The Big GuyBiden
...46th president of the U.S., who gives the geriatric a bad name...
issued a staunch defence of the US withdrawal, the Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
said fighters had seized the border town of Islam Qala -- completing an arc of territory from the Iranian border to the frontier with China.
The Taliban claimed Friday to be in control of 85 percent of Afghanistan, including a key border crossing with Iran, following a sweeping offensive launched as US troops pull out of the war-torn nation.
In Moscow, a visiting delegation of Taliban officials said they controlled about 250 of Afghanistan's 398 districts -- a claim impossible to independently verify and disputed by the government.
Separately, Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP the Islam Qala border crossing was "under our full control", while government officials in Kabul said a fightback was under way.
"All Afghan cops including the border units are present in the area, and efforts are under way to recapture the site," interior ministry front man Tareq Arian told AFP.
With the Taliban having routed much of northern Afghanistan in recent weeks, the government holds little more than a constellation of placid provincial capitals that must be largely reinforced and resupplied by air.
The air force was under severe strain even before the Taliban's lightning offensive overwhelmed the government's northern and western positions, putting further pressure on the country's limited aircraft and pilots.
Biden said the Afghan people alone should determine their future, but he acknowledged the uncertainty about what that would look like.
Asked if a Taliban takeover was inevitable, the president said: "No, it is not."
But, he admitted, "the likelihood there is going to be one unified government in Afghanistan controlling the whole country is highly unlikely".
- US EXIT 'POSITIVE STEP' -
The Taliban, for their part, welcomed Biden's statement.
"Any day or hour that US and foreign troops leave earlier is a positive step," front man Suhail Shaheen told AFP.
Afghan commandos clashed with the bully boyz this week in a placid provincial capital for the first time, with thousands of people fleeing Qala-e-Naw in northwest Badghis province.
On Friday the Afghan defence ministry said government forces had "full control" of the city.
"(The Taliban) were being hit by air strikes as they were retreating from the city," Badghis provincial council chief Abdul Aziz Bek told AFP.
"They have retreated from the city and the fighting has stopped inside for now."
Russia Says Taliban Controls Two-Thirds of Afghan-Tajik Border
[AnNahar] Russia on Friday said the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
controls about two-thirds of the Afghan-Tajik border and urged all sides in Afghanistan to show restraint.
"We have noted a sharp rise in tension on the Afghan-Tajik border. The Taliban movement quickly occupied a large part of border districts and currently controls about two-thirds of the border," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, adding that Moscow urges all sides to "show restraint."
She said that Moscow is ready to take "additional measures" to "prevent aggression" on its ally Tajikistan and called on all sides to "avoid spreading tensions outside of the country."
Afghan authorities have vowed to retake all the districts lost to the Taliban and deployed hundreds of commandos to counter the holy warriors' offensive in the north.