As Taliban took control of six Afghanistan provincial capitals on Tuesday, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, the Ashraf Ghani government in the country sought “robust air support” from India.
According to a report in ThePrint, the Afghan government wants Indian Air Force (IAF) to come into the country and support the Afghan Air Force as it is concerned that the Taliban “will most definitely” escalate their level of violence once the US forces withdraw troops completely by August 31.
The fight between Afghanistan government forces and Taliban has grown more intense in the last couple of day and the insurgents now have their eyes on Mazar-i-Sharif, the north’s biggest city, whose fall would signal the total collapse of government control in a region that has traditionally been anti-Taliban.
Government forces are also battling the hardline Islamists in Kandahar and Helmand, the southern Pashto-speaking provinces from where the Taliban draw their strength.
The United States, due to complete a troop withdrawal at the end of the month and end its longest war, has all but left the battlefield. However, Washington’s special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is now in Qatar to try and convince the Taliban to accept a ceasefire. Khalilzad “will press the Taliban to stop their military offensive”, the State Department said, and “help formulate a joint international response to the rapidly deteriorating situation”.
Envoys from hosts Qatar, Britain, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, the United Nations, and European Union were also due to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.
But even with a new round of talks in the works, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said it was down to the Afghan government and its forces to turn the tide, and there was “not much” the United States could do to help.
The matter of IAF support was reportedly discussed during a recent phone call between Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Haneef Atmar and India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. News18 cannot independently very this claim.
The Taliban seized a sixth Afghan provincial capital on Monday following a weekend blitz across the north that saw urban centres fall in quick succession and the government struggle to keep the militants at bay.
Insurgents entered Aibak without a fight after community elders pleaded with officials to spare the city from more violence following weeks of clashes on the outskirts, said Sefatullah Samangani, deputy governor of Samangan province.
Fighting in Afghanistan’s long-running conflict has escalated dramatically since May, when the US-led military coalition began the final stage of a withdrawal set to be completed before the end of the month.
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