Taliban close in on Kabul

The Afghanistan government has made a power-sharing proposal to the Taliban in exchange for a halt in the escalating violence in the country, media reports said yesterday, as the insurgents seized the strategic cities of Ghazni, just 150 kilometres from Kabul, and Herat, the country's third-largest city. 

A senior security source from Herat told AFP that government forces and administration officials had retreated to an army barracks outside the city.

"We had to leave the city in order to prevent further destruction," he said.

A Taliban spokesman, however, tweeted "soldiers laid down their arms and joined the Mujahideen".

Herat -- about 150 kilometres from the Iranian border -- is home to veteran warlord Ismail Khan, who for weeks has been rallying his forces to make a stand against the Taliban.

The Taliban also appeared close to capturing Kandahar, the second largest city and the spiritual home of the Taliban, which now control about two-thirds of Afghanistan.

Earlier, the interior ministry confirmed the fall of Ghazni, which lies along the major Kabul-Kandahar highway and serves as a gateway between the capital and militant strongholds in the south.

The capture of Ghazni is their most important strategic gain in a lightning offensive that has seen them overrun 10 provincial capitals in a week.

The conflict has escalated dramatically since May, when US-led forces began the final stage of a troop withdrawal due to end later this month following a 20-year occupation.

As security forces retreated across the country, Kabul handed a proposal to Taliban negotiators in Qatar offering the power-sharing deal, according to a member of the government's team in Doha who asked not to be named.

A second negotiator, Ghulam Farooq Majroh, said the Taliban had been given an offer about a "government of peace" without providing more specifics, reported AFP.

The proposal has also been reported by Afghanistan's local media and Al Jazeera yesterday.

However, the presidential palace in Kabul did not confirm the development, saying there has been no change in its plan.

Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, is meeting with officials from the United States, China, Russia and Afghanistan's regional neighbours in Doha.

Yesterday, Abdullah said the government's peace plan has been shared with the Qatari government, without referring to the reported offer to the Taliban.

"We have presented our scheme to the host nation and you will also be provided with one," Abdullah said at yesterday's gathering with foreign diplomats.

However, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday claimed that Taliban leaders would not negotiate with the Afghan government as long as Ashraf Ghani remains president.

Khan said a political settlement was looking difficult under current conditions.

"I tried to persuade the Taliban... three to four months back when the Taliban senior leadership came here," Khan told foreign journalists at his home in Islamabad.

"The condition is that as long as Ashraf Ghani is there, we (Taliban) are not going to talk to the Afghan government," Khan said, quoting the Taliban leaders as telling him.

The Pakistani prime minister said he felt the Afghan government was now trying to convince the United States to come back and intervene again.

Khan said Pakistan had "made it very clear" that it does not want any American military bases in Pakistan after US forces exit Afghanistan. He also claimed that his country remains neutral in the Afghan conflict.

The developments came after a US defense official told Reuters on Wednesday that the Taliban could isolate Kabul in 30 days and potentially take it over in 90 days. A senior EU official said the insurgents now control 65 percent of Afghanistan.

Despite the ongoing Doha talks, US State Department spokesman Ned Price yesterday acknowledged that "all indications" point to the Taliban seeking a "battlefield victory."

The White House on Wednesday confirmed that, despite the Taliban's military gains, the United States would complete its troops withdrawal by end of August.

Signaling the worsening situation on the ground, US Embassy in Kabul yesterday urged US citizens to leave Afghanistan immediately using available commercial flight options.

The Pentagon later said that it was deploying around 3,000 troops to Afghanistan immediately to evacuate US embassy employees securely as the threat grows from the Taliban insurgency.

The UK government also said it was sending troops to help its embassy staff leave Afghanistan.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he does not regret his decision to withdraw troops, noting that Washington has spent more than $1 trillion over 20 years to strengthen Afghan forces and lost thousands of its own troops. He said the United States continues to provide significant air support, food, equipment and salaries to Afghan forces, but the fight is their own.

"Afghan leaders have to come together," Biden told reporters at the White House, saying the Afghan troops outnumber the Taliban and must want to fight. "They've got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation."

Authorities in Kabul have now effectively lost most of northern and western Afghanistan and are left holding a scattered archipelago of contested cities also dangerously at risk of falling to the Taliban.

The insurgents have also encircled the biggest city in the north, the traditional anti-Taliban bastion of Mazar-i-Sharif. Fighting was also raging in Kandahar and Lashkar Gar -- pro-Taliban heartlands in the south.

An official in Lashkar Gah said Taliban fighters were inching closer to government positions after a massive car bomb badly damaged the city's police headquarters Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera, citing residents, yesterday reported that Taliban had entered Kandahar city.

Al Jazeera's correspondent Charlotte Bellis, reporting from the capital, Kabul, said the Taliban claimed on social media to have taken over the strategic city.

"The Taliban has just tweeted that they have taken Kandahar City. We don't understand that to be entirely true, but we do understand that there is intense fighting happening in Kandahar city right now," she said.

Hundreds of thousands have been displaced by the fighting that has enveloped the country.

In recent days, Kabul has been swamped by the displaced, who have begun camping out in parks and other public spaces, sparking a fresh humanitarian crisis in the already overtaxed capital.  

The United Nations yesterday said it is particularly concerned about a shift in fighting in Afghanistan to urban areas, warning that if a Taliban offensive reaches the capital Kabul it would have a "catastrophic impact on civilians."

"It is clear that urban fighting in the city of the size of Kabul would have catastrophic impact on civilians and we very much hope that this does not happen," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

In the first six months of 2021, the United Nations said 5,183 civilians had been killed or injured, blaming the Taliban for 39% - 699 deaths and 1,345 wounded - and Afghan government forces for 23% - 378 deaths and 828 wounded.