This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Taliban fighters armed with captured weapons and night vision goggles have flooded into the capital of Afghanistan’s western Farah province, forcing the governor to flee and driving security forces and officials into a handful of besieged compounds.

Insurgents launched their attack on Farah city, near the Iranian border, around 2am, city residents said. Within hours they were within a few hundred metres of police and intelligence headquarters and had set up checkpoints on roads in and out of city, local officials said.

“Fighting is currently ongoing inside the city and we do not know about the condition of civilians,” said Dadullah Qane, a provincial council member for Farah, who said insurgents were trying to spring fellow militants from the provincial jail. “They are trying to break into the prison.”

Another senior official who asked to remain anonymous said the provincial governor had fled soon after the attack began.

Farah province is a key drug trafficking corridor that borders Iran and the opium-growing heartlands of Helmand. Hundreds of fighters based in Farah, Helmand and neighbouring Nimroz joined together to launch Tuesday’s attack.

The Taliban last month announced the start of its annual spring offensive – fighting ebbs and flows with the seasons in Afghanistan’s long war – by formally renouncing government calls for peace talks.

By late afternoon on Tuesday communications with the city had been cut. Afghan security forces said they were rushing reinforcements to Farah city, which Nato claimed was still under government control. A spokesman tweeted a photo of an A-10 fighter plane “on the offensive against the Taliban”.

Resolute Support (@ResoluteSupport) #Farah city remains under govt. control. #ANDSF, supported by @USFOR_A #airpower, including @usairforce A-10s like one pictured, are on offensive against Taliban. @MoDAfghanistan has stated Afghan security forces are bringing their full capabilities to bear. #AFGStrong #ForAFG pic.twitter.com/LaM12izx6D

The Guardian tried to contact nearly a dozen local security officials to verify the situation on the ground but was unable to reach any of them.

However, videos tweeted by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid showed Taliban insurgents walking freely through Farah, including one area that residents identified as “Provincial Square”, at the heart of the city.

Desperate civilians who fled the fighting, terrified both of Taliban violence and being caught up in counter-attacks by government forces, were stranded in the desert around nine miles (15km) outside the town.



“My family and Farah residents including women and children are here with no water and food. There is nothing,” said Abdulqader Karimi. “People here are sitting in their cars and those who do not have cars are here under intense sun.”

“[Everyone] left their properties behind. We could only save our lives by fleeing … the government is not telling us anything.”

Despite a Taliban promise not to kill or loot if civilians “remain in your homes and pray”, at least one resident said fighters had killed elders and Farah civilians with ties to the government and security forces. He saw bodies in the street as he fled, and family members weeping over their dead.

Farah residents who did stay in the city said they also worried about being caught up in fighting or being hit by airstrikes.

“Most people left the city before dawn. But some including me and my family are trapped. We want to leave but it’s so dangerous,” said one resident, who asked to give only his first name Rohulla. “As I’m talking to you, I can hear heavy gunfire.”

Tuesday’s attack is the first assault on a provincial capital this year, but analysts and politicians say the city should have been better defended, after three similar attacks by insurgents last year.

Insurgents have regularly tried to take provincial capitals, in attacks that serve both as a show of strength, and a chance to gather weapons and equipment.

In 2015 the insurgents briefly seized control of Kunduz, the fifth largest city in Afghanistan. The militants were ousted with days, but it was the first time the group had controlled a provincial capital since they were toppled from power in 2001, and a major shock to the government and its backers.

In subsequent years insurgents fought their way back into the heart of Kunduz and Lashkar Gah, capital of neighbouring Helmand province, but never fully displaced Afghan government forces.