Taliban Capture Kandahar To Herat: Top Officials Run By Helicopter, Hundreds Of Afghan Soldiers

JAKARTA - Taliban militants resumed their victorious military campaign, after announcing that they had captured three vital cities, namely Herat, Laskhar Gah and Kandahar, the Taliban's hometown, on Friday.

This success came as the United States and Britain prepared to send about 3,600 troops, to evacuate embassy staff as well as all civilians from both countries in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have captured Afghanistan's Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern province of Helmand, after two weeks of heavy fighting, a local police official said, citing Reuters on Friday August 13.

Top government and armed forces officials flew by helicopter out of the last government stronghold in the city around midnight on Thursday, said the official, who declined to be named.

"About 200 ANDSF members, who were left in the governor's compound, with the intervention of the elders, surrendered to the Taliban," the official said, referring to members of the national defense and security forces and tribal elders.

The Taliban also succeeded in capturing Afghanistan's second-largest city, Kandahar, officials said, the biggest setback for the US-backed government since the insurgents launched a new offensive when US troops withdrew.

Not only that, the Taliban military also said they had captured the third largest city of Herat in the west, Lashkar Gah in the south and Qala-e-Naw in the northwest. With telephone lines cut across much of the country, Reuters was unable to immediately reach government officials to determine which cities were attacked which were still in government hands.

"Following intense clashes last night, the Taliban took control of Kandahar City," a government official told Reuters, after the insurgents announced they had captured it.

Despite this, Afghan Government forces still control Kandahar airport, which was the US military's second largest base in Afghanistan during their 20-year mission, after Kabul Airport.

The fall of major cities is a sign that Afghanistan is welcoming the Taliban, a spokesman for the group said, according to Al Jazeera TV. Previously, US intelligence predicted the Taliban could besiege Kabul within 30 days and capture the city within the next 90.

To note, Kandahar is the heartland of the Taliban, their hometown, where ethnic Pashtun fighters emerged in the province in 1994, amid the chaos of a civil war that has plagued much of the rest of the country for two years.