The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan’s Jalalabad without a fight, according to officials and a resident, effectively leaving the capital Kabul as the last major urban area under government control, Aljazeera reported.
The key eastern city, which is also the capital of Nangarhar province, fell early on Sunday morning. It’s fall followed the Taliban’s seizure of the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
The armed group posted photos online on Sunday showing them in the governor’s office in Jalalabad.
“We woke up this morning to the Taliban white flags all over the city,” said resident Ahmad Wali, confirming the Taliban’s social media claim. “They entered without fighting,” he told the AFP news agency.
Abrarullah Murad, a legislator from the province told The Associated Press that the armed group seized Jalalabad after elders negotiated the fall of the government there.
Another Jalalabad-based Afghan official told Reuters that there were no clashes in the city “because the governor has surrendered to the Taliban”.
“Allowing passage to the Taliban was the only way to save civilian lives,” the official added.
A western security official also confirmed the fall of the city, and said it put the Taliban in control of the roads connecting Afghanistan to Pakistan.
