KABUL: Taliban guerrillas staged attacks on a second city in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, increasing pressure on the central government ahead of crucial presidential polls just hours after the group concluded another round of talks with US diplomats.
The attack on Pul-i-Khumri, the provincial capital of Baghlan, came a day after the Taliban broke government defense lines and entered parts of the adjacent city of Kunduz.
In a statement, the government said that local forces had stopped the Taliban in two districts of Pul-i-Khumri, which lies along the strategic highway that links much of southern Afghanistan with the north of the country and with much of Central Asia.
However, Mohammad Azim Mohseni, a lawmaker from Baghlan, said the Taliban had taken at least four other areas of the city.
“The Taliban entered the city, the first time that they have managed to do so. The city is shut,” Mohseni told Arab News, adding fighters had blockaded the central highway.
Afghan intelligence said around 40 Taliban fighters were involved in the attacks, and had probably fled the Kunduz clearance operations by government forces.
Security analysts suggested the Taliban attacks on Kunduz and Baghlan, following the group’s gains in northern areas in recent days, highlighted an intelligence failure by the government that could put it under pressure ahead of the upcoming presidential elections.
Kabul has already suggested it will struggle to guarantee the security of some 2,000 polling centers by Sept. 28, the day of the vote, which has been twice delayed because of administrative division and mismanagement.
One such analyst, Fazl Rahman Orya, suggested the intensified round of Taliban attacks was part of a concerted effort to illustrate the weakness of the government, which has been left out of nine rounds of talks between the militants and US diplomats in Qatar.
“These attacks come as US and Taliban emissaries are wrapping up their ninth round of talks. The Taliban want to show that the government is weak and demonstrate its own military might, giving themselves the upper hand in any future intra-Afghan dialogue,” he told Arab News.
US Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who has led the talks with the Taliban, headed to Kabul on Sunday for meetings with government figures about the latest round of discussions.
Both Khalilzad and the Taliban have said they are nearing a final deal.
“We are at the threshold of an agreement that will reduce violence and open the door for Afghans to sit together to negotiate an honorable and sustainable peace and a unified, sovereign Afghanistan that does not threaten the US, its allies, or any other country,” Khalilzad said via Twitter on Sunday.
Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s spokesman in Qatar, said the agreement would mean the end of “occupation” and “a peaceful settlement of Afghanistan’s crisis.”
