Today, Sunday, Taliban fighters entered the eastern city of Jalalabad, hours after the movement took control of Mazar Sharif in the north, at a time when government forces fled towards the border with Uzbekistan.

While the American media is talking about the evacuation of the embassy in Kabul within 72 hours, President Joe Biden gave a speech on the war and the justifications for withdrawing from Afghanistan.

The Taliban announced the entry of its militants to the city of Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan.

An Afghan security source said that "the Taliban control the police headquarters inside the city of Jalalabad."

A parliamentary deputy told the island that tribal-mediated negotiations had begun to hand over the city of Jalalabad to the Taliban.

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

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.

The commander of the pro-government forces said that all government facilities in Balkh had been handed over to the Taliban.

The Wall Street Journal quoted sources as saying that the two leaders, Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Muhammad Nur, left Mazar Sharif and fled to Uzbekistan on Saturday.

The movement also announced that its fighters had taken control of the center of Laghman province in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday evening, while Afghan media said that the movement was now controlling the highway between Kabul and Jalalabad.

The Associated Press quoted local sources as confirming that the Taliban had taken control of Daikandi province.

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.

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.


American moves

For his part, US President Joe Biden said, "We went to Afghanistan to defeat those who attacked us on September 11, 2001, and the mission resulted in the death of bin Laden and the retreat of al-Qaeda."

"I was the fourth president to oversee the presence of US forces in Afghanistan, and I will not pass this war on to a fifth president," he added.

He said the deal struck by former President Donald Trump left the Taliban in their strongest militarily position since 2001.

He stressed that a permanent American presence in the midst of a civil conflict in another country is not an acceptable option for me.

He said that US forces staying for another year or five in Afghanistan would not make a difference if the Afghan army did not control his country.

"I have instructed our armed forces and intelligence to be vigilant against future terrorist threats in Afghanistan," he added.

"We have informed the Taliban representatives in Doha that any action that puts our mission and our personnel in danger will be faced by the American forces," he added.

The US President revealed that he had authorized the deployment of nearly 5,000 US troops to ensure an orderly and safe withdrawal of US personnel in Afghanistan.

Earlier, US media quoted security and diplomatic sources as saying that the US embassy in Kabul would be evacuated within 72 hours and that some employees would remain.

Politico newspaper quoted an informed American source as confirming that the process of evacuating the American embassy staff in Kabul to the airport actually began with the Taliban approaching the capital.

The newspaper added that a number of US embassy employees arrived at Kabul airport under strict security protection.

US embassy employees 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.

In a related context, US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris held an online meeting with the national security team to discuss ongoing efforts to reduce the number of American civilians in Afghanistan, evacuate Afghan collaborators applying for special immigrant visas, and follow up on developments in the security situation.

The meeting was joined by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Chief of Staff, the National Security Adviser and the Homeland Security Adviser.

The Washington Post reported that US diplomats had asked the Taliban to halt the advance or face US forces in Kabul.

For his part, the Axios website stated that the expectations among the aides of President Joe Biden that there will be no permanent US diplomatic presence in Afghanistan after the end of August.

Axios quoted sources as saying that the 3,000 soldiers who were sent to Kabul to assist in the evacuation of civilians will be withdrawn by the end of this month.

The Axios website also reported - on the authority of a senior US State Department official - that the US embassy in Kabul is open and that Washington intends to continue its diplomatic work in Afghanistan.

An official in the US embassy told the website that the end of August is still far away and that the US administration will not allow anyone to intimidate or bully it to push it out of Afghanistan, as he put it.


lack of resistance

And US Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said that his country did not expect the absence of resistance on the part of 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.