The Bundeswehr has already withdrawn from Afghanistan and the US Army will follow suit by the end of August. Meanwhile, the Taliban are conquering more and more territories. Now they control important border crossings.
In their advance in Afghanistan, the radical Islamic Taliban captured two important crossings on the borders with Iran and Tajikistan. Since the start of the withdrawal of all NATO troops at the end of April, the Taliban have claimed to have recaptured 85 percent of the country. According to Russia, the insurgents now control two thirds of the Afghan-Tajik border.
“The border of Islam Kala is now under our complete control and we will try to get it back into operation today,” Taliban spokesman Sabihullah Mujahid told AFP on Friday. A little later he also declared the Torgundi crossing on the border with Tajikistan to be “completely taken”.
Border crossing controls important trade route
The government in Kabul said the Afghan army is currently trying to regain control of Islam Kala and Torgundi. Afghan security forces, including border police, are present in the regions, said Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Tarek Arian.
The Islam Kala border crossing, around 120 kilometers from the city of Herat, is one of the most important border crossings in Afghanistan. Most of the official trade with Iran takes place there.
These are not the first border crossings that the Taliban have been able to secure since the beginning of the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan. In June they had already captured the most important border crossing to Tajikistan, Shir Khan Bandar. As a result of the fierce fighting over Shir Khan Bandar, hundreds of Afghan soldiers fled across the border into Tajikistan.
Russia is concerned about the Taliban
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Taliban have now taken control of two thirds of the border area between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. “We are seeing a sharp rise in tensions on the Afghan-Tajik border,” said ministry spokeswoman Maria Sakharova on Friday. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed concern in Moscow that the fighting in Afghanistan could spill over to Central Asian republics.
Leading representatives of the militant Islamist Taliban rejected this during talks in Moscow. “Our territory will never be used against neighboring or friendly countries,” said the head of the Taliban delegation, Shahabuddin Delawar, at a press conference on Friday.
Observers fear that the Taliban could take power again after the US and its NATO partners have completely withdrawn from Afghanistan. The Islamists are already on the advance in many parts of the country and in some cases hardly encounter any resistance. In other places there is fierce fighting, as is currently the case for the provincial capital Kala-i-Naw in the north-west of the country. The radical Islamists already control more than a third of the 400 or so districts in Afghanistan.
– .
