EVIL SIEGE
Afghan troops run out of weapons as Taliban plans to starve forces into surrender in deadly siege of major cities
AFGHAN special forces are being left for dead as Taliban militants encircle major cities and cut off essential supply routes.
Government forces have had ammunition wiped out from battling Taliban militants, who have now seized control of 85 per cent of Afghanistan.
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The Taliban seized large swathes of territory after US & UK troops pulled out earlier this month following a peace deal that paved their exit from the Middle Eastern country.
The Islamists have encircled ten major cities and skirmishes have broken out in the southern towns of Ghazni and Lashkah Gar, and Pul-e-Khumri and Taluqan in the north.
Fighters have also surrounded the former British home base of Kandahar in Helmand province.
The western city of Qala-i-Naw was briefly overrun by insurgents last week until government troops launched a counterattack, which has seen the city entrapped in days of raging battle.
Only 600 US soldiers are left to protect the US embassy in Kabul and the capital's international airport as Western forces continue their withdrawal.
The militants have waged a major offensive in recent weeks, seizing swathes of territory, forcing thousands of soldiers to flee or surrender and capturing an arsenal of US heavy weapons.
In several districts, militants have broken into jails, releasing inmates to join their ranks while occupying abandoned homes.
The conflict is also leading to food shortage, one Afghani resident in Helmand province told .
"Civilians are suffering. Mortar shells are everywhere. We are trapped in our homes and running short of food," he said.
"We do not want the Taliban to occupy this city again, but the way they are taking control of dozens of districts it seems government forces are surrendering."
"The Taliban presence is felt everywhere in Kandahar city but they have not managed to enter the city yet. We can hear sporadic gunfire to the west and southwest," Taimoor Shah, a journalist living in the city said.
Supplies of government weapons are quickly breaking down, leading some local leaders to believe they're being betrayed by the Kabul government.
"We contacted them repeatedly,” Enayatullah Babur Farahmand, a senior official with the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, an ethnic Uzbek party opposed to the Taliban, told Tolo News.
"We asked senior security authorities, including the defence minister, the national security adviser, and the interior minister . . . but unfortunately, they are not paying the required attention to supply the public uprising forces."
The Taliban hold large swathes of rural areas, allowing them to easily siege urban centres.
In the north, thousands of residents have taken up arms and joined government forces to repel the Islamists.
This comes as harrowing footage emerged showing 22 Afghan commandos being executed as they surrendered.
In the clip shared by CNN, the men are shot at point blank range moments after handing over the guns.
In the highly conservative country where women are banned from most activities, many have taken to the streets with machine guns and rocket launchers telling troops that they’re “ready to fight the Taliban”.
Halima Parastish, the head of the women’s directorate in Ghor and one of the marchers told : “There were some women who just wanted to inspire security forces, just symbolic, but many more were ready to go to the battlefields.
“That includes myself. I and some other women told the governor around a month ago that we’re ready to go and fight.”
It comes as Taliban forces recently banned women from leaving the house alone and new dowry regulations - an amount of property or money brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage - have been brought in for girls.
The jihadists have also vowed to reintroduce torturous punishments against homosexuals and criminals such as crushing them against a wall once American forces have fully withdrawn.
Hundreds of Afghan soldiers have already fled across the border into neighbouring Tajikistan as the terror group sweeps through the country and leaves it on the verge of collapse.
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“There is a real sense of foreboding,” says Kate Clark, director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network.
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