Afghan officials say Taliban militants have pushed into the capital of the southern province of Uruzgan.
All checkpoints around Tarin Kowt were overrun or destroyed early on September 8, provincial spokesman Doost Mohammad Nayab said, adding that security forces were in control only of the city’s police headquarters.
Top provincial leaders have retreated to the city’s airport, which houses an Afghan military base, according to an unidentified police official.
However, provincial police chief Mohamad Wais Samimi later said the Taliban had been repelled from Tarin Kowt.
“All parts of the city and all districts are in our hands,” he said.
The offensive in Uruzgan Province come as overstretched Afghan security forces and a U.S.-led military mission has been focused on confronting Taliban attacks in the nearby province of Helmand and the northern city of Kunduz.
Government forces also are battling Islamic State militants in the eastern province of Nangarhar.