China evacuates its citizens
China criticized hasty withdrawal of troops by Washington as Afghan authorities yesterday prepared to retake a key border crossing seized by the Taliban in a sweeping offensive that the insurgents claim has helped capture a vast swath of the violence-wracked nation.
As US troops continued their withdrawal, the Taliban said its fighters had seized two crossings in western Afghanistan -- completing an arc of territory from the Iranian border to the frontier with China.
It now held 85 percent of the country, a Taliban official said Friday, controlling about 250 of Afghanistan's nearly 400 districts -- a claim impossible to independently verify, and disputed by the government.
Beijing, meanwhile, urged its citizens to leave the country "as soon as possible" after evacuating 210 nationals.
The "complex and severe domestic security situation" prompted the evacuation warning, the foreign ministry said, adding that 22 of those flown out tested positive for coronavirus on arrival in China.
"The US disregards its responsibilities and duties and withdraws troops from Afghanistan hastily, dumping the mess and war on the Afghan people and countries in the region," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a routine briefing Friday.
"The US, as the original culprit of the Afghan issue, bears unavoidable responsibility."
On Thursday President Joe Biden said the US military mission would end on August 31 -- nearly 20 years after it began -- but he admitted it was "highly unlikely" Kabul would be able to control the entire country.
On Friday Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP their fighters had captured the border town of Islam Qala on the Iranian frontier and the Torghundi crossing with Turkmenistan.
Herat governor spokesman Jilani Farhad yesterday said the authorities were deploying fresh troops to retake Islam Qala post, the biggest trade crossing between Iran and Afghanistan.
The Afghan government has repeatedly dismissed the Taliban's gains as having little strategic value.
Around 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Iranian border, Ismail Khan -- a veteran warlord whose fighters helped US forces topple the Taliban in 2001 -- vowed to back government forces fighting against the insurgents.
"We will soon go to the front lines and with the help of God change the situation," Khan told reporters Herat.
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