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The city of Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand, fell to the Taliban on Friday. The latter also claim victory in Kandahar, the second largest city in Afghanistan. The day before, the insurgents took the large city of Herat in the north. In eight days, they seized nearly half of the Afghan provincial capitals.
The Taliban seized, Friday August 13, Lashkar Gah, capital of the province of Helmand, in the south of Afghanistan, after having let the army and the political and administrative leaders to evacuate the city, it was reported. learned from a safe source.
“Lashkar Gah has been evacuated. They have decided on a 48-hour ceasefire to evacuate” the army and civilian officials, a senior security official told AFP. The Taliban had earlier claimed the capture of the city.
The insurgents also took without resistance Friday morning Chaghcharan, capital of the province of Ghor, in the center of the country, told AFP the spokesman of the governor, Zalmai Karimi.
Taliban claim capture of Kandahar
They had claimed in the night the capture of Kandahar (south), the second largest city in the country, information confirmed by a resident. They also seized Thursday of Herat (west), the third Afghan city, and had approached up to 150 km from Kabul, also taking Ghazni, southwest of the capital.
Government forces still controlled the airport in the city, which was the second largest US base in Afghanistan during their intervention in the country.
In eight days, they seized nearly half of the Afghan provincial capitals. They control most of the north, west and south of the country.
London and Washington redeploy soldiers to evacuate their nationals
Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, the major city in the north, and Jalalabad (east) are the only three major cities still under government control.
The Taliban launched its offensive in May with the start of the final withdrawal of US and foreign troops, which is to be completed by August 31.
They first seized from vast rural areas without encountering much resistance. Then their progress has accelerated dramatically in recent days, several urban centers falling into their hands, often without offering much resistance.
Due to the “acceleration” of events, Washington announced overnight the deployment of 3,000 troops to Kabul International Airport to help evacuate diplomats and US nationals. London announced the dispatch of 600 soldiers to do the same.
With AFP