The Taliban were able to capture Kandahar because Afghan troops fled, Zamir Kabulov, the Russian President's Special Representative for Afghanistan and Director of the Second Asian Department of the Foreign Ministry, told RIA Novosti.
"The capture of Kandahar shows what we have been talking about: it has been taken not as a result of combat operations and the courageous resistance of Afghan troops, but as a result of the fleeing of the very Afghan army that the Americans and NATO together were cheerfully preparing," he said.
Nevertheless, in his opinion, the Taliban are not yet in a position to take Kabul.
"The capture of Kandahar does not open anything," the interlocutor added.
In recent months, the confrontation between government forces and fighters of the radical Taliban movement (banned in the Russian Federation) has escalated in Afghanistan. This occurs against the background of the withdrawal of American troops, which the Russian Foreign Ministry called an acknowledgment of the failure of the US mission.
The Taliban have already seized large territories and launched attacks on major cities. They claim to have taken control of administrative centers of more than ten of the 34 provinces since late last week, including the cities of Zaranj, Pul-i-Khumri, Ghazni, and Kunduz, located 60 kilometers from the nearest border crossing into Tajikistan. The night before, the militants had announced the capture of Kandahar, and this morning they captured Lashkar Gah, the administrative center of Helmand Province.
The Western media say the Taliban may also blockade Kabul within a month. The authorities, for their part, say they have regained control of some of the cities, but the fighting continues.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials of RIA Novosti