Taliban Warns Biden Against Interfering in Afghan Affairs - TV Report
Asya Geydarova. Sputnik International
23:50 GMT 08.08.2021(updated 04:21 GMT 09.08.2021)
This comes after the Biden administration launched airstrikes on Taliban* fighters in northern Afghanistan on Saturday, as the Islamists have continued their offensive, capturing new areas amid the rapid withdrawal of US forces.
The Taliban has issued a message to the United States warning Washington against any further interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs, a spokesperson for the movement's Political Office told Al Jazeera.
"We are warning against the US interference in Afghanistan", the spokesperson for the Taliban Political Office said, stressing that no intra-Afghan ceasefire had been reached.
He also accused the Afghan government of escalating the tensions in the country by launching operations in several provinces.
On Saturday, US B-52 Stratofortress bombers struck Taliban forces in Sheberghan, Jawzjan Province, causing casualties and inflicting significant damage on the terrorists, Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Fawad Aman confirmed on Twitter.
The Taliban has stepped up an offensive as the US is soon to complete its troop pullout from the country. On Saturday, the movement announced they'd captured the southwestern province of Nimruz — including its capital Zaranj, making it the first provincial centre the Islamists have seized since 2016, and the northern province of Jawzjan.
The latest capture claimed by the Taliban is the northeastern Afghan province of Takhar.
The movement's speedy advancement has triggered concern worldwide, with international human rights organisations sounding the alarm about the future of Afghans, mainly women. While expressing doubt about the Taliban rapidly taking over the country, former US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker suggested on Sunday that "a prolonged civil war is a more likely outcome".
Meanwhile, Afghan aides, like interpreters and security forces, who helped US troops during the long war, along with their families, have became "target number one" for the Taliban fighters, who consider them traitors to Islam and the country. Washington has vowed to pull out thousands of Afghan citizens who have collaborated with American forces, but so far, its has evacuated less than 1 percent of them.
The US withdrawal from Afghanistan is scheduled to be completed by 11 September. The pullout was stipulated in an agreement the Taliban and the United States signed in Doha in February 2020.
*A terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other nations.
© Sputnik
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