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The United States on Friday said it is “certainly concerned” by rapid Taliban advances in Afghanistan, adding that the terror group is trying to isolate Kabul as they have “taken over border crossing, highways and major intersections to control lines of communication and revenue”.
Addressing the press conference, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Kabul is not right now an “imminent threat environment”.
The Taliban captured two major Afghan cities — the country’s second- and third-largest after Kabul — and a strategic provincial capital on Thursday, further squeezing the embattled government just weeks before the end of the U.S. military mission there.
The seizure of Kandahar and Herat marks the biggest prizes yet for the Taliban, who have taken 12 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals as part of a weeklong blitz.
A city in southwestern Afghanistan has become the country’s first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in recent years.
Multiple local officials said the Taliban had captured Zaranj, in Nimroz province, on Friday afternoon, in a significant blow to government forces.
Fighting is raging around three major cities in southern and western Afghanistan as Taliban militants seek to seize them from government forces.
Taliban fighters have entered parts of Herat, Lashkar Gah and Kandahar.
Almost 60 civilian resistance People Defense Force (PDF) fighters in Mingin were detained while they tried to attack a Sagaing Region village on Wednesday.
At about 5am on Wednesday, civilian resistance fighters attacked Pan Set and Taungbyu villages, which are strongholds of Pyu-Saw-Htee military allies who are armed with automatic rifles by the junta, according to the PDF.