Ismail Khan: “I Will Soon Enter the Battlefield Against the Taliban”.
Ismail Khan, a prominent jihadi leader and former politician, has announced that he will soon take up arms against the Taliban.
In an interview with R24 Television, he said: “We will enter the battlefield in the near future, but it is the responsibility of all Afghans to stand up against the Taliban.”
During the interview, Khan also revealed previously undisclosed details about the fall of Herat in 2021, blaming weak leadership and internal conspiracies within the former government as key factors in the province’s collapse. He emphasized that acts of betrayal occurred at the highest levels of government at the time.
The fall of Herat was of great strategic importance to the former Afghan Republic. The city fell to the Taliban just weeks after the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces.
Following the Taliban’s capture of the governor’s office and the provincial police headquarters, several government troops surrendered, and Ismail Khan declared that he and his forces had been betrayed.
