E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Taliban Cut Off Main Highway Linking Kabul to North
Taliban insurgents have cut the main highway that links the capital with northern Afghanistan and neighboring countries for the past three days, according to Afghan officials in the area.

After the Taliban ambushed police forces guarding a stretch of the national Ring Road in Baghlan Province on Thursday, fighting continued through Saturday and appeared likely to last longer, according to officials in the area. The northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif was cut off, as were road connections to eight northern provinces.

Mubarez Hazara, an Afghan Local Police commander in the Surkh Kotal area of Baghlan Province, said by telephone that he and his 40 fighters were surrounded by Taliban insurgents. The insurgents had overrun a check post on the highway and remained entrenched and blocking traffic. Mr. Hazara said the road was currently under Taliban control, and while the insurgents were letting some traffic through, they were systematically searching for government officials or sympathizers.

It was only the latest setback for the country’s battered Ring Road, a highway network over 2,000 miles long built by international donors at a cost of $3 billion, and still not complete after more than a decade of work. Parts of it remain unfinished, other sections have repeatedly fallen under insurgent control, and on much of its length, only heavily armed military convoys can travel safely because of the risk of insurgent roadblocks and bombings.

The Ring Road connects most of the country’s major population centers. According to the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, the road network is the second-biggest recipient of foreign development aid in Afghanistan.

The special inspector general has raised questions about the financial capacity of the Afghan government to maintain the road. Many parts of the highway have already degraded — even returning to little more than dirt roads in places — because of poor maintenance, use by overweight trucks and military vehicles, and damage from roadside bombs. Many of the newly built roads already need repairs, said Ahmad Shah Wahid, the country’s former minister of public works, who oversaw the project during his time in office.
Posted by: Pappy 2016-05-16
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=456068