Afghanistan replaces army chief,Taliban controls 10 capitals

Amid Taliban offensive, the Afghanistan government has replaced army chief. General Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai was on Wednesday replaced by Hibatullah Alizai, the commander of the Special Operations Corps, The sacking of the army chief followed a visit by the country's President Ashraf Ghani in Mazar-e-Sharif in the Balkh province, which fall into Taliban control on Wednesday.

The Taliban has captured the airport in Kunduz amid the mass surrender of an entire corps of the Afghanistan army as the insurgents consolidated their hold on the country's northern region and captured three more provincial capitals in a day. A lawmaker in Kunduz, Shah Khan Sherzad, said that the airport and army corps fell to the Taliban with all their equipment. This is the first time that the Taliban has taken over an army corps. The group also took a military helicopter in Kunduz but it was out of service, according to the Tolo News channel.

As on Thursday, The Taliban has now captured 10 province capitals. On Tuesday night, the Taliban also captured Faizabad city, the centre of Badakhshan province in the north and next to the Tajikistan border. “There is a state of chaos and anarchy in Badakhshan, the people are very frightened, government vehicles were looted and transferred to unknown locations, public assets have been looted. Faizabad prison was broken into and some inmates were killed,” Atiqullah Zabih, MP, told Tolo News. The cities of Aybak and Sar-e-Pol join three other provincial capitals now fully under Taliban control: Zaranj, the capital of western Nimruz province; the city of Sheberghan, the capital of northern Zawzjan province; and Taleqan, the capital of another northern province with the same name.

Taliban have gained control across the country since the final phase of the  US withdrawal began in May and started pushing into urban areas. The Taliban has seized control of Sar-e-Pol, Sheberghan, Aybak, Kunduz, Taluqan, Pul-e-Khumri, Farah, Zaranj and Faizabad cities as US and Nato forces announced withdrawal from the country. The United States is continuing to support Afghan forces with airstrikes but the withdrawal of foreign troops will end by the end of August.