The Taliban just seized a provincial capital as the US continues its withdrawal. They also murdered an Afghan government official

• The Taliban seized its first provincial capital since US forces began withdrawing from Afghanistan.
• The insurgents successfully captured Zaranj in Nimroz province on Friday.
• On the same day, Taliban insurgents also murdered an Afghan government official.

Taliban insurgents captured a provincial capital on Friday. It is the first to fall since the US began withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan.

The city of Zaranj, the capital of Nimroz fell to the Taliban, The Washington Post reported, citing the province's deputy governor. A provincial police spokesperson told Reuters the same, telling the outlet that the city did not receive the necessary reinforcements.

-Sharif Hassan (@MSharif1990) August 6, 2021

The Taliban are laying siege to a number of major cities, including Helmand province's Lashkar Gah, where Afghan officials say insurgents control nine out of the 10 police districts, according to the Associated Press.

Herat and Kandahar are also facing mounting pressure from aggressive Taliban forces. "This is the beginning and see how other provinces fall in our hands very soon," a Taliban commander told Reuters.

Insurgents are also targeting Afghan government officials as they step up their offensive. The US has completed 95% of the ongoing drawdown, which is expected to be finished by the end of the month.

On Friday, Taliban fighters gunned down Dawa Khan Menapal, the director of Afghanistan's Government Information Media Center and a former deputy spokesperson for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the AP reported.

The Taliban said in a statement that he "was killed in a special attack of Mujahideen" and "punished for his deeds."

The death of a government official at the hands of the Taliban is far from uncommon, but it comes just days after the Taliban set off explosives in Kabul in what is suspected to have been an attempted assassination of the acting Afghan defense minister.

The US has continued to provide over-the-horizon support to the Afghan security forces in the form of airstrikes as it withdraws its forces, but that does not appear to have slowed the Taliban offensive.

In late July, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said that "strategic momentum" is with the Taliban, but he argued that a Taliban takeover is not a foregone conclusion.

"This is going to be a test now of the will and leadership of the Afghan people - the Afghan security forces and the government of Afghanistan," he said.