Security personnel inspect a damaged vehicle that was firing rockets in Kabul, Afghanistan, amid deteriorating security situation.
A top US general said the Taliban militant group now controls a total of 212, or about half of Afghanistan’s 419 district centres.
“There appears to be a strategic momentum with the Taliban,” Xinhua news agency quoted the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, at a news conference at the Pentagon on Wednesday.
“There is the possibility of a full Taliban takeover, or the possibility of any other scenario,” Milley said.
“I don’t think the final game is written yet. A negative outcome, a Taliban automatic takeover, is not a foregone conclusion.”
Milley said terrorists have not yet captured any of the country’s 34 provincial capitals, but they are pressuring half of them.
He said Afghan security forces were strengthening their positions to protect major urban centers, including those in Kabul.
There appears to be “tactical momentum with the Taliban” right now, with a lot more to happen over the rest of the summer, he said.
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“We’re going to find out, the level of violence, does it increase, does it stay the same, is the outcome of the negotiations still likely, the possibility of a Taliban takeover (and) any other scenario.”
Afghan provinces have been the scene of heavy fighting between the Taliban and security forces since the beginning of the withdrawal of US-led forces from the war-torn country on May 1.
US President Joe Biden has formally ended the US military mission in Afghanistan for August 31, days before its original September 11 deadline.
US Central Command said last week that more than 95 percent of evacuations had been completed.
According to the Pentagon, more than 2,400 American soldiers have been killed and 20,000 wounded in Afghanistan over the past two decades.
Estimates suggest that more than 66,000 Afghan soldiers have been killed, and more than 2.7 million displaced.
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