For the first time amid the Biden-ordered US troop exit from Afghanistan a provincial capital has fallen to the Taliban, also as they make broad gains in various parts of the country, and as insurgent attacks and assassinations begin to reach deep within the capital of Kabul itself.
Zaranj, the capital city of Nimruz province which lies in the southwest near the border with Iran, and with a population of an estimated 160,000, was taken by the Taliban on Friday, according to The Washington Post. A statement by Nimroz’s police force described the Taliban rapidly and easily captured the city due to “a lack of reinforcements from the government.” And The New York Times is also calling it a significant “symbolic victory” wherein the advancing Islamists “faced little resistance”. Some reports are suggesting not so much as a single shot was fired.
Contrary to some reports the provincial Governor Abdul Karim Barawi is in Zaranj, the capital of Nimroz province. pic.twitter.com/6sUbMVpiB0
— BILAL SARWARY (@bsarwary) August 5, 2021
Prisoners running out of the prison in Zaranj the capital of Nimroz province. pic.twitter.com/gbtuQKptD5
— BILAL SARWARY (@bsarwary) August 6, 2021
h/t Don