The Taliban has captured three more provincial capitals, as they take their fight to the cities after seizing much of the countryside in recent months.
The group has seized five provincial capitals in Afghanistan since Friday in a lightning offensive that appears to have overwhelmed government forces, Al-Jazeera.
Kunduz, Sar-e-Pol and Taloqan in the north fell within hours of each other on Sunday, the Taliban and officials in the cities confirmed.
A Taliban statement on Sunday said it has captured the police headquarters, the governor’s compound and the prison in the strategic northeastern city of Kunduz.
“Heavy clashes started yesterday afternoon, all government headquarters are in control of the Taliban, only the army base and the airport is with ANDSF [Afghan security forces] from where they are resisting the Taliban,” Amrudddin Wali, a member of Kunduz provincial assembly, said.
Health officials in Kunduz said 14 bodies, including those of women and children, and more than 30 injured people have been taken to hospital.
“We don’t know what’s going on outside because all our efforts and attention is on the patients coming in,” a doctor told Al Jazeera from a Kunduz hospital.
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In a statement on Sunday, the Taliban said its fighters have also captured the city of Sar-e-Pol, the main city of the northern province of Sar-e-Pol.
Mohammad Noor Rahmani, a provincial council member of Sar-e-Pol province, told Reuters news agency the group has taken government buildings in the northern provincial capital, driving officials out of the main city to a nearby military base.
