The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan’s Jalalabad, a key eastern city, without a fight, effectively leaving the capital Kabul as the last major urban area under government control, Afghan officials and a resident confirmed.
Resident Ahmad Wali said, “We woke up this morning to the Taliban white flags all over the city.”
“They entered without fighting,” Wali told media.
Abrarullah Murad, a legislator from the province, said that the armed group seized Jalalabad after elders negotiated the government’s fall there.
Another Jalalabad-based Afghan official told the media 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.
The armed group posted photos online on Sunday showing them in the governor’s office in Jalalabad.
