Afghanistan replaces Army chief after Taliban surge

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani replaced the countrys army chief and flew to the besieged northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, trying to organise its defenses and halt the Talibans rapid offensive, a media report said.

The fired army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai, had only been appointed by Ghani in June.

Since then, much of Afghanistan’s regular military surrendered to the Taliban or melted away, allowing the insurgents to seize nine of the country’s 34 provincial capitals and most of the countryside.

Special-operations commando units were the only part of Afghanistan’s US-funded national security forces, theoretically numbering some 350,000 men, to consistently fight against the Taliban in recent weeks.

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