According to reports, the Taliban has taken key areas in Ghazni city located just 150 kilometers from capital Kabul on Thursday.
Ghazni is strategically situated along the Kabul-Kandahar highway and serves as a gateway to the capital and the Taliban’s strongholds in the south.
It is the tenth provincial capital to fall into the hands of the Taliban this week.
The loss of Ghazni tightens the grip of a resurgent Taliban estimated to now hold some two-thirds of the nation, and thousands of people have fled their homes.
Reuters reports, the Islamists now control 65 percent of Afghanistan and have taken or threaten to take 11 provincial capitals, a senior EU official said on Tuesday.
US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he did not regret his decision to withdraw and urged Afghan leaders to fight for their homeland.
U.S. had spent more than $1 trillion over 20 years and lost thousands of US troops, and continued to provide significant air support, food, equipment, and salaries to Afghan forces, he said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to comment about assessments that Kabul could be overtaken by the Taliban in 90 days, which were first reported by the Washington Post.
“We are closely watching the deteriorating security conditions in parts of the country, but no particular outcome, in our view, is inevitable,” she said.
Psaki said the plan to withdraw troops by August 31 held and reiterated the administration’s view that Afghan forces have the US support they need to fight back.
The Afghans “need to determine if they have the political will to fight back and if they have the ability to unite as leaders to fight back,” she said.
The Taliban stepped up its offensive in mid-May as the US troops began pulling out of Afghanistan even as the US State Department on Wednesday said the militant group was seeking “battlefield victory.”
Amid the large-scale fighting, Reports say, US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad and officials from China, Russia, and other countries met in Doha with Taliban and Afghan government negotiators to ensure a ceasefire but it has failed to materialize so far.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the Taliban has violated “the letter and the spirit” of the US-Taliban deal.
“Attacking provincial capitals and targeting civilians is inconsistent with the spirit of the agreement,” Price said.
Heavy fighting is also underway in Kandahar, Helmand and Herat between Afghan forces and the Taliban with just days left for American troops to leave the country after President Biden declared US troops will pull out by August 31.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet on Wednesday urged the Taliban to stop the fighting and return to the bargaining table.
“Failure to stop the escalating violence and human rights abuses has catastrophic consequences for the Afghan people,” she said, according to the Afghanistan Times.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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