Taliban take over another district as violence intensifies across Afghanistan

Gulf Today Report

Violence in Afghanistan has risen sharply around the country as foreign forces work towards withdrawing by Sept. 11.

For nearly 20 years, Bagram Airfield was the heart of American military power in Afghanistan. In just a matter of days, the last US soldiers will depart Bagram.

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On the other side, Taliban militants have taken over a district, officials said on Monday, as clashes intensify in Afghanistan's central and northern provinces.

Taliban militants have launched attacks on checkpoints and cemented control over a border trade crossing.

Bagram Airfield was the heart of American military power in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have launched a wave of offensives around the country, particularly in the north, outside of their southern strongholds.

In central Bamiyan province, normally relatively free of conflict, Taliban fighters attacked several security checkpoints, resulting in heavy clashes overnight, according to Humayoon Elkhani, spokesman for Bamiyan's provincial police.

Taliban has launched attacks on checkpoints and cemented control over a border trade crossing.

In central Ghazni province, Muqur district fell to the Taliban after months of being under siege, according to a member of the provincial council and a security source. A health centre in the district was bombed on Monday morning, according to provincial health director Zaher Shah Nekmal, injuring five health workers.

In northern Badakhshan province, the Taliban launched coordinated attacks on five districts overnight but were fought back by Afghan security forces, according to a spokesperson for the provincial government.

"Bagram grew into such a massive military installation that, as with few other bases in Afghanistan and even Iraq, it came to symbolize and epitomise the phrase ‘mission creep’,” said Andrew Watkins, Afghanistan senior analyst for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.