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A city in southwestern Afghanistan has become the country’s first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in recent years.
Multiple local officials said the Taliban had captured Zaranj, in Nimroz province, on Friday afternoon, in a significant blow to government forces.
Rebels from Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region on Thursday seized Lalibela, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the neighbouring Amhara region famed for its 12th-century rock-hewn churches, residents told AFP.
“They came in the afternoon, and there was not any fighting. There were no security forces around. The TPLF forces are in the town now,” said one resident, referring to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
Fighting is raging around three major cities in southern and western Afghanistan as Taliban militants seek to seize them from government forces.
Taliban fighters have entered parts of Herat, Lashkar Gah and Kandahar.
Almost 60 civilian resistance People Defense Force (PDF) fighters in Mingin were detained while they tried to attack a Sagaing Region village on Wednesday.
At about 5am on Wednesday, civilian resistance fighters attacked Pan Set and Taungbyu villages, which are strongholds of Pyu-Saw-Htee military allies who are armed with automatic rifles by the junta, according to the PDF.
Violence, previously confined to the Tigray region, is spreading westwards into Amhara and other areas
Three thousand Ethiopian asylum-seekers crossed into Sudan late Monday, according to a government report seen by AFP, hailing from the Amhara region which borders the conflict-hit Tigray region.