The Taliban have received men, weapons, and explosives but also direction from across our southern frontiers, which is Pakistan, said Ahmad Shuja Jamal, head of international affairs at Afghanistan’s National Security Council.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, he said: “That is why (they) are able to put up with such a stiff resistance across the country.” Jamal said of the many explosive devices that were used to killed American soldiers in Afghanistan, 80 per cent of them used ammonium nitrate which is fertilizer but also a precursor for explosives were produced in two Pakistani factories.

“If you focus on a given sliver of time, at any given moment, a province may have come under the Taliban’s control. But I think the situation remains completely fluid, which means, as we are speaking, the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces are actually rallying and pushing the Taliban out of the province of Kunduz.

“Similar action is happening in Sheberghan and similar action is happening in other provinces that you’ve listed as having fallen into the Taliban’s hands,” he said.

The Taliban militants are not capable of holding the provincial capitals. They have simply been unable to do that and as you have said a few moments ago, the last time they were able to capture any provincial capital was six years ago in 2015, he added.

Jamal said the civilians are really bearing the brunt of all of this.

“Because we’ve seen an increase in civilian casualties just as the Taliban have escalated their violence. Approximately two-thirds of the casualties have been women and children and that speaks to the Taliban’s modus operandi which is that they’re using civilian homes to hide but also launching attacks and that is creating a terrible toll for civilians.”

Jamal said Kunduz is the gateway to Central Asia because if the Taliban is able to establish a toehold in this province, then with the multiple terrorist organizations, the IMU in Uzbekistan, the Ansar Allah from Tajikistan, and the multiple other ones, they are able to link Central Asia so the fight here by the NDSF is not just for us but it is for Central Asia and the neighborhood.

“We are fighting a transnational terrorist threat that is manifested in the form of the Taliban,” he added.