KABUL/WASHINGTON: The Taliban captured a key district just outside the Afghan capital Kabul in central Wardak province, forcing government forces to retreat, security officials said on Tuesday.

The seizure of Nerkh district comes amid intensifying violence following an announcement by the Islamist group of a three-day ceasefire in Afghanistan for the Muslim religious holiday of Eid, starting this week.

Tariq Arian, an interior ministry spokesman, said government troops made a “tactical retreat” from the district centre, which is a gateway to Kabul, after a heavy firefight with the Taliban.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, wrote on Twitter that they had killed and captured some members of the Afghan security forces after seizing the district. He added that they had also seized a large cache of ammunition.

The Afghan government did not comment on casualties among the security forces.

The Taliban have dug in in Wardak, which lies