Taliban capture FIVE key cities in three days as video shows Afghan warplanes blitzing terrorists
TALIBAN forces have now captured five key cities as their seemingly unstoppable advance across Afghanistan continues.
Government forces continue to battle the militants and video shows their warplanes blitzing them in a desperate bid to turn the tide.
The Taliban have been rampaging through Afghanistan, bringing a taste of their extreme form of Islam with women executed for wearing tight clothes and not being accompanied by a male relative.
On Sunday, they took control of the key northern city Kunduz, which has a population of 375,000 and is by far the most important one to fall to them, along with the cities of Sar-e-Pul and Taloqan.
It comes after they previously took control of Zaranaj, by the Iranian border on Friday, and Sherberghan, near the frontier with Turkmenistan Saturday.
After they seized Zaranaj, Taliban fighters were seen parading on a captured US-made Afghan army Humvee chanting “Allahu Akbar”.
Afghan Air Force planes took the fight to the Taliban at the weekend, with video showing planes hitting a column of troops and other targets near Zabul.
The militants already control vast swathes of the Afghan countryside and thousands have fled their homes, fearing a return to the Taliban’s brutal rule and extreme interpretation of Islam.
“Many bombs were dropped on our village,” villager Gul Naaz told AFP.
‘DESTROYED EVERYTHING’
“The Taliban came and destroyed everything. We were helpless and had to leave our houses. Our children and ourselves are sleeping on the ground in dire conditions.”
The Taliban have now captured more than half of Afghan territory after American and British troops withdrew.
In a bid to stop the Taliban, the US is deploying massive B-52 bombers to pound the militants.
The Cold War relic aircraft were first used when US forces first entered Afghanistan in 2001 to hunt for Osama Bin-Laden in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
Each plane can carry up to 32 tonnes of bombs and they were hitting targets around Kandahar, Herat and Lashkar Gah in Helmand province.
The insurgents have for weeks been trying to take Kandahar and Lashkar Gah – both with Pashtun majorities from where the Taliban draw their strength.
But the government says they have so far managed only to reach the outskirts, or pockets of neighbourhoods.
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“US forces have conducted several airstrikes in defence of our Afghan partners in recent days,” Maj. Nicole Ferrara, a US Central Command spokesperson, told CNN.
The Taliban has rejected peace overtures and the US embassy in Kabul said the militants were breaking accords negotiated in Doha.
“They demonstrate wanton disregard for the welfare and rights of civilians and will worsen this country’s humanitarian crisis,” said the embassy.