The Taliban have taken the strategic Afghan city of Ghazni just 150km from Kabul, a senior lawmaker and insurgents said.
The city lies along the major Kabul-Kandahar highway, effectively serving as a gateway between the capital and militant strongholds in the south.
"The Taliban took control of the key areas of the city - the governor's office, the police headquarters and the prison," Nasir Ahmad Faqiri, head of the provincial council said.
He added that fighting continued in parts of the city but that the provincial capital was largely in the insurgents' hands.
The Taliban also confirmed capturing the city, according to a statement posted by the insurgency's spokesman on social media...
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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.