Taliban captures key installations in Kunduz, heavy fighting underway in Herat, Kandahar

Amid fighting between Afghan troops and the Taliban in Kunduz, the militant group claimed it had captured the key Afghan city.

Reports say street-to-street fighting is taking place in Kunduz after the Taliban seized their first provincial capital Zaranj in Nimroz and Sheberghan in Jawzjan.

Reports said key installations in Kunduz have been captured by the Taliban.

Fierce fighting is also underway in Herat, Lashkar Gah and Kandahar in the south.

Meanwhile, an Afghan Air Force pilot was reportedly killed in Kabul after a sticky bomb attached to his vehicle detonated. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

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Taliban has made rapid gains in rural Afghanistan in the past two months after President Joe Biden declared the last US troops will be pulled out of the region by August 31 which is now just weeks away.

On Saturday, the Taliban closed a key border in Spin Boldak crossing along the Afghanistan-Pakistan area leaving several hundred travellers stranded.

The militant group had captured Spin Boldak last month. Reports said the Taliban freed several militants after capturing Zaranj amid looting in the area.

Britain on Saturday had urged its citizens to leave the country due to the "worsening security situation".

"Terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Afghanistan. Specific methods of attack are evolving and increasing in sophistication," UK's foreign office had said.

On Friday, the Taliban had shot the head of the Afghan government's media information centre even as it had carried out a bomb attack on the country's defence minister Bismillah Mohammadi in the capital.

As the fighting intensified, Central Asian leaders from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan met in Avaza on the Caspian Sea promising to "provide all possible assistance" towards achieving peace in Afghanistan.  

Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon said the Taliban now controls large parts of Afghanistan's border. "A number of terrorist organisations are actively strengthening their positions in these areas," Rakhmon said.

(With inputs from Agencies)