A major Afghan city in danger of falling into the hands of the Taliban

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KABUL, Afghanistan – An important city in southern Afghanistan was in danger of falling into the hands of the Taliban on Saturday as their fighters advanced toward its center despite coordinated US and Afghan air strikes in recent days.

Reports from Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, a province where the Taliban had already seized much of its territory before their latest offensive, were dire: people were fleeing their homes, a hospital in the city had been bombed, and government reinforcements had only now arrived. After days of delay.

“We are just waiting for the Taliban to arrive – there is no expectation that the government will be able to protect the city anymore,” said Muhammadullah Barak, a resident.

What comes next in Lashkar Gah is not certain – the city has been on the brink of a Taliban coup and has been going on for more than a decade. But if the insurgent group captures the city this time, it will be the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban since 2016.

The deteriorating situation in Lashkar Gah is a more severe version of what is happening in cities across the country after the Taliban have captured about half of Afghanistan’s 400 provinces since US and international forces began withdrawing from the country in May.

Thousands of civilians were killed and injured – the highest number recorded in the May-June period since the United Nations began monitoring these losses in 2009. At least 100,000 others have been displaced from their homes.

On Saturday, fighting between rebels and government forces around the city of Herat, a traditionally safe area in the west of the country, came dangerously close to its periphery. Many shops closed on Saturday and Herat airport remained closed to civilian travel for the third day. On Friday, a United Nations compound was attacked and one of its guards was killed.

Taliban fighters also remained holed up in neighborhoods in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second largest city, in the south of the country. In the city of Kunduz, an economic hub on the border with Tajikistan, efforts to eradicate the Taliban have faltered, now entrenched within its walls.

The government’s response to recent rebel victories has been gradual. Afghan forces have regained control of some areas, but the Afghan Air Force and its commandos – deployed to hold territory still as regular army and police units withdraw, surrender or refuse to fight – are exhausted.

In place of the security forces, the government has again looked to local militias to fill in the gaps, a move reminiscent of the chaotic and ethnically divided civil war of the 1990s that many Afghans now fear will return.

In Lashkar Gah, an Afghan army officer said the government forces had asked for reinforcements for days without any luck, describing the situation as tragic. He said reinforcements began arriving on Saturday evening.

In May, Afghan and US air strikes repelled an attack on the city, and a few powerful Afghan army units took territory from which they could flee after local police fled. But this time there is less US air support, and Afghan defense officials have been frantically trying to reinforce the besieged cities to stop the Taliban advance.

Just north of Lashkar Gah, in a nearby town, the Taliban on Saturday executed two men accused of kidnapping children from the entrance gate for all to see – a worrying sign that the militants’ tough rule of law is gradually approaching the province. capital.

In an attempt to break the siege, Afghan planes bombed Taliban positions in neighborhoods across Lashkar Gah Friday night, a tactic that almost always results in civilian casualties when implemented in populated areas. The emergency hospital, one of the city’s major surgical centers, reported via social media, Saturday, that it was full.

Attaullah Afghani, head of Helmand provincial council, said the Afghan air force bombed a private hospital in the city after the Taliban took refuge there, killing one civilian and wounding two others. He added that many Taliban fighters were killed in the strike.

“Only the city center is free of Taliban,” said Abdul Halim, a resident. “The city is closed and surrounded by the Taliban on all four fronts.”

Mr. Halim said the presence of US aircraft, as part of a silent bombing campaign launched by the US military earlier this month to slow the progress of the Taliban and boost the morale of Afghan security forces, did little to stop the fighting during the day.

“We have no idea what will happen,” said Mr. Halim.

Timur Shah reported from Kandahar. Contributed by Asdula Timuri from Herat.

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