The cities of Kandahar and Herat, the second- and third-largest cities in Afghanistan were captured by the Taliban on Thursday. The loss of the two cities makes the Taliban’s control over southern and western Afghanistan complete and comes as a major catastrophe for the central government in Kabul, which now controls only a small patch of territory in the country’s center and a band of districts in its east.

Afghan lawmakers fleeing the cities witnessed the Taliban overrunning their defenses, capturing government compounds in both cities and causing the city leadership to flee. In Herat, witnesses reported that the city’s prison, which housed captured Taliban fighters, had been taken over, and the detainees returned to the militant group’s ranks.

The two cities had been under siege for several weeks prior to the collapse. Their capture marks the largest prize yet for the Taliban, which now controls more than one-third of Afghanistan’s provinces in their entirety and occupies roughly two-thirds of its districts. The group’s capture of Kandahar marks a significant turning point, as the movement first came to prominence in the city in the early 1990s. Kandahar also served as the Taliban state’s de facto capital during its rule over Afghanistan during the 1990s, even after the group’s capture of Kabul in 1996.

The government of Ashraf Ghani continues to control Kabul and its environs, but the government has been increasingly unable to defend the provincial areas it still controls. It also holds Mazar-i-Sharif, the largest city in Afghanistan’s north, against an ongoing Taliban siege.

On the same day as Kandahar and Herat fell, the militant group captured the city of Ghazni to the southwest of Kabul, severing Afghanistan’s capital from the remaining government strongholds in the south. The Afghan Air Force continues to supply many of these areas by air.

Peace talks technically remain ongoing between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, although their likelihood of reaching a peaceful settlement in the wake of the Taliban’s successful offensive has been widely discounted by observers.

Even following the Taliban’s rapid advance, President Joe Biden repeatedly committed to a withdrawal of U.S. troops and indicated he was unwilling to change his mind. However, 3,000 additional soldiers have been dispatched to the country to help evacuate U.S. citizens after the U.S. Embassy told all Americans to leave the country. 600 British soldiers have also been deployed to support a similar British evacuation.

U.S. military intelligence has concluded that Kabul might come under attack from the Taliban within thirty days, and at the current rate, the country as a whole could fall within three months.

Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for the National Interest.

Image: Reuters