UN warns of gruelling Sarajevo-style urban war in Afghanistan
SMA NEWS – KABUL
Taliban attacks on towns and cities are dragging Afghanistan into a “deadlier and more destructive” phase of urban warfare resembling the bloodiest days of fighting in Syria and the Balkans, UN official Deborah Lyons warned on Friday.
Ms Lyons, the UN envoy to Afghanistan, addressed the UN Security Council as the hardline insurgents made blitzkrieg gains against the embattled government, including the reported seizure of Zaranj, the capital city of Nimruz province.
“The war in Afghanistan has entered a new, deadlier, and more destructive phase,” Ms Lyons said.
The Taliban made “significant territorial gains” in rural areas these past two months and now threaten the provincial capitals of Kandahar, Herat, and Lashkar Gah and are putting the northern city of Shebergan under pressure, she added.
“This is a different kind of war, reminiscent of Syria recently or Sarajevo in the not so distant past,” Ms Lyons said.
“To attack urban areas is to knowingly inflict enormous harm and cause massive civilian casualties.”
Afghanistan will likely see more of the urban fighting, mass civilian casualties and pitched street battles that were seen during the siege of Sarajevo during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s and in Syria’s towns and cities this past decade, Ms Lyons said.
