Taliban Forces More Afghan Soldiers To Flee Into Tajikistan

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
June 28, 2021

Another group of Afghan government soldiers has fled across the border into Tajikistan as Taliban militants press an offensive across swaths of northern Afghanistan.

Tajikistan’s border service said that 17 Afghan soldiers fled into the country on June 27 after Taliban militants attacked a border checkpoint located in the town of Chukchuk, in the Kaldor district in Balkh Province, Tajikistan’s state media reported.

“The Tajik border guards, guided by the principles of humanism and good neighborliness, allowed the Afghan military who broke through the state border to freely enter their territory,” Khovar state media said.

The Taliban have taken control of dozens of districts from government forces in recent weeks as U.S.-led international forces withdraw from Afghanistan ahead of a self-imposed September 11 deadline.

On June 27, Taliban militants captured more than 50 members of the country’s security force in the central province of Maidan Wardak, a senior police commander told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan.

In the past week, the Taliban have seized Afghanistan’s main border crossing with Tajikistan, and pressed an offensive on the northern cities of Kunduz and Mazar-e Sharif.

The capture of the border crossing sent 134 Afghan soldiers fleeing into Tajikistan.

Separately, Uzbekistan said 53 Afghan troops and allied militia fighters also fled into Uzbekistan on June 23.

The developments in northern Afghanistan have caused alarm across bordering states Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.

Tajik authorities say that they are preparing for a possible influx of refugees, while Uzbekistan last week announced military drills along the border.

The UN special envoy on Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, said last week that the Taliban have overrun more than 50 of the country’s 370 districts since May, warning that increased conflict “means increased insecurity for many other countries, near and far.”

However, the Afghan government called the fall of the districts a tactical retreat and said that it had recaptured more than 10 districts from the insurgents in recent days.

U.S. President Joe Biden told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation, at the White House on June 25 that “we’re going to stick with you and we’re going to do our best to see to it you have the tools you need.”

But “Afghans are going to have to decide their future,” he added.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Tajik Service and RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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Withdrawal From Afghanistan Must Continue: Afghan Government’s Potential Collapse Is Another Reason To Leave

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US soldiers (file photo)

Antiwar.com: The problem is not that the US is leaving. The problem is that American personnel stayed too long attempting to do the impossible. In the process they created a dependent state unable to stand on its own. Click here to read more (external link).

Pakistani minister admits Taliban get medical treatment in Pakistan

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1TV: Pakistan’s interior minister said Sunday that the families of the Afghan Taliban live in his country, including in areas around the capital, Islamabad, and the militant group’s members receive some medical treatment in local hospitals. Click here to read more (external link).

COVID-19: 1,407 New Cases, 64 Deaths Reported in Afghanistan

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Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Monday reported 1,407 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 4,514 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry also reported 64 deaths and 917 recoveries from COVID-19 in the same period. Afghanistan has so far recorded 117,158 positive cases and 4,794 deaths from COVID-19 in total. Click here to read more (external link).

Police Commander Says More Than 50 Afghan Officers Captured By The Taliban

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Radio Free Afghanistan
June 27, 2021

Taliban forces have captured more than 50 members of the country’s security forces in the central province of Maidan Wardak , a senior police commander told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan.

Colonel Mustafa Mayar, the chief police commander in Maidan Wardak, said on June 27 that the Afghan security officers were captured during a night of heavy fighting in the province.

He said two districts, Chak and Sayed Abad, had fallen into the hands of the Taliban despite what he described as strong resistance by Afghan forces.

“Around 30 Afghan National Police in Sayed Abad and 26 others in Chak have also been captured by the enemy,” Mayar said in an interview with RFE/RL.

There was no immediate comment from the Afghan government.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed claimed on Twitter that Taliban fighters had detained 190 soldiers in Sayed Abad.

The militant group has taken control of dozens of districts from government forces in recent weeks, raising concerns that the Western-backed government in Kabul and the battered Afghan security forces may collapse after U.S.-led international forces withdraw from Afghanistan by a self-imposed September 11 deadline.

