A provincial capital in south-west Afghanistan has become the first in the country to fall to the Taliban’s nationwide offensive.

Government forces abandoned Zaranj city in Nimroz province with little fight according to residents, giving the insurgency one of its most symbolic victories yet as it sweeps across the country while international troops depart.

Residents and officials confirmed that the trading hub of around 50,000 people on the border with Iran fell yesterday afternoon.

A spokesman for Nimroz’s police, who declined to be named for security reasons, told Reuters the Taliban had been able to capture the city because of a lack of government reinforcements.

The insurgents have swept government forces from dozens of rural districts and seized several border crossings in recent months. Their advances have surrounded several major cities, including Herat in the west and Kandahar in the south.

Several days of fighting have also seen Lashkar Gah, in neighbouring Helmand province, on the brink of being overrun.

But until now they had been unable to capture any of the 34 provincial capitals that make up the country’s main urban centres.

Zaranj is one of the country’s smallest and most remote provincial capitals but its capture is likely to be a morale boost for buoyant Taliban fighters. The border town is a lucrative centre for legitimate and black market trade with Iran and a major corridor for people smuggling.

Iranian troops closed and reinforced the border as the Taliban advanced.

A spokesman for the Taliban said its fighters were freeing prisoners from the town’s jail and unconfirmed videos shared on social media appeared to show residents looting shops and government offices. Qari Yousef Ahmadi said Nimroz had become “the first province completely liberated at the hands of Mujahideen”, with the government buildings “cleared of stooge enemy presence”.

Soon after the collapse, Afghanistan’s vice-president took to social media to vow that a “moment of reversal” was coming.

Amrullah Saleh said: “We will overcome this. We will come out stronger and wiser. We will be knowing our enemies, friends, half-friends and fake ones too. We will come out like a phoenix.”

The Taliban also assaulted the northern town of Sheberghan.

The United Nations’ envoy to Afghanistan called on the Taliban to cease its attacks on cities immediately, as she warned the country had entered a more “deadlier and more destructive phase”.

Deborah Lyons, head of the UN Afghanistan aid operation, said the Taliban’s new focus on attacking cities was reminiscent of fighting in Syria and the Balkans.

“To attack urban areas is to knowingly inflict enormous harm and cause massive civilian casualties,” she told the Security Council. “Nonetheless, the threatening of large urban areas appears to be a strategic decision by the Taliban, who have accepted the likely carnage that will ensue,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Taliban shot dead the director of Afghanistan’s government media centre in the capital, Kabul. This came only three days after an attempt to kill the defence minister. 

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]