AMN / WEB DESK
The Taliban have claimed to have captured a major border crossing between Afghanistan and Iran.
Video footage appeared to show Taliban forces taking down the Afghan flag from the roof of the border customs office. The Islam Qala crossing is one of the biggest trade gateways into Iran, generating estimated USD 20 million monthly revenue for the government.
The Taliban are rapidly retaking land across Afghanistan as the US-led mission removes the last of its troops.
Taliban officials say they have taken control of 85 per cent of territory in Afghanistan, a claim impossible to independently verify and disputed by the government.
Other estimates have put the amount of territory the Taliban controls at more than a third of the country’s 400 districts, including an arc of land from the Iranian border in the west to the frontier with China on the other side of the county.
The Americans earlier this week quietly departed from Bagram airfield, a sprawling base that was the centre of US operations in Afghanistan and once held tens of thousands of troops.
The Afghan government today acknowledged the loss of the Islam Qala border crossing, in Herat province.
Reports said Taliban fighters had seized five districts in Herat without a fight. Earlier this week, more than 1,000 members of the Afghan security forces fled to Tajikistan as the Taliban advanced around them.
Russia on Friday said the Taliban had taken control of about two-thirds of the Afghan-Tajik border in a swift advance. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow was urging all sides in Afghanistan to show restraint.
The reports came hours after US President Joe Biden defended his administration’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.
He admitted, it was highly unlikely the Afghan government would be able to control the entire country.
Some US intelligence analysts fear the Taliban could seize control of the country within six months, according to an assessment distributed to officials in June.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has insisted that Afghan security forces are capable of keeping the Taliban at bay, and Afghan forces appear to have retaken lost ground in some areas.