The only province in the north of Afghanistan, Balkh, fell to the Taliban which brought the entire northern zone under the fighters’ control.
The Taliban launched heavy attacks on the provincial city, Mazar-e-sharif, and toppled the city after a relatively heavy confrontation with Afghan Defense and Security Forces and the armed uprising.
Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum and the prominent Jihad leader Atta Muhammad Noor who was defending the city fled to Uzbekistan along with their fighters and sons.
Atta Muhammad Noor has written on his Facebook page that, the collapse of Mazar-e-sharif was a plot and was aimed at getting himself and Marshal Dostum surrendered.
The Afghan government has not commented on the collapse of Blakh province yet.
The Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid on his Twitter wrote that the provincial office, police headquarter; NDS local office, and 209th Shaheen corps have fallen to the fighters.
Mujahid further wrote that the central prison has also been broken and inmates were let flee.
Earlier, Attah Muhammad Noor has said he will never ever surrender to the Taliban and there is no power to get him arrested in the province. Marshal Dostum had also said that Balkh is the door of Afghanistan and they will never let the province topple.
This “plot” was scripted by Mr. Khalilzad and the U.S. State Department in their Doha deal. This spring, Mr. Khalilzad presented the “plan” (drafted in the U.S. State Department) to the Ghani-Abdullah regime. It called for a transitional government and “power-sharing” with the Taliban. Mr. Ghani, self-righteous and clueless that he is seen as a strutting clown, would not play along. Mr. Abdullah, a dandy and forever riding the coattails of the late Mr. Massoud (who was executed by Al-Qaeda and considered a martyr), temporized. The Taliban would not wait, accelerating their timetable for an otherwise agreed takeover. Mr. Khalilzad, the “U.S.” ambassador, is rumored to have complained to the Taliban, “But we had a deal!”