Resurgent Taliban steps up military strikes nationwide

The Taliban escalated its nationwide offensive last Sunday, renewing assaults on three cities and firing rockets at a major airport in the south.

As Afghan government forces struggled with a resurgent Taliban after the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces, hundreds of commandos were deployed to the western city of Herat, while authorities in the southern city of Lashkar Gah – the capital of Helmand that was once the focus of UK military efforts – called for more troops. Eyewitnesses described street fighting, bodies lying in the open and Afghan government and US airstrikes raining down on Taliban positions.

The focus of the Taliban’s efforts appears to be on key provincial capitals, not least in the country’s south, with the ambition that the fall of Kandahar or Lashkar Gah would rapidly topple the five surrounding provinces.

The capture of any major urban centre would take their offensive to another level and fuel concerns that the army is incapable of resisting the Taliban’s advances.