Afghan forces surrender in Kunduz as Taliban advances - The Washington Post

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KABUL — Hundreds of Afghan forces surrendered to the Taliban on Wednesday as the militants consolidated their hold on the country’s north, overrunning three towns in a single day.

After holding out for days at a military base on the edge of Kunduz, an entire Afghan army corps surrendered to Taliban fighters, handing over valuable equipment, according to two Afghan officers who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.

The move essentially ceded the last island of government control in the provincial capital to the Taliban and followed days of sweeping gains by the fighters across northern and western Afghanistan. The Taliban has now pushed into nine provincial capitals. On Tuesday alone, three towns were overrun by the group.

In Kunduz, local elders had visited Afghan military commanders at the base near the city’s airport and asked them to surrender to the Taliban, which pledged not to harm them, said Zargul Alemi, a member of the Kunduz provincial council who fled the province before the surrender. Alemi said that after some commanders accepted the surrender deal, along with a fraction of soldiers at the base, the rest of the forces retreated to a nearby mountain range.

“I don’t know why the commanders did not gather their forces and fight until the last drop of their blood, with all the guns, resources and ammunition they had in the airport and the corps,” Alemi said. The soldiers who surrendered handed over Humvees, weapons and other supplies to the Taliban, she said.

The two Afghan officers said that those who surrendered were escorted by the Taliban to a nearby district where they were offered protection as long as they did not leave Kunduz province.

“We feel betrayed,” said Fawzia Yaftali, another Kunduz provincial council member, who accused the government in Kabul of making a deal with the Taliban to hand the militants control of the country’s north.

Taliban fighters have made rapid gains across the country since the final phase of the U.S. withdrawal began in May. Over the past week, the militants have started pushing into urban areas.

Government control has shrunk dramatically, to less than a third of the country’s territory. The United States is continuing to support Afghan forces with airstrikes, but the withdrawal of foreign troops is set to conclude at the end of August.

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