KABUL, 10 August 2021, (TON): Taliban militants captured a sixth provincial Afghan capital, a lawmaker said, after ousting Afghan security forces from border towns and trade routes as US-led foreign forces pull out.

The Taliban have stepped up their campaign to defeat the government as foreign forces withdraw after 20 years of war.

They took Aybak, capital of the northern province of Samangan.

Ziauddin Zia, a lawmaker in Aybak said "right now the Taliban are fighting with Afghan forces to capture the police headquarters and compound of the provincial governor."

Several parts of the capital have fallen to the Taliban.

The insurgents took three provincial capitals over the weekend - Zaranj, the capital of the southern province of Nimroz, Sar-e-Pul, the capital of the northern province of the same name, and Taloqan, the capital of northeastern Takhar province.

They had already taken the northern provincial capital of Kunduz and Lashkar Gah, capital of southwestern Helmand province.

The Taliban gains have sparked recriminations over the withdrawal of foreign forces. British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told the Daily Mail that the accord struck last year between the United States and the Taliban was a rotten deal.

Wallace said his government had asked some NATO allies to keep their troops in Afghanistan once the US troops departed, but failed to garner enough support.