Daily US Times: The Taliban fighters have taken the city of Ghazni, a strategically important city and the 10th provincial capital to fall to the militant group in less than a week.
Afghan security forces arrested the governor of the city and his deputy after they fled the city.
Ghazni is very important and strategical and is on the major Kabul-Kandahar motorway, linking Taliban strongholds in the south to the capital, Kabul.
Taking the city is thought to increase the likelihood that the militant group could eventually aim to take Kabul itself.
Almost a third of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals are now under Taliban control.
The insurgents have moved at speed, seizing new territories almost daily, as US forces and other international troops withdraw after 20 years of military operations.
A provincial council member of Ghazni said that the Taliban had taken most of the city, with only a police base on the outskirts controlled by the Afghan security forces.
Heavy fighting between Taliban and Government forces was also reported in the city of Kandahar on Wednesday. The insurgents claim to have taken over the city’s prison, though this has been unconfirmed.
In the southern city of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, Taliban have taken over the police headquarters.
More than 1,000 civilians have been killed in the country in the past month, according to the United Nations.
Thousands of people from northern provinces have become internally displaced just this week, travelling to Kabul to seek safety.
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