A terrorist group ”the Taliban” has captured Puli Alam, the capital of Afghanistan’s eastern Logar province, located just 50 kilometres (31 miles) south of Kabul.
Saeed Qaribullah Sadat, the provincial lawmaker confirmed this to Agence France-Presse on Friday.
“Now the Taliban are 100 per cent in control. There is no fighting at the moment. Most of the officials fled to Kabul,’’ Sadat said.
Also the Taliban seized Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, and a number of other provincial capitals, as the insurgent group accelerates its rapid advance towards the capital Kabul.
Afghan Member of Parliament Gul Ahmad Kamin told CNN on Friday that Kandahar had been taken. The city, which lies in the south of the country, has been besieged by the Taliban for weeks, and many observers consider its fall as the beginning of the end for the country’s US-backed government.
Later on Friday the militants took charge of a handful of other cities. According to CNN analysis they now control 17 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals, all of which have been captured in the last week.
The group has made territorial gains in the north of the country, which has traditionally been an anti-Taliban stronghold. And it now controls towns and territories within 100 kilometres (62 miles) of Kabul, including the capital of Logar province, which also fell on Friday.
