According to an Afghan provincial official and army officer, the Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan’s main border crossing with Tajikistan, with some security forces abandoning their stations and fleeing across the border.
Shir Khan Bandar, located 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Kunduz, is the Taliban’s most major victory since ramping up operations on May 1, when the United States began the final steps of its army departure.
“Unfortunately this morning and after an hour of fighting the Taliban captured Shir Khan port and the town and all the border check posts with Tajikistan,” said Kunduz provincial council member Khaliddin Hakmi.
An army officer told the AFP news agency: “We were forced to leave all check posts … and some of our soldiers crossed the border into Tajikistan.
“By the morning, they (Taliban fighters) were everywhere, hundreds of them,” he said on condition of anonymity.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the fighters had seized the border crossing across the Pyanj River.
“Our Mujahideen are in full control of Shir Khan Bandar and all the border crossings with Tajikistan in Kunduz,” he told AFP.
The attack comes as the UN special envoy on Afghanistan warned that Taliban fighters have taken more than 50 of 370 districts in the country since May and that increased conflict “means increased insecurity for many other countries, near and far”.
“Those districts that have been taken surround provincial capitals, suggesting that the Taliban are positioning themselves to try and take these capitals once foreign forces are fully withdrawn,” the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Deborah Lyons told the UN Security Council.
In recent days, sources said, fierce fighting between Taliban and Afghan government forces took occurred on the fringes of three provincial capitals in the northern provinces of Faryab, Balkh, and Kunduz.
Taliban successes, as well as the slow withdrawal of the remaining 2,500-3,500 US soldiers and 7,000 NATO troops, have heightened the urgency of finding a diplomatic solution to Afghanistan’s protracted conflict.
The government and Taliban are holding talks in Qatar, but no progress has been made.
