The blitz through the Taliban's southern heartland means the insurgents now hold half of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals and control more than two-thirds of the country. 9News
's south on Friday, taking four more provincial capitals in a lightning offensive that brought them closer to Kabul just weeks before the US is set to officially end its two-decade war.Herat in the west and Kandahar in the south — have fallen to the insurgents
In Tirin Kot, the capital of the southern Uruzgan province, Taliban fighters paraded through a main square, driving a Humvee and a pickup seized from Afghan forces. Local officials confirmed that the Taliban also captured the capitals of Zabul province in the south and Ghor in the west.With security rapidly deteriorating, the United States planned to send in 3,000 troops to help evacuate some personnel from the US Embassy in Kabul.
The UN refugee agency said nearly 250,000 Afghans have been forced to flee their homes since the end of May, and 80 per cent of those displaced are women and children. In all, the agency said, some 400,000 civilians have been displaced since the beginning of the year, joining millions who have fled previous rounds of fighting in recent decades.
The onslaught represents a stunning collapse of Afghan forces after the United States spent nearly two decades and US$830 billion trying to establish a functioning state. US forces toppled the Taliban in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, which al-Qaida planned and executed while being sheltered by the Taliban government.
"Whatever forces are left or remaining that are in the Kabul area and the provinces around them, they're going to be used for the defence of Kabul," Roggio said. "Unless something dramatically changes, and I don't see how that's possible, these provinces will remain under Taliban control."
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