Farah province capital falls to Taliban; 400,000 Afghans displaced

Taliban group now controls 65% of Afghan territory; 400,000 Afghans displaced

The Taliban has captured the provincial capital of Farah in southwest Afghanistan, the seventh provincial capital the group has seized since Friday.
 
“This afternoon the Taliban entered the city of Farah after briefly fighting with the security forces. They have captured the governor’s office and police headquarters,” Shahla Abubar, a member of Farah’s provincial council, told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.
 
Taliban forces now control 65 per cent of Afghan territory, are threatening to take 11 provincial capitals and are trying to deprive the national capital Kabul of its traditional support from national forces in the north, a senior EU official said on Tuesday.

 

The official said the Taliban have not delivered on their promise to seek peace for a political agreement that would allow for some form of transitional governance of the country.
 
About 400,000 Afghans have been internally displaced by conflict over recent months and there has been an increase in numbers of people fleeing to Iran over the past 10 days, the official said on Tuesday.