Taliban fighters on Thursday seized control of a key district in western Afghanistan that includes a major border crossing with Iran, Afghan security officials said, as the insurgents continued their rapid military advances around the country.
In the past week, the Taliban has overrun areas bordering five countries — Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, China and Pakistan — as US-led forces end their two-decade intervention and the domestic security situation deteriorates.
Pitched battles between Taliban fighters and Afghan government forces were also under way in the northern Balkh Province bordering Uzbekistan.
Photo: AP
Two senior Afghan security officials told reporters on condition of anonymity that the Islam Qala border crossing with Iran had fallen to the Taliban and that Afghan officials had fled across the border.
Al-Alalam TV, Iran’s official Arabic language service, also reported that Afghan soldiers had entered Iranian territory from Herat Province via the border crossing to escape the Taliban.
Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs spokesman Tariq Arian denied the reports, saying that the border crossing was still under the control of government forces.
Calls by Reuters to the offices of the provincial governor and police went unanswered.
Another security official said that Taliban fighters had seized five districts in Herat without a fight.
Earlier this week, more than 1,000 Afghan security personnel fled to Tajikistan as the Taliban captured most of the northern Badakhshan Province, which also borders China and Pakistan.
The Afghan Ministry of Defense said that government forces earlier on Thursday wrested back control of Qala-e-Naw, the capital of the western Badghis Province, which had been stormed by the Taliban on Wednesday.
Hundreds of troops were deployed to the region, the defense ministry said, adding that fighting was continuing on the fringes of Qala-e-Naw, where insurgents had seized key government buildings, including police headquarters.
“The city is fully under our control, and we are conducting operations against the Taliban on the outskirts of the city,” defense ministry spokesman Fawad Aman said.
The defense ministry said that 69 Taliban had been killed in operations on the edge of Qala-e-Naw — the first major provincial capital entered by the insurgents in their latest offensive.
The rest of Badghis Province is in Taliban hands.
Western security officials say that the Taliban has captured more than 100 districts in Afghanistan, while the Taliban says it holds more than 200 districts comprising more than half the country.
Major cities remain under government control.
The insurgents have for weeks been gaining territory, but accelerated their thrust as the US vacated its main military base in the country, effectively ending an intervention that began with the ousting of the Taliban-led government in 2001.
Stop-start peace negotiations between the government and insurgents remain inconclusive. Taliban delegations visited Iran on Wednesday and Moscow on Thursday.
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