War is Raging with Taliban, Says Afghanistan Defence Minister
The Afghani defense Minister Bismillah Mohammadi said on July 7 that the “war is raging with Taliban” after the insurgents have committed their first major assault against the city of Qala-I-Naw, capital of Badghis Province.
Taliban, which aims to re-establish an Islamic emirate in Afghanistan, launched their assault and seized police headquarters and offices of the National Directorate of Security, seeking to take control of Afghani districts after US troops’ withdrawal.
Hours after the assault, Bismillah Mohammadi said, “We recognize that the war is raging and we are in a very sensitive military situation.”
“I want to reassure all of you that our national forces, with the support of local resistance forces, will use all their power and resources to defend our homeland and our people,” he added.
The assault came as the US Pentagon Central Command announced on Tuesday the withdrawal of 90 percent of US troops from Afghanistan.
It vowed that the military withdrawal will be complete by September 11., the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack against the World Trade Center in the United States.
US President Joe Biden said that US troops’ existence in Afghanistan since 2001 has resulted in a long war that killed 2,200 US troops and 38,000 civilian Afghanis, with a cost of $ 1 trillion.
“We expect it to be handover the complete role of the US troops to the Afghanistan security forces by August,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
Last week, all US and NATO forces left Bagram airbase near Kabul, which marks the end of 20 years of military involvement in Afghanistan that began in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
The assault coincided with a high-level summit across the border in Iran where an Afghan delegation held talks with Taliban representatives in neighboring Iran.
By opening talks in Tehran, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif welcomed US withdrawal from its eastern neighbor. However, Javad warned, “Today the people and political leaders of Afghanistan must make difficult decisions for the future of their country.”
It is feared that after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the country would turn into chaos and civil war might erupt. A repeated scenario that might happen as in the cases of Syria, Yemen, and Libya.
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani said on Tuesday that the Taliban cannot make the Afghan government surrender even in the next hundred years.
Moreover, the National Security Advisor Hamdullah Muhib said that the Taliban’s territorial expansion does not mean that they are being welcomed by Afghans. He also added that the people are ready to defend their territories.
Meanwhile, the country’s Defence Minister informed that over 200 Taliban terrorists were killed in the last 24 hours.
On the other hand, the Taliban claimed they have captured six districts in the same time period.
There are at least 10,000 members of Afghan commando forces are engaged in suppressing across the country.