Taliban capture provincial capital

• Zaranj is the first provincial capital taken by Taliban.
• Taliban claim killing a senior Afghan govt official in retaliation to the air strikes.
• Taliban step up a military campaign.

KABUL: Taliban captured an Afghan provincial capital on Friday amid a deteriorating security situation as the US and other foreign troops withdraw from the country.

A police spokesman in southern Nimroz province said the capital Zaranj had fallen to the Taliban because of a lack of reinforcements from the Western-backed government.

Fighting to reimpose a rule 20 years after they were ousted from power by US-led forces, the Taliban have intensified their campaign to defeat the government.

The insurgents have taken dozens of districts and border crossings in recent months and put pressure on several provincial capitals, including Herat in the west and Kandahar in the south, as the foreign forces pull out.

In New York, UN special envoy for Afghanistan Deborah Lyons questioned the Taliban's commitment to a political settlement, telling the UN Security Council the war had entered a deadlier and more destructive phase "reminiscent of Syria, recently, or Sarajevo, in the not-so-distant past".

Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the prospects of Afghanistan slipping into full-scale and protracted civil war "is a stark reality".

Senior US diplomat Jeffrey DeLaurentis urged the Taliban to halt their offensive, pursue a political settlement and protect Afghanistan's infrastructure and people.

Zaranj was the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban since the United States reached a deal with it in February 2020 for a US troop pullout. A local source said the Taliban had seized the governor's office, the police headquarters and an encampment near the Iranian border.

Taliban sources said the group was celebrating and Zaranj's fall would lift the morale of their fighters. A Taliban commander, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Zaranj has strategic importance as it is on the border with Iran.

Taliban claim killing senior govt official

The fall of Zaranj comes the same day the Taliban claimed responsibility for killing the head of the Afghan government's media information department, Dawa Khan Menapal.

Just days earlier, the Taliban had warned of targetting senior administration figures in retaliation for increased air strikes.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the death, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid sending a message to media saying "he was killed in a special attack carried out by mujahideen".

— With input from AFP.