The Taliban have taken the strategically important city of Ghazni, the 10th provincial capital to fall to the militants in less than a week.
Ghazni is on the major Kabul-Kandahar highway, linking militant strongholds in the south to the capital Kabul.
Taking Ghazni is thought to increase the likelihood that the Taliban could eventually take Kabul itself.
Almost a third of the country's 34 provincial capitals are now under Taliban control.
The insurgents have moved at speed, seizing new territories almost daily, as US and other foreign troops withdraw after 20 years of military operations.
Heavy fighting was also reported in the city of Kandahar on Wednesday. The Taliban claim to have taken over the city's prison, though this has not been confirmed. ..
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(Tasnim) – The Taliban have taken control of Ghazni, the capital of Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, about 130km (80 miles) southwest of capital Kabul, reports said.
ReplyDeleteIt becomes the 10th provincial capital to fall within days.
A senior security official told Reuters the Taliban fighters occupied all of Ghazni’s government agency headquarters after heavy clashes.
Meanwhile, fighting is raging in Lashkar Gah, one of Afghanistan’s largest cities in the Taliban heartland of Helmand province.
The Lashkar Gah regional police headquarters were taken by the armed group, with some police officers surrendering to the fighters and others retreating to the nearby governor’s office still held by government forces.
It comes as a government source confirmed to Al Jazeera that the Afghan government has offered the Taliban a share in power so long as the rising violence in the country comes to a halt.
The proposal was delivered through Qatar, the host of Afghan peace talks, according to the source.
The security situation in Afghanistan has been deteriorating in recent months as the US forces have been withdrawing from the country.
The Taliban have been overrunning Afghanistan’s districts in rapid succession, many of them in the north of the country, which is dominated by Afghanistan’s minorities. The north is the traditional stronghold of many former mujahedeen leaders who have been a dominant force in Afghanistan since driving the Taliban from power in 2001.
The Kabul government has launched a “national mobilization” in response, arming local volunteers and resurrecting militia groups to take on the Taliban.