The Afghan army launched a counter-offensive to retake Kunduz from the Taliban, a day after insurgents overran the strategic northern city.
The fall of the provincial capital, not only proved inefficiency of Afghanistan security forces trained by NATO but also reflected insurgency’s potential to expand beyond its rural strongholds. It was first major strike by Taliban since American invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11. Insurgents stormed the local jail, freeing hundreds of prisoners including some Taliban commanders. The local headquarters of the National Directorate of Security, the country’s main intelligence agency, was set on fire and a 200-bed government bed was also captured.
In a bizarre situation at the time fall of the city happened; it was first anniversary of the government of President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani. Taliban offensive could be an act to show superiority by Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, on various fractions of Talibans, who are divided after death of Mullah Omer. He has been seeking to remove internal rifts of Taliban groups over his leadership.
After the seizure of Kunduz, Afghanistan seems to be drifting towards more chaos and its citizens are feeling insecure. The Afghan military has been turned into a defensive force that does not possess the capability to strike back unless they are aided by the US, who has made them addicted to targeting the enemy through airstrikes instead of risking their lives in ground battles.
In such critical scenario United States and other world powers should play their role to avert the looming disaster. US spent a lot in fighting fifteen-year log war against Taliban. All this will go waste if the US does not come to the rescue of Afghanistan that has been virtually abandoned at this critical time. If the Taliban take over Afghanistan again, they would once again impose serious threats to the peace of region and obviously to the world.
Taliban offensive in Kunduz must be curtailed which has become once again a threat to regional and world peace.
