The Taliban’s rapid territorial gains in Afghanistan have surprised and unnerved many Central Asian officials. Particularly worrying has been the inability of government forces in the northern part of the country, long considered relatively resistant to the Taliban, to halt the insurgents’ onslaught. Over the weekend, the Taliban captured Sheberghan, the capital of Jowzjan province, where they looted and burned the home of the controversial—and ethnically Uzbek—warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former Afghan vice president and leader of one of the country’s largest militias.
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