On Friday, Taliban officials said that it is in control of 85% of the territory in Afghanistan. It also claimed to be in control of a key border crossing with Iran, after a sweeping offensive launched as US troops pulled out of the region.
After the President Joe Biden issued a statement in defence of the US withdrawal, the Taliban said that their fighters had seized the border town of Islam Qala – completing an arc of territory from the Iranian border to the frontier with China.
A delegation of the Taliban officials claimed in Moscow that they controlled some 250 of Afghanistan’s 398 districts. Although, the claim has been disputed by the government.
The Afghan government officials have dismissed the claims that the Taliban controlled most of the country and called it a part of their propaganda campaign launched after the withdrawal of the foreign forces.
But local Afghan officials have said that the Taliban fighters captured an important district in Herat province. The district is a home to tens of thousands of minority Shi’ite Hazaras.
The Afghan and the Taliban officials have also said that Torghundi, a northern town on the border with Turkmenistan, had also been captured by the Taliban overnight.
All the while, hundreds of Afghan security personnel and refugees continued to flee across the border into neighbouring Iran and Tajikistan.
On a visit to Moscow, a delegation of three visiting Taliban officials sought to address those concerns.
“We will take all measures so that Islamic State will not operate on Afghan territory… and our territory will never be used against our neighbours,” one of the Taliban officials, Shahabuddin Delawar, said addressing a conference.
He said “you and the entire world community have probably recently learned that 85% of the territory of Afghanistan has come under the control” of the Taliban.
The Pentagon spokesman John Kirby was asked about how much territory the Taliban held, to which he declined direct comment.
“Claiming territory or claiming ground doesn’t mean you can sustain that or keep it over time” he said in an interview with CNN.
“And so I think it’s really time for the Afghan forces to get into the field – and they are in the field – and to defend their country, their people,” Kirby added.
“They’ve got the capacity, they’ve got the capability. Now it’s time to have that will,” he said.
Earlier today, the US President, Joe Biden had declared that their mission in Afghanistan would end by August 31. The Taliban has welcomed Biden’s statement.
“Any day or hour that US and foreign troops leave earlier is a positive step,” spokesman Suhail Shaheen told a news agency.