Close Menu
Chronicle.ng
    Trending Stories
    Chelsea cruise past LAFC in Club World Cup opener

    Chelsea cruise past LAFC in Club World Cup opener

    June 16, 2025
    INEC rejects petition seeking Natasha's recall

    Court denies FG’s request to arrest Natasha over defamation charge

    June 16, 2025
    Lagos suspends planning approvals along Lagos-Calabar coastal road

    Lagos suspends planning approvals along Lagos-Calabar coastal road

    June 16, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • Chelsea cruise past LAFC in Club World Cup opener
    • Court denies FG’s request to arrest Natasha over defamation charge
    • Lagos suspends planning approvals along Lagos-Calabar coastal road
    • PDP accuses Tinubu of indifference over Benue massacre
    • Ghana drunkards association threatens protest over high alcohol prices
    • N6.3 billion shares: Court adjourns Ecobank’s suit against Otudeko
    • Iran calls on Trump to seek ceasefire as Israel intensifies air war
    • The reinvention of Yemi Osinbajo
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Chronicle.ngChronicle.ng
    Subscribe
    Tuesday, June 17
    • News
      • Nigeria News
      • World News
      • Headlines News
    • Politics
    • Business
    • Sport
    • Entertainment
    • Contact Us
    Chronicle.ng

    Taliban capture Afghan capital, kill top government official

    Chronicle EditorBy Chronicle EditorAugust 6, 2021No Comments3 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Telegram WhatsApp
    Taliban have taken over more than 85% of Afghanistan as US withdrawal nears completion
    Taliban have complete control of Afghanistan
    Facebook Twitter WhatsApp

    Taliban militants have taken over an Afghan provincial capital and killed a top government official there.

    According to reports, the Islamic group invaded the city on Friday. The latest string of attacks comes after the withrawal of U.S. led foreign troops which has left the middle-Eastern country vulnerable to Islamic extremists.

    A police spokesman in southern Nimroz province said the capital Zaranj had fallen to the hardline Islamists because of a lack of reinforcements from the Western-backed government.

    Fighting to reimpose a strict Islamic regime 20 years after they were ousted from power by U.S.-led forces, the Taliban have intensified their campaign to defeat the government.

    The insurgents have taken dozens of districts and border crossings in recent months and put pressure on several provincial capitals, including Herat in the west and Kandahar in the south, as the foreign forces pull out.

    In New York, U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan Deborah Lyons questioned the Taliban’s commitment to a political settlement, telling the U.N. Security Council the war had entered a deadlier and more destructive phase “reminiscent of Syria, recently, or Sarajevo, in the not-so-distant past”.

    Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the prospects of Afghanistan slipping into full-scale and protracted civil war “is a stark reality”.

    Senior U.S. diplomat Jeffrey DeLaurentis urged the Taliban to halt their offensive, pursue a political settlement and protect Afghanistan’s infrastructure and people.

    Zaranj was the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban since the United States reached a deal with it in February 2020 for a U.S. troop pullout. A local source said the Taliban had seized the governor’s office, the police headquarters and an encampment near the Iranian border.

    Taliban sources said the group was celebrating and Zaranj’s fall would lift the morale of their fighters. A Taliban commander, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Zaranj has strategic importance as it is on the border with Iran.

    In Kabul, Taliban attackers killed Dawa Khan Menapal, head of the Government Media and Information Centre, in the latest in a series of killings aimed at weakening President Ashraf Ghani’s democratically elected government.

    U.S. Charge d’Affaires Ross Wilson said he was saddened and disgusted by the death of Menapal, whom he said provided truthful information to all Afghans.

    “These murders are an affront to Afghans’ human rights & freedom of speech,” he said in a Tweet.

    Scores of social activists, journalists, bureaucrats, judges and public figures fighting to sustain a liberal Islamic administration have been killed by Taliban fighters in a bid to silence voices of dissent.

    An official in the federal interior ministry said “savage terrorists” killed Menapal during Friday prayers.

    • Afghanistan: Taliban flag raised above border crossing with Pakistan

    “He (Menapal) was a young man who stood like a mountain in the face of enemy propaganda, and who was always a major supporter of the (Afghan) regime,” said Mirwais Stanikzai, an Interior Ministry spokesperson.

    Elsewhere Taliban fighters stepped up clashes with Afghan forces and attacked militias allied with the government, officials said, stretching their dominance of border towns.

    At least 10 Afghan soldiers and a commander of armed members belonging to the Abdul Rashid Dostum militia group in the northern province of Jowzjan were killed.

    Deputy governor of Jowzjan province Abdul Qader Malia said the Taliban attacked the outskirts of provincial capital Sheberghan this week.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Telegram WhatsApp

    Keep Reading

    Chelsea cruise past LAFC in Club World Cup opener

    Chelsea cruise past LAFC in Club World Cup opener

    INEC rejects petition seeking Natasha's recall

    Court denies FG’s request to arrest Natasha over defamation charge

    Lagos suspends planning approvals along Lagos-Calabar coastal road

    Lagos suspends planning approvals along Lagos-Calabar coastal road

    PDP accuses Tinubu of indifference over Benue massacre

    PDP accuses Tinubu of indifference over Benue massacre

    Ghana drunkards association threatens protest over high alcohol prices

    Ghana drunkards association threatens protest over high alcohol prices

    Oba Otudeko at Lagos court over N31.3 billion fraud charges

    N6.3 billion shares: Court adjourns Ecobank’s suit against Otudeko

    Add A Comment
    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    Subscribe to News

    Be the first to get the latest news updates from ChronicleNG about world, sports, politics etc

    Chelsea cruise past LAFC in Club World Cup opener

    Chelsea cruise past LAFC in Club World Cup opener

    June 16, 2025
    INEC rejects petition seeking Natasha's recall

    Court denies FG’s request to arrest Natasha over defamation charge

    June 16, 2025
    Lagos suspends planning approvals along Lagos-Calabar coastal road

    Lagos suspends planning approvals along Lagos-Calabar coastal road

    June 16, 2025
    PDP accuses Tinubu of indifference over Benue massacre

    PDP accuses Tinubu of indifference over Benue massacre

    June 16, 2025
    Ghana drunkards association threatens protest over high alcohol prices

    Ghana drunkards association threatens protest over high alcohol prices

    June 16, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    • Politics
    • News
    • Sports
    • Business
    • About Us
    © 2025 ChronicleNG

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.