The UN special envoy on Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, said on June 22 that the Taliban has taken more than 50 of the country’s 370 districts since May, warning that increased conflict “means increased insecurity for many other countries, near and far.”

The Afghan Defense Ministry called the fall of the districts a tactical retreat and said that it had recaptured more than 10 districts from the insurgents in recent days.

U.S. President Joe Biden told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation, at the White House on June 25 that “Afghans are going to have to decide their future.”

But Biden vowed that “we’re going to stick with you and we’re going to do our best to see to it you have the tools you need.”

Ghani said Washington’s decision to withdraw “has made everybody recalculate and reconsider” as the partnership between the United States and Afghanistan enters a new phase.

Peace talks between Afghan government officials and the Taliban, launched in Qatar in September 2020, largely broke off when Biden announced the pullout of U.S. forces by September 11 following a May 1 deadline the previous U.S. administration had agreed with the Taliban.

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

More Security News 

Dostum Vows to Return to North, Suppress Taliban

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Dostum

Tolo News: Former vice president Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is in Turkey for treatment, said Sunday he will soon return to his home province of Jawzjan in northern Afghanistan to suppress the Taliban in the north, after consultation with President Ghani and the Defense Ministry. “I predicted this years ago,” Dostum said, referring to Taliban offensives in northern provinces. “All districts, tanks were handed over to the Taliban without resistance. I don’t know what the plan is?” Click here to read more (external link).

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Japan to ask athletes from Afghanistan, five countries for more COVID-19 tests

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Ariana: Japan plans to ask Olympic athletes from Afghanistan and five other countries hit hard by the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus to have daily virus tests for seven days before leaving for the Games, a Japanese newspaper said on Sunday. Click here to read more (external link).

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Afghan Officials: Delta Variant Accounts for Nearly 60% of New Infections

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 26, 2021

ISLAMABAD – Authorities in Afghanistan confirmed Saturday the delta coronavirus variant, first identified in India, has been mainly responsible for the recent surge in cases and deaths in the war-torn country.

Minister for Public Health Wahid Majrooh told reporters in Kabul that out of 19 samples examined in national laboratories a day earlier, nearly 60% tested positive for the delta variant and the rest for a British variant.

“It shows the delta variant of the coronavirus is rapidly spreading in Afghanistan, and this is the main reason for the rise and criticality of the cases,” Majrooh warned in his nationally televised news conference.

The minister stressed the crisis required the Afghan nation to strictly observe safety guidelines to help contain the spread of the delta variant, which is more infectious and more resistant to existing vaccines.

The coronavirus, which causes COVID-19 disease, hit Afghanistan early last year, infecting 114,000 people and killing 4,600 to date.

Afghan officials have documented an average of more than 80 deaths a day, however, from COVID-19 over the past week or so. The data accounts only for a fraction of cases, though, because of capacity issues and a lack of access to areas controlled by the Taliban insurgency.

The pandemic has led to a shortage of medical oxygen, with hospitals throughout Afghanistan refusing to accept new coronavirus patients, citing a lack of beds and other shortages.

The outbreak forced the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to lock down much of the diplomatic mission after dozens of its staff contracted the coronavirus.

The pandemic has gripped Afghanistan as U.S. and NATO allies are withdrawing their troops from the country after nearly 20 years of presence. The retrograde process is due to be complete by September 11.

Meanwhile, the Taliban has intensified battlefield attacks against government forces, capturing more territory. The deteriorating security has added to the challenges facing Afghan health authorities in battling the COVID-19 outbreak.

Afghan authorities are said to have administered 766,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine in a country with an estimated population of more than 35 million people, with less than a half percent fully vaccinated so far.

The conflict and suspicions about vaccines are blamed for the slow-moving national inoculation campaign. Kabul has received donations of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India and the Sinopharm vaccine from China.

The United States has pledged to deliver 3 million doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine as early as next week to help the Afghan government combat what is being termed the deadliest wave of the pandemic.

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