BBC Online :
The Taliban have taken the strategically important city of Ghazni, the 10th provincial capital to fall to the militants in less than a week.
Afghan security forces arrested Ghazni’s governor and his deputy after they fled the city.
Ghazni is on the major Kabul-Kandahar motorway, linking militant strongholds in the south to the capital, Kabul.
Taking Ghazni is thought to increase the likelihood that the Taliban could eventually aim to take Kabul itself.
Almost a third of the country’s 34 provincial capitals are now under Taliban control.
The insurgents have moved at speed, seizing new territories almost daily, as US and other foreign troops withdraw after 20 years of military operations.
In Ghazni, a provincial council member told the BBC that the Taliban had taken most of the city, with only a police base on the outskirts controlled by the Afghan security forces.
Heavy fighting was also reported in the city of Kandahar on Wednesday. The Taliban claim to have taken over the city’s prison, though this has not been confirmed.
In the southern city of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, militants have taken over the police headquarters.
AFP adds: Afghan government negotiators in Qatar have offered the Taliban a power-sharing deal in return for an end to fighting in the country, a government negotiating source told AFP on Thursday.
Head of Afghanistan’s high Council for National reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah at a hotel in Qatar’s capital Doha placed the offer to the Taliban a power-sharing deal, a government negotiating source told AFP.
“Yes, the government has submitted a proposal to Qatar as mediator. The proposal allows the Taliban to share power in return for a halt in violence in the country,” the source said.
On Thursday, the Taliban seized the strategic Afghan city of Ghazni, just 150 kilometres from Kabul, their most important gain in a lightning offensive that has seen them overrun 10 provincial capitals in a week.
The interior ministry confirmed the fall of the city, which lies along the major Kabul-Kandahar highway and serves as a gateway between the capital and militant strongholds in the south.
“The enemy took control,” spokesman Mirwais Stanikzai said in a message to media, adding later the city’s governor had been arrested by Afghan security forces.
