Taliban mount assault on besieged Herat, as Afghans blame Pakistan for insurgent onslaught

Taliban fighters have mounted an assault on Afghanistan's third-largest city, Herat, according to local witnesses and journalists.

Harun Najafzada, director of news at Volant Media, cited locals who had seen Taliban fighters march past their homes just a 1km away from the Herat governor's office, in the eponymous province that borders Iran. 

Sayed Jalal Shajjan, an Afghan journalist, told The New Arab, that Herat had come under rocket attacks and fighting was approaching the centre of the city. 

The Taliban offensive is being directed from the east of the city, according to witnesses.

Omid Sobhani, another journalist, confirmed to The New Arab that government forces had fallen back from their positions in the city's east, allowing the Taliban to advance.

Clashes also appear to be concentrated on the west of the ancient city, which, like Kandahar and Lashkar Gah in the south, has been besieged during the Taliban blitz across Afghanistan.

Fighting had been approaching the city centre but the Taliban advance had been repelled by powerful forces loyal to Soviet-era commander Ismail Khan.

Kim Sengupta, defence and diplomatic editor for The Independent, met with the veteran warlord - known as the "Lion of Herat" - a few days ago.

He told The New Arab that the situation in Herat is now "unpredictable".

Taliban fighters had breached the city almost every night, pushing through alleyways and narrow lanes and fighting at close quarters, Sengupta said. Last Wednesday, a popular police commander in his office was killed in a targeted assassination. The Taliban have set up checkpoints along the road leading the airport, Sengupta said.

Fighting in Herat city. From the eastern side Taliban are around 500 meters from the governors office. Taliban advancing towards the prisons.Ismail Khan is on the western side of Herat city& engaged in furious fighting against Taliban,residents,a traders and gov sources tells me. pic.twitter.com/sTLjhxiEXH

— BILAL SARWARY (@bsarwary) August 12, 2021

While Afghanistan's special forces - aided with limited US airstrikes - had been able to clear the Taliban from some areas around the city, the bulk of the fighting came from Khan's militia.

Sengupta said the veteran commander was charismatic and commanded the respect of his fighters that saw him playing a role that the government had failed on. Notably, he and his men saw their fight not against the Taliban as much as it was against Pakistan – accused by many Afghans of backing the militant group.

#SanctionPakistan

A social media campaign calling for sanctions against Pakistan has gained traction recently. Afghans say the insurgents use Pakistani territory in a number of ways, pointing to the treatment of wounded Taliban fighters in the neighbouring country. Several of the group's leadership reportedly own homes in the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Karachi and send their children to school there.

Images abound on social media of Taliban fighters being buried at large funerals in Pakistan - in events where the flag of the Taliban’s envisioned Islamic Emirate is raised. Analysts and human rights groups say that madrassahs in the country have fuelled the spread of militant ideology, empowering Afghan refugees to declare jihad in their home country.

Pakistan – which had openly supported the Taliban when they were in power in Afghan strongly denies the charges that are linked to the notion of providing "strategic depth" against rival India.