Tue 10 August 2021:
The Taliban have taken control of the province capital of Farah in southwest Afghanistan, making it the group’s seventh provincial capital since Friday.
“This afternoon the Taliban entered the city of Farah after briefly fighting with the security forces. They have captured the governor’s office and police headquarters,” Shahla Abubar, a member of Farah’s provincial council, told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.
Local sources in the southwestern province of Farah also confirmed to Al Jazeera that the group has taken over the province’s eponymous capital city.
The Taliban has captured the province’s central prison, according to parliamentarian Abdul Nasri Farahi and provincial council member Shahla Abu Bakr.
Farah is now the second provincial city in the southwest of Afghanistan that the group has taken. On Friday, the Taliban captured neighbouring Nimruz province.
The capture of Farah also provides another border crossing into Iran for the group.
Abubar said local security forces had retreated towards an army base outside the city.
Local police spokesman Farooq Khalid told Anadolu Agency that intense clashes between government forces and the Taliban fighters were taking place. He claimed that more than 80 advancing Taliban fighters had been killed by security forces.
The Taliban, however, claimed to have reached the city centre.
“Two checkpoints were captured near the intelligence and police command centre a moment ago … The battle continues and the Mujahideen advance,” tweeted Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed.
A senior EU official told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday that Taliban forces now control 65 percent of Afghan territory, are threatening to take 11 provincial capitals, and are trying to deprive Kabul of its traditional support from national forces in the north.
Widespread conflict
Following the capture of Aybak on Monday, the Taliban have now overrun five provincial capitals in the north. They have also taken Zaranj, the capital of Nimruz province, in the southwest.
On Tuesday, the Taliban claimed they were closing in on Mazar-i-Sharif – the region’s biggest city and a linchpin for the government’s control of the north – after capturing Sheberghan to its west, and Kunduz city and Taluqan to its east.
Fawad Aman, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, said the Afghan forces had the upper hand there.
But Indian government shut its consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif on Tuesday, and urged its diplomats and Indian citizens to take a special flight home.
India, which has invested millions of dollars in development projects across Afghanistan, has now closed all its consulates, leaving only the embassy in Kabul operational, a government official said.
The Taliban are also now battling the Western-backed government for control of several other cities, including Lashkar Gah in Helmand, and Kandahar in the province of the same name.
The group had already gained vast parts of rural Afghanistan since launching a series of offensives in May to coincide with the start of the final withdrawal of foreign troops.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
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