This morning the Taliban claimed the conquest of Kunduz, 270,000 inhabitants, the main city of the North together with Mazar-e-Sharif, and also of Sar-e-Pul, a minor capital with only 50,000 inhabitants. On social media, as usual, they showed jihadists patrolling the streets and a huge amount of weapons, armored vehicles, army vehicles fallen into their hands. Kunduz is the first major provincial capital to fall, and above all it opens a direct route from the North to Kabul. In the late morning, the Afghan special forces, airborne, intervened and managed to secure the governor’s palace and the police headquarters. But their number appears limited and much larger units will be needed to repel the guerrillas.
Between Friday and Saturday the bearded students took Zaranj, in the province of Nimroz near Iran, and Sheberghan, 200,000 inhabitants, the capital of the province of Jowzjan, on the border with Turkmenistan. At this point they have four of the 34 provincial capitals, over half of the 420 district capitals and about half of the entire Afghan territory. But what worries the Americans, who yesterday ordered all civilians still present to “leave the country immediately with the first useful commercial flight”, is the speed of the withdrawal of government officials from the cities, which until a few weeks ago were considered impregnable by the guerrillas. The American air force intervened with the B52s near Sheberghan and destroyed an enemy convoy.
But the “psychological” warfare waged by the jihadists, who have learned to use social media and use local radios to spread propaganda and threats, pushes the less trained wards to abandon their positions and leave one district after another. Lashkar Gah, the capital of the province of Helmand, with 300,000 inhabitants, is also at risk, where the jihadists have conquered the local state radio and television station and have begun to broadcast programs on Sharia law. The special forces then intervened to dislodge them, but these well-equipped units can only count on a few thousand soldiers, supported by the small A-29 propeller fighter-bombers and in some cases by the powerful American air force. They cannot operate on all fronts. For this reason, the Taliban simultaneously launched attacks on Herat, Kandahar, Farah and almost all the main cities of the South, their historic stronghold.