Situation In Kandahar 'Dire' With Intense Fighting As Taliban Claims To Seize Afghan’s Second-Largest City: Report

The negotiators of the Afghanistan government in Qatar reportedly offered a power-sharing deal with the Taliban to end the ongoing violence

Representative Photo

New Delhi: After seizing Ghazni, the Taliban's armed group has entered Kandahar city and an intense fight is underway to protect the city from being captured, Al Jazeera reported local residents as revealing.

According to the report, some residents described the situation in Afghanistan’s second-largest city as “dire”, with fierce fighting underway between the terrorists and government forces.

This development comes after the Taliban armed group took control of Ghazni, the capital of Ghazni province, about 130km (80 miles) southwest of capital Kabul.

It became the 10th provincial capital to fall to the insurgents within days.

While the Taliban reportedly claims to have taken Kandahar City, there are no media reports corroborating the same. 

So far, local media reports and updates on social media only talk about the situation to be an intense one with the fighting happening in Afghanistan’s second-largest city.

Kandahar houses nearly 400,000 residents and is a key city for the government to protect at all costs.

Meanwhile, in a major development, the negotiators of the Afghanistan government in Qatar offered a power-sharing deal with the Taliban to end the ongoing violence in the country, news agency AFP reported.

"Yes, the government has submitted a proposal to Qatar as mediator. The proposal allows the Taliban to share power in return for a halt in violence in the country," the source close to the news agency said.

In a recent update, AFP reported that the Taliban has taken over Herat police Head Quarter in western Afghanistan.