KANDAHAR AND HERAT, Afghanistan’s second- and third-largest cities, had been under assault for days. On August 12th both fell into the hands of the Taliban. So did a string of other cities, in what amounted to a rout of Afghan forces. Among them were Lashkar Gah, in Helmand province in the south, and Ghazni, near Kabul, the capital. Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan’s president, has now lost around half the country’s provincial towns and cities in just a week. That includes territory in the north and west, traditional strongholds of resistance to the Taliban. The Taliban claimed to have taken Pul-e-Alam, the capital of Logar province, just 70km south of the capital. “The Taliban can now focus on the east and the road to Kabul,” says Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal, a website which tracks the war. “This is close to [the] endgame.”
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