As overstretched Afghan security forces struggle to fend off Taliban attacks in the southern province of Helmand and around the northern city of Kabul, forces near Tarin Kot are understaffed, receive minimal reinforcement and are suffering from a shortage of food and ammunition, officials say.
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Top provincial leaders have retreated to the city’s airport, which houses an Afghan military base, according to an unidentified police official.
The news comes as Taliban are threatening to capture Lashkar Gah in neighbouring Helmand province, and northern Kunduz city, which the militants briefly seized a year ago in a stinging blow to Afghan forces.
Police chief Samim said numerous city’s police had made deals with the Taliban and left their checkpoints without a fight, while another police official accused the province’s senior leadership of abandoning the city.
As the Taliban edged closer to Tarin Kot yesterday, they promised on social media to show leniency towards government forces who surrender unconditionally.
“If reinforcements do not arrive the city will collapse into the hands of the Taliban”, Karim Khademzai, head of provincial capital in Uruzgan, told AFP.
Provincial spokesman Doost Mohammad Nayab said all checkpoints around the city have been overrun or destroyed.
‘Street to street clashes are now taking place against the enemy inside the city, ‘ the statement said.
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A spokesman for the United States military command in Kabul said officials were monitoring the situation, but as of Wednesday there were no coalition advisers in Uruzgan and no American air strikes had been conducted this week.
