Thread by @KyleWOrton

#Taliban have captured 10 provincial capitals:

1. Zaranj (Nimruz province), 6 Aug
2. Sheberghan (Jawzjan), 7 Aug
3-5. Sar-i-Pul, Kunduz, and Taluqan (Takhar), 8 Aug
6. Aybak (Samangan), 9 Aug
7-9. Pul-i-Khumri (Baghlan), Farah, Faizabad (Badakhshan), 10 Aug
10. Ghazni, 12 Aug

Fairly visible on this map [nyti.ms/3m0S5Ef] the main holdouts are the Hazarajat, some areas surrounding Kabul, and parts of Balkh province around Mazar-i-Sharif.

Herat in the west, and Kandahar and Lashkar Gah (Helmand) in the south, do not seem likely to hold for long.

One provincial capital has fallen in #Afghanistan already today; unwise to bet against a second going down and maybe three. By the end of the week and surely by the end of next, half or more of the 34 provincial capitals will be gone, de facto the whole north, west, and south.

A strategic calamity to allow #Pakistan to recolonise #Afghanistan with jihadists like this, plus millions of people displaced or consigned again to a terror regime, leading up to an appalling meltdown in Kabul, for ... no good reason. It's utterly needless.

Second provincial capital in #Afghanistan to fall to the #Taliban today, #Kandahar. It was #Ghazni lost this morning, and #Herat will likely be under jihadist control by the end of the day.

https://twitter.com/Conflicts/status/1425819929995989003

The #Taliban have taken their third provincial capital in #Afghanistan today, #Herat, capital of the eponymous province in the west, on the Iranian border, and the third largest city in the country.

It is the twelfth provincial capital overall the jihadists have captured

- @AFP

Reports about an hour ago said the #Taliban had captured #Lashkargah, the capital of #Helmand province, which would be the jihadists' 4th provincial capital today and 13th overall. They certainly captured and emptied the prison this afternoon.

City still seems contested, though

Completely systematic by the #Taliban: having (nearly) mopped up the three big southern provinces, they've pushed north of Kandahar to attack #Tarinkot, the capital of #Uruzgan, which does not look like it is long for this world.

https://twitter.com/bsarwary/status/1425923745374478341

Qala-e-Naw, the capital of Badghis province, taken by the #Taliban some hours ago, the 4th provincial capital to fall today and the 13th overall [the first was on 6 August].

https://twitter.com/Zoya_nafidi/status/1425874656024616966