The Taliban took control of the provincial capitals of Kunduz and Sar-i-Pul cities, while Taloqan, the capital of Takhar, is under direct threat. Four provincial capitals have now fallen under Taliban control in the past three days.
The disbursed locations of the Taliban attacks will force the already strained Afghan military to divide its forces if it wants to retake the districts.
As the Taliban launches major attacks in four provinces, it is revealed that 64 districts in 19 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces are not being governed from the existing district centers.
The Taliban blocked off all roads leading into Bala Murghab district, overran 11 security outposts and put an Afghan National Army company stationed there to rout. They also killed 44 Afghan security personnel and captured another 190, and advanced to within one kilometer of the district center.
Afghan security officials denied Shib Koh fell to the Taliban, but a video recently released by the Taliban shows its fighters in full control of the district center.
All but three of the border policemen manning the outpost were either killed or captured, according to reports. The base in Farah is just the latest to fall to the Taliban.
The Afghan military continues to struggle to hold onto districts in remote areas of the country. The fall of Ghormach was all but certain after the Taliban overran a large base in the district on Aug. 11 and killed and captured nearly 100 Afghan soldiers.
Like many other similar Taliban videos that show the aftermath of successful assaults on military bases and outposts, the Taliban fighters are seen walking throughout the base in broad daylight, without fear of being targeted by Afghan or Resolute Support aircraft.
The fall of the northern district of Bilchiragh in Faryab province, is part of a disturbing pattern of Afghan forces being surrounded by the Taliban and then either overwhelmed or forced to surrender.
In what has become an all too familiar scene in Afghanistan, Taliban fighters celebrated their victory and looted a district center in broad daylight, without fear of reprisal.
Forty-three soldiers were killed and 17 more were captured in the fighting that led up to the surrender. The Taliban is routinely outmatching Afghan forces in battles in remote districts.
The current fighting in and around Ghazni City indicates that the Taliban has a detailed plan to tie up Afghan forces while attempting to seize the provincial capital. Additionally, the Taliban was able to mass its forces undetected; the Afghan military was clearly caught off guard and is struggling to get into the fight four days after the Taliban launched its attack.
The rise of the Islamic State in Jawzjan province over the past year has threatened the Taliban’s operations in the Afghan north.
The Taliban videotaped a nighttime assault on an Afghan base in the highly contested district of Khakrez in Kandahar province. The base was overran and the Taliban loitered there into daytime without fear of reprisal for Coalition and Afghan air forces.
The camps were used by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and other terrorist groups.
Resolute Support, NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, claimed that today’s bombing in Kabul “shows the insurgents are desperate and cannot win.” However the Taliban has sustained offensive operations in all areas of the country and has had battlefield successes against a struggling Afghan military.
As the United States enters a new phase of its war in Afghanistan, FDD’s Long War Journal presents a renewed assessment of the Taliban’s strength and disposition, with new interactive features.
The Taliban continues to demonstrate that it can conduct concurrent operations across the country, while Afghan forces largely remain on the defensive. The district of Khamab in Jawzjan has gone back and forth between Taliban and government control over the past several years.
Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) has released a 20-page code of conduct outlining its approach to waging jihad throughout the region. The group says its men are currently fighting “shoulder-to-shoulder” with the Taliban and calls on Muslims in the surrounding countries to pledge allegiance to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (another name for the Taliban).
Seven years after the US withdrawal from Kunar, the Taliban and allied jihadist groups continue to wield significant influence in the province.
The security situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate. The Afghan press has confirmed that the Tala Wa Barfak district in Baghlan province is now under the Taliban’s control.
Qari Fasihuddin, the “Jihadi-in charge” of Badakhshan, is the second shadow governor to deny reports that he was killed in a US airstrike since the Taliban took control of Kunduz and several districts in the Afghan north.
The jihadist group has remained on the offensive in Anbar province despite its recent loss in Tikrit. Islamic State fighters have overrun two Iraqi Army bases in Thar Thar in the past month.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters attacked military bases in Rada’a in central Yemen, where the group has remained entrenched.
More than 20 security personnel and at least six civilians were killed as hundreds of Boko Haram fighters attacked the base on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Maiduguri.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters attacked two bases outside of Zinjibar. Forty troops were wounded and at least 28 were captured.
A base in Al Koud was overrun. AQAP seized heavy weapons and turned them against the Yemeni troops, and claimed to have captured another 70 soldiers.
Mohammad Yusuf, the leader of Boko Haram, was killed after being detained by Nigerian police, who claimed he had been attempting to escape. Yusuf had led the group responsible for the Islamist uprising in Northern Nigeria.
Mohamoud Abdi Aden is the second Kenyan-Somali the U.S. State Department has placed a $10 million bounty on in the last week. Shabaab now has five leaders with $10 million bounties, the most for any Sunni jihadist group.
The Afghanistan watchdog was finally able to release the military’s own district-level assessment, allowing for a direct comparison with our data. The Taliban currently controls 37 districts, contests 200, and claims to control two more.