Mazar-i-Sharif is Afghanistan’s fourth-largest city. Meanwhile, Kabul was taken by the Taliban on Sunday, prompting Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- General Abdul Rashid Dostum’s home is located in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif
- In the 20-year battle against the Taliban, Dostum was a crucial US ally
- Dostum and his associate Atta Mohammad Noor are said to be among the Taliban’s strongest enemies
New Delhi: A video has gone viral on social media showing Taliban fighters storming the home of an Afghan warlord and an ally of the United States.
In the video, gun-toting militants can be seen lounging on General Abdul Rashid Dostum’s gold-plated furniture and inspecting a tea set at his lavish palace.
The clip also showed fighters posing in chairs and walking around the elegant oval-shaped room decorated with chandeliers.
Dostum’s home is located in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which was seized by the Taliban last week.
In the 20-year battle against the Taliban, Dostum was a crucial US ally and famously fought with the Special Forces ‘horse soldiers’ shortly after 9/11.
During the years before 9/11, the 67-year-old was a notorious warlord who crushed prisoners alive under a tank’s wheels, and in recent years, he has been a prominent member of the Afghan National Army. According to reports, he has escaped.
Ethnic Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum and his associate, former governor of Balkh province Atta Mohammad Noor, are said to be among the Taliban’s strongest enemies. Both the men have been key figures in Afghanistan since the 1980s.
Former Afghan vice president Dostum has reportedly fled over the border into Uzbekistan amid Taliban encroachment.
Interestingly, both the leaders had committed to protecting Mazar-i-Sharif with Afghan forces.
Provincial officials said Taliban forces virtually occupied the city without opposition and that security forces fled along a highway to Uzbekistan. On social media, unconfirmed pictures showed Afghan Army vehicles and men in uniform lining up at the iron bridge at the Hairatan crossing.
“Despite our firm resistance, sadly, all the government and the #ANDSF equipments were handed over to the #Taliban as a result of a big organised & cowardly plot,” tweeted Noor. “They had orchestrated the plot to trap Marshal Dostum and myself too, but they didn’t succeed.”
