Taliban capture ninth provincial capital in Afghanistan
The Taliban captured Faizabad in the northern province of Badakhshan, the ninth regional capital to fall to the insurgent group in less than a week, as Afghanistan's government continues to add unprecedented defeats.
Shortly before midnight on Tuesday, "Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan province, was captured by the Taliban," Hujatullah Khiratmand, a member of the lower house of the national parliament for the region, told Efe on Wednesday.
After days of fighting, Taliban fighters managed to push back the security forces last night and entered the city, he said.
According to Khiratmand, "after the arrival of the insurgents, the security forces and some officials decided to evacuate the city" to move to the Farkhar district of neighbouring Takhar province.
The soldiers would join another group of security forces in Farkhar that moved there in recent days, after Taloqan, the capital of Takhar, also fell to the Taliban last Sunday.
The residents of the city are worried about their safety and the city remains closed due to the security situation, the parliamentarian said.
The Taliban's chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a statement that "no one was injured in these operations" and that all official facilities in the city are under insurgent control. "The enemy fled and the mujahideen are pursuing them," Mujahid said.
The remote and mountainous province of Badakhshan, which shares borders with Tajikistan, China and Pakistan, has been a highly insecure region for years, with almost all districts controlled by the Taliban.
This is the ninth provincial capital to be conquered by the Taliban in less than a week, after successive victories in the provincial capitals of Nimroz, Jawzjan, Sar-e-Pol, Kunduz, Takhar, Samangan, Farah and Baghlan.
Afghan forces and Taliban are also fighting in the provinces of Nangarhar, Laghman, Logar, Paktia, Uruzgan, Zabul, Ghor, Farah, Balkh, Helmand Kapisa, according to the Afghan Ministry of Defence.
In these operations, 439 Taliban were killed and 77 others were wounded, the defence ministry said, without specifying the number of casualties among its troops.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani travelled today to Balkh province, the only province in the north of the country that remains under the control of the security forces, after all other provinces in the region fell to the insurgents.
During his visit, Ghani met with security officials and political leaders, including former vice president and warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, with whom he discussed the possibility of arming and coordinating civilian militias to fight the insurgents and increasing support for troops.
