According to the official Tajik News Agency, the Tajik Security Service quoted Khovar as saying that “1037 soldiers of the Afghan government forces withdrew to Tajikistan in the wake of armed clashes with the Taliban.”
The statement added that “Taliban fighters have taken complete control” of six districts in the Afghan province of Badhsan, which extends for a distance of 910 kilometers from Tajikistan.
Hundreds of Afghan soldiers have already crossed the Tajik border in the past week, fleeing the Taliban advance. So far, Tajikistan has allowed all Afghan soldiers to enter its territory on the basis of “the principle of good-neighbourliness and non-interference in Afghan internal affairs”.
The Taliban have doubled their attacks since US forces and their allies began withdrawing from Afghanistan in May. The US team’s withdrawals are scheduled to be completed by September 11, 2021 at the latest.
At the height of the US peacekeeping operation, between 2010 and 2013, the US and its NATO allies deployed more than 150,000 troops to the country. The main military forces were withdrawn from the country in 2014.
– In view of the successive failures of the Afghan army, especially with regard to the northern provinces, the US Department of Defense, The Pentagon announced a possible “slowdown” in the implementation of withdrawalsGeneral Scott Miller, the commander of US forces stationed in Afghanistan, said on Tuesday that the possibility of air strikes against Taliban forces was not excluded.
Cover image source: Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images
