A senior government official from Afghanistan said on Friday that the Taliban have captured their first Afghan provincial capital since launching an offensive to coincide with the final departure of foreign troops.
As per the latest report by AFP, Roh Gul Khairzad, the deputy governor said, “I can confirm… the city of Zaranj, the provincial capital of Nimroz, has fallen to the Taliban.”
She also added that the city in southwest Afghanistan, near the Iranian border, had fallen “without a fight”, and that the social media showed clips of insurgents roaming the streets, who were being cheered by local residents.
Although AFP reported that the veracity of the video could not immediately be confirmed.
It also reported that while the fall of Zaranj may not be strategically important, it is a psychological blow to the government, which is “desperately defending a string of provincial capitals against a Taliban onslaught.”
“The city was under threat for a while, but no one from the central government listened to us,” Khairzad said.
In a tweet earlier, the Taliban said that its forces had captured strategic buildings including the administrative and police headquarters.
The foreign forces withdrawal is yet to be completed by the end of this month. The fighting in the region has intensified since May since these foreign forces began the withdrawal.