5 more provinces including Nangarhar fall to Taliban

KABUL (Pajhwok): Five more Afghan provinces, including Nangarhar in the east and Balkh in the north, have been surrendered to the Taliban without fighting.

A spokesman for the militant movement said on Sunday the fighters had gained control of Nangarhar, Balkh, Faryab, Daikundi and Laghman.

Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted the insurgents were given control of the five provinces without any fighting.

Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the Nangarhar governor, released on his Facebook account photos of a Taliban commander and leaders sitting with Governor Ziaul Haq Amarkhel in his office.

Without going into details, Khogyani wrote their tenure had come to an end.

A source in neighbouring Laghman told Pajhwok Afghan News provincial officials moved to the Selab Military Corps last evening, leaving the province to Taliban fighters.

Also on Saturday evening, the Pajhwok reporter in Balkh said the Taliban had stormed into Mazar-i-Sharif. The rebels had taken over the entire province, he added.

The reporter said most of the provincial officials, both military and civilian, had crossed into Uzbekistan via the Hairatan port.

Meanwhile, former Balkh governor Atta Mohammad Noor accused the Ghani administration of handing the province over to the insurgents under a secret deal.

At a joint news conference with Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum earlier in the week, Noor had pledged to defend to defend the province.

According to sources, the former Balkh governor has flown to Uzbekistan along with several other officials. Dostum is said to have crossed into the same country via the Hairatan port.

Similarly, the Taliban overran Faryab province after brief fighting. The rebels have captured 29 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces so far.

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