Taliban militants occupy key border crossing between Afghanistan and Iran Reuters

Kabul (Reuters)-Afghan security officials say that Taliban militants seized control of a key area in western Afghanistan on Thursday, which includes a major border crossing with Iran, as Islamic insurgents continue to move quickly across the country. Military offensive.

Last week, the Taliban occupied areas bordering Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, China and Pakistan. Foreign forces ended their two-year intervention and the domestic security situation deteriorated.

In the northern Balkh province, which borders Uzbekistan, fierce fighting between Taliban militants and Afghan government forces is also underway.

Two senior security officials, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that the Islamic Qala border crossing between Herat and Iran has fallen into the hands of the Taliban, and Afghan security and customs officials have crossed the border and fled.

Iran’s official Arabic service Al Alamam TV also reported that Afghan soldiers entered Iranian territory through border crossings in order to escape the Taliban.

Tariq Arian, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Interior, denied these reports and stated that the border crossing is still under the control of government forces.

Reuters calls the governor’s office and the police were unanswered.

Another security official said that Taliban militants occupied five areas of Herat without fighting.

Earlier this week, more than 1,000 Afghan security personnel fled to Tajikistan as the Taliban occupied most of the northern province of Badakhshan, which borders China and Pakistan.

Conflict in the western provinces

The Ministry of Defense said that the Afghan government forces regained control of Qala-e-Naw, the capital of the western province of Badghis, which was attacked by the Taliban on Wednesday.

The ministry stated that hundreds of soldiers had been deployed to the area, adding that fighting continued on the edge of Qala-e-Naw and that the rebels had earlier occupied the city’s main government buildings, including the police headquarters.

Fawad Aman, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, said: “This city is completely (re) under our control, and we are carrying out operations against the Taliban on the outskirts of the city.”

The ministry stated that 69 Taliban fighters were killed in operations on the edge of Qala-e-Naw, the first major provincial capital that rebels entered in the recent offensive.

The rest of Badghis Province is in the hands of the Taliban. Western security officials say that the Taliban have occupied more than 100 areas in Afghanistan. The Taliban stated that they have more than 200 districts in 34 provinces, accounting for more than half of the country. Major cities are still under government control.

The insurgents have been occupying territory for several weeks, but as the United States withdrew from its main Afghan base, they accelerated their offensive, effectively ending the intervention that began in 2001 to overthrow the Islamic Taliban government.

The Taliban’s progress in the northern provinces is particularly striking, where they have been obstructed for a long time.

The stalled peace talks between the government and the insurgents are still fruitless. The Taliban delegation visited Iran on Wednesday and in Moscow on Thursday.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden defended the decision of the U.S. forces to withdraw from Afghanistan. He stated that he did not think the Taliban would take over the entire country. He believed in the Afghan army.

“We are ending America’s longest war,” he said.