Aybak, the capital of Samangan province in northern Afghanistan, has fallen to Taliban forces for the sixth time in four days.
Kabul, Afghanistan — The Taliban has taken control of Afghanistan’s sixth provincial capital in four days, as the group’s gains gather traction.
On Monday morning, the armed group’s spokesperson sent messages to the media saying that the organisation had taken control of Aybak, the capital of the northern province of Samangan.
The takeover was verified by Samangan’s deputy province governor, according to the AFP news agency.
Shortly after a Taliban spokesperson tweeted that all government and police installations in Aybak had been “cleared,” he stated the Taliban are “in complete control.”
The armed gang claims to have taken possession of the province governor’s complex, the intelligence directorate, the police headquarters, and all other government facilities in the city.
Aybak is the Taliban’s fifth northern province capital in less than a week, and the country’s sixth overall.
As commandos and backup forces have been dispatched to the five other provinces whose capitals have fallen – Kunduz, Takhar, Jowzjan, Sar-e-Pol, Nimruz – as well as the provinces of Herat, Kandahar, and Helmand – the fall of Samangan will put further strain on an already stretched Afghan security forces.
On Monday, the group said that it was advancing on Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan’s largest city in the north.
Reports poured in from the northern districts of Balkh, Badakhshan, and Panjshir provinces overnight on Sunday and into the day on Monday, indicating that the Taliban were attempting to closing in on their capitals.
Unlike Jowzjan, Kunduz, and Sar-e-Pol, Samangan was previously considered one of Afghanistan’s safest provinces, with little Taliban presence.
However, the group’s presence in the province has grown in the previous three years.
