Taliban Captured Key Borders Along with Afghanistan-Iran Border

The Taliban have recently been able to successfully capture the Afghanistan-Iran border, which is a major crossing between both countries. Video footage has also appeared on media, which has shown the Taliban forces as they were taking down the flag of Afghanistan from the rooftop of the customs office at the border.

Taliban forces in Afghanistan

The Islam Qala crossing has become one of the largest gateways for trading purposes into Iran and has been able to generate an estimated revenue per month of around $20 million for the Afghan government. The retake of the Afghanistan-Iran border is one of the many areas across the country of Afghanistan that are gradually being retaken by the Taliban forces after the removal of United States operated mission, and only some of them have been left.

The officials of the Taliban have given a statement saying that they have been able to gain control of about 85% of the complete area occupied by Afghanistan, which has now included the key Afghanistan-Iran border, but this claim is impossible to be verified independently, and the government is in dispute with it.

By the data collected through other sources, it can be confirmed that more than one-third of the land occupied by Afghanistan is under the control of the Taliban forces, including around 150 districts along with an arc of land from the border of Iran, which is located in the western region to the frontier with its neighboring country China on the other side.

The United States troops have quietly departed from Afghanistan earlier in this week through the Bagram airfield, which is a sprawling airbase that was allotted to be the center of the operations conducted by the United States forces in Afghanistan and once had incorporated tens of thousands of US troops.

Recapturing of Afghanistan by Taliban

The government of Afghanistan on Friday has publically acknowledged the loss of the Afghanistan-Iran border crossing of Islam Qala, located in the province of Herat.

The spokesperson for the interior ministry of Afghanistan, Tareq Arian, said that all the security forces of Afghanistan including the units of border patrol are present in the area, and several efforts are being conducted to recapture the Afghanistan-Iran border which is a key site for the government.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Taliban forces, Zabihullah Mujahid, had told that the key crossing of the Afghanistan-Iran border controls full control of the Taliban and would remain so.

There have been several reports from Afghanistan which has confirmed that the fighters associated with the Taliban have been able to seize five different districts in the province of Herat without any fight.

In the first week of July, more than a thousand members of the security forces of Afghanistan have fled off to its neighboring country Tajikistan as the forces of the Taliban advanced towards them from behind.

On Friday, Russia has given a statement saying that the Taliban had been able to take control of more than two-thirds of the Afghan-Tajik border by having a swift advancement towards it after they captured the Afghanistan-Iran border, which was a key asset to the government. The foreign ministry of Russia’s spokesperson Maria Zakharov had stated that Moscow is currently urging all the sides of Afghanistan to show restraint towards the Taliban forces in retaliation.

The reports have come several hours after the current president of the United States, Joe Biden, has defended the decision made by the administration for its withdrawal from Afghanistan after being at war for the past 20 years.

President Biden said that he would not allow another American generation to go to war in Afghanistan without any reasonable expectation to achieve slightly different aftermath. Although he admitted that it would be very unlikely that the government of Afghanistan would be able to control the entire country by itself without any outside support.

Some of the intelligence analysts of the United States fear that the forces of the Taliban could be able to seize control over the entire country within the upcoming six months.

The President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani has insisted that the security forces of Afghanistan have the capability to keep the Taliban forces at bay for some time, and the Afghan military has appeared to retake some of the areas that were taken by the Taliban in the past recent few weeks.

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