It’s the twelfth provincial capital out of Afghanistan’s 34 that the insurgents have taken in their weeklong blitz that swept over much of the country. Kandahar is also the second-largest city in the entire country.

The officials said Kandahar fell on Thursday night and that government officials and their entourage managed to flee to the airport to escape the city by air.

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The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the developments.

The Taliban captured Afghanistan’s third-largest city and a strategic provincial capital near Kabul on Thursday, further squeezing the country’s embattled government just weeks before the end of the American military mission there.

Taliban fighters rushed past the Great Mosque in the historic city — which dates to 500 BC and was once a spoil of Alexander the Great — and seized government buildings.

Witnesses described hearing sporadic gunfire at one government building while the rest of the city fell silent under the insurgents’ control.

The capture of Ghazni, meanwhile, cuts off a crucial highway linking the Afghan capital with the country’s southern provinces, which similarly find themselves under assault as part of an insurgent push some 20 years after US and NATO troops invaded and ousted the Taliban government.

While Kabul itself isn’t directly under threat yet, the losses and the battles elsewhere further tighten the grip of a resurgent Taliban, who are estimated to now hold over two-thirds of the country and are continuing to pressure government forces in several other provincial capitals.