Breaking: They Just Seized 9 Capitals

Over the course of five days, nine capitals have been seized by terrorists, and experts are warning that many more are in danger of falling into the hands of the Taliban in the coming days.

Timeline

Here is a timeline of recent events:

• Tuesday, August 10th, 2021 – Taliban forces seized the provincial capitals of Farah, (the capital of Afghanistan’s Farah province), Pul-e-Khumri, (the capital of Baghlan province), and Faizabad, (the provincial capital and largest city of Badakhshan Province).
• Monday, August 9th, 2021 – Taliban fighters took control of the city of Aybak, Afghanistan, the provincial capital of the Samangan province.
• Sunday, August 8th, 2021 – The Taliban captured the provincial capitals Kunduz, Sar-i-Pul , and Taliqan.
• Saturday, August 7th, 2021 – The Taliban announced that they had taken control of the city of Sheberghan, the capital city of the Jowzjan Province in northern Afghanistan.
• Friday, August 6th, 2021 – The Taliban seized the city of Zaranj, the capital of Nimruz province.

Afghanistan has a total of thirty-four provinces.

Response

The United States is responding to the terrorist takeover by deploying B-52 Stratofortress bombers and AC-130 Spectre gunships to the area. The bombers were flown in from an airbase in Qatar, and are being used to hit targets located in the areas of Kandahar, Herat, and Lashkar Gah.

Department of Defense sources have revealed that the U.S. has plans to continue with the airstrikes after August 31st, the date that was chosen by Joe Biden as the end of combat operations in Afghanistan.

While the U.S. is concerned with slowing the Taliban’s efforts, it appears that the Afghan government is putting up little resistance against the hostile takeover from the terrorist group.

Nazir Ahamad, a cellphone seller in Aybak, revealed that “the Taliban entered without a gunshot.”

According to Raaz Mohammad Mowahid, a member of the Samangan provincial council, Afghanistan’s government forces offered little resistance against the Taliban before giving up and retreating to a mountain to the south.

Speaking with the New York Times, a Samangan Police dispatcher stated: “Aybak fell to the Taliban, and all officials and security forces retreated. Now I am hiding in the city.”

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, has released a travel advisory urging Americans to leave the country immediately, telling them to use any commercial flight options available to them at the moment.

“Given the security conditions and reduced staffing, the Embassy’s ability to assist U.S. citizens in Afghanistan is extremely limited even within Kabul,” the embassy said in the advisory, which was released on Saturday, August 7th.