km from Kabul, on Saturday, adding that the movement's fighters did not meet any significant resistance.

Thus, the Taliban extends its control over most of the areas surrounding the capital, and 18 provinces are under its rule.

The movement announced that its fighters stormed the city of "Sharana", the center of Paktika province, and seized weapons and equipment, noting that fierce battles are also taking place on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif, the center of Balkh province in the north of the country.

And a security source - Al Jazeera - said that Taliban militants took control of the central prison in Paktika state, and released all detainees.

The Taliban launched a multi-front attack on Mazar-i-Sharif.

The spokesman for Balkh province, Munir Ahmad Farhad, said that the militants of the movement attacked the city from several directions, which led to the outbreak of violent clashes on its outskirts, according to the Associated Press.

For its part, the Afghan Ministry of Defense announced today, Saturday, that 172 Taliban fighters were killed, and 107 were wounded in military operations in several regions, during the past 24 hours.

Within days, the Taliban managed to control the centers of 18 out of 34 provinces. Among the capitals of the provinces that fell to their control were Kandahar, which is the second largest city in Afghanistan, Herat is the third largest city, in addition to Ghazni, which is located on the road leading to Kabul, where they are separated by a distance It does not exceed 149 km.

Mujahideen d Paktika Velayat Markaz Garneh پاپesha te tr Khbl Control Land Raust.


Dr. Velayat Maqam, Omnia Qumandang, Intelligence or Goul Qayunah, Fateh Chol.


Landې wijyo ې Mujahideen d Velayat پ .

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— Zabihullah (..Zabihullah m) (@Zabehulah_M33) August 14, 2021

Ongoing battles

Local media broadcast pictures that said it was the moment the Taliban fighters entered the city of Sharna, and in the same province, the movement's spokesman confirmed that the "Khair Kot" area had become under the control of their fighters.

Fighting continues in the city of Gardez, the center of the southeastern province of Paktia, as Taliban fighters took control of a checkpoint in the area and seized ammunition and weapons.

The Ministry of Defense said that 22 Taliban militants were killed in a raid on Balkh province in the north of the country, the bulk of which has become under the control of Taliban fighters, in addition to the west and south of the country.


trapping cable

With the fall of the country's second and third largest cities to the Taliban, the capital is effectively besieged and the last outpost of government forces.

With the Taliban fighters closing in on Kabul, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani held urgent talks with local leaders and international partners on Saturday.

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Afghanistan quoted official sources as saying that President Ashraf Ghani appointed General Sami Sadat in charge of security and defense of the capital, Kabul.

Taliban fighters are now stationed only 50 kilometers from Kabul, which made several European countries - including Britain, Germany, Denmark and Spain - rush to withdraw personnel from their embassies there on Friday.

The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Italy and Spain also announced yesterday that they would reduce their presence in Afghanistan to a minimum, pointing to programs to evacuate their Afghan staff, and Germany also said that it would reduce its diplomatic staff.

Other countries, such as Norway and Denmark, preferred to temporarily close their embassies, and Switzerland, which has no embassy, ​​announced the evacuation of a number of Swiss collaborators and about 40 local employees.

US embassy employees also received orders to destroy or burn sensitive materials, with the start of the redeployment of 3,000 US soldiers to secure Kabul Airport and supervise evacuations.

lack of resistance

In this context, US Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said that his country did not expect the absence of resistance from the Afghan forces to stop the progress of the Taliban movement on the ground.

In an interview with CNN, the American television network, Kirby added that the political and military leadership in Afghanistan lacks the will to repel the attacks of this movement.

Kirby expressed concern about the speed with which the Taliban are moving, noting that deteriorating conditions in Afghanistan are a major factor behind President Joe Biden's approval of additional troops.


pull plans

In a related development, POLITICO reported that the Pentagon has begun making plans to withdraw the entire US mission from Afghanistan.

The website, quoting two sources, added that the US Central Command considers the evacuation of the embassy in the Afghan capital inevitable.

In turn, a US official told Reuters today, Saturday, that US soldiers arrived in Kabul to help evacuate embassy staff and other civilians from the capital, Kabul.

The Pentagon said that two battalions of Marines and a third of the infantry, comprising about 3,000 soldiers, will arrive in Kabul by Sunday evening.

She will look into her actions.

For its part, the US State Department said that it does not trust everything the Taliban says, but will consider its actions, in response to the movement's announcement that it will not target diplomatic facilities.

State Department spokesman Ned Price stressed Washington's focus on diplomacy, in order to put an end to the violence in Afghanistan, pointing to the presence of a US delegation in Doha for this endeavour.

In an interview with MSNBC, Price stressed that there is an international consensus not to recognize any government that reaches through force.

fertile ground for terrorism

In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged not to turn his back on Afghanistan, calling on Western countries to work with Kabul to avoid this country becoming again a breeding ground for what he called terrorism.

In a television interview, following a government "crisis meeting", Johnson also ruled out the hypothesis of resorting to a military solution to the Afghan conflict.

In the same context, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) renewed its commitment to finding a political solution to the Afghan conflict, and after an urgent meeting in Brussels, the alliance said that there would be no international recognition of the Taliban regime if it seized power by force.