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Afghanistan Denies Alleged Taliban Takeover of Entire Province

by JOHN HAYWARD

Afghan security officials on Wednesday denied Taliban claims, and reports from some local observers, that Badghis province has been completely conquered by the advancing Islamist insurgency.

The governor of Badghis claimed a counteroffensive has dislodged occupying Taliban forces from the provincial capital of Qala-e-Naw.

A representative to the Afghan parliament from Badghis, Abdulbasir Osmani, told Khaama Press on Wednesday the Taliban captured Qala-e-Naw on Tuesday afternoon after steadily rolling up every district in the province. A Taliban spokesman also claimed the city and province had fallen.

The Afghan Defense Ministry conceded government forces in Badghis were in a “very sensitive military situation” and said “war is raging” with the Taliban for control of the capital. Foreign media reports indicated police and intelligence agency headquarters in Qala-e-Naw were under insurgent control.

“The enemy has entered the city, all the districts have fallen,” Governor Hessamuddin Shams told reporters in a text message. Members of the provincial council said they fled to a nearby army camp while “fighting continues in the city.”

The chief of the council, Abdul Aziz Bek, complained that Afghan security units were surrendering to the Taliban invaders.

“Qala-e-Naw was in a state of disarray as security forces and people do not know what to do now. More than 200 prisoners in the central prison of the Badghis broke the prison gate and escaped,” Bek added.

Governor Shams was more optimistic on Wednesday afternoon, reporting that Taliban forces have been “pushed back from several parts of the city” by “advancing” Afghan security troops.

“I assure you that all our security forces, including the special forces, are defending the city of Qala-e-Naw. The enemy is now engaging us in a number of parts of the city. They suffered both casualties and a defeat,” Shams said.

“My message is please keep your calm. I assure you that we will, all of us, together defend the city,” Shams said in a video message to his constituents.

Afghanistan’s First Vice President Amrullah Saleh wrote on Facebook that government forces are fighting for control of Qala-e-Naw and local officials are overseeing the battle.

Another Facebook post from the Afghan Defense Ministry on Wednesday afternoon claimed the Taliban had been driven from Qala-e-Naw and the city was completely under the control of Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF).

The announcement implied the Taliban were effectively in control of the city for much of the day before the ANDSF drove them out. The fate of the 200 prisoners who reportedly escaped from Badghis prison was not clear, but the Taliban released video of them pouring out of the prison while yelling “Allahu akbar.”

The assault on Qala-e-Naw was the Taliban’s first serious effort to capture a provincial capital since launching a major offensive across northern Afghanistan in April. Taliban forces have been making rapid gains, often facing little resistance from government troops who surrender without a fight, withdraw from the battlefield, or flee into neighboring Tajikistan. Local residents are taking matters into their own hands by forming militia units, some of them trained and led by veterans of the 1980s mujahideen resistance movement against the Soviet Union.

The Taliban evidently still has control of six out of seven Badghis provinces and also controls a majority of the provinces in nearby Badakhshan, Takhar, and Kunduz provinces.

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