Former Afghan vice president instructs soldiers to fight Taliban 'tooth and nail'

As the conflict in Afghanistan deepens, the country's former Vice President Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum on Sunday urged his soldiers and supporters to fight the Taliban fiercely and stop them from taking over more territory.

Enayatullah Babar Farahmand, deputy chief of the Afghan High Council of National Reconciliation, said in a tweet that Dostum had told his supporters and fighters in a telephone call to stand up against the Taliban by all means possible, reported Afghanistan Times.

"After his treatment and improvement of his health condition in Turkey, Marshal Dostum instructed all his soldiers and followers by phone to defend the country against the Taliban and fight tooth and nail," he said, adding that Dostum may be returning to the battlefield soon.

Dostum was on the front line of the fight against the Taliban in Jawzjan province two weeks ago and had recently traveled to Turkey. Afghanistan Times reported that he and his eldest son Yar Mohammad may have been poisoned on the battlefield while fighting the Taliban.

This comes in the middle of a surge of violence in the country with frequent clashes between the Taliban and Afghan security forces amid US troop withdrawal.

Last week, United Nations (UN) special envoy on Afghanistan Deborah Lyons informed that 50 out of Afghanistan's 370 districts have fallen to Taliban terrorists since May. "The Taliban recent advances are even more significant and are as a result of an intensified military campaign; more than 50 of Afghanistan's 370 districts have fallen since the beginning of May," Lyons told the UN Security Council (UNSC).

As the US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) foreign forces continue to scale down their presence in Afghanistan, the Taliban have been gaining ground in some parts of the country. A US intelligence report recently concluded that the Afghan government could collapse as soon as six months after the American military withdrawal from the country is completed.

In a desperate situation, hundreds of Afghan civilians have taken up arms in an attempt to fight the terrorist group. The Taliban has warned those who have taken up arms and said that they will not be forgiven.

( With inputs from ANI )

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