大象传媒

The Afghan government says it's pushing back against the Taliban offensive in major cities in the south of the country. The Taliban continues to take more and more territory.

Ahmed Rashid is author of 鈥淭aliban鈥�, a book about the militant group. He told Newsday:

鈥淭he Taliban young commanders on the ground do not want to compromise. They want a very clear victory. I think they are even more militant. Many have been in jail or in Guantanamo or influenced by Al Qaeda. They are determined to rule Afghanistan once again.鈥�

鈥淭hey have not offered any formula for political governance. They don鈥檛 seem to be interested in bringing in educated technocrats. We do have a more educated Taliban than before but their desire is for an Islamic system.鈥�

He said the Afghan government needed to try to clear the roads between Kabul and the borders because otherwise they would start to see shortages of food and medicine.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a real medieval siege that we are seeing now of Kabul, and possibly of Kandahar, if it doesn鈥檛 fall.鈥�

Photo: A Taliban fighter surrounded by locals after the Taliban captured Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province about 200 kilometres north of Kabul (Getty Images)

Show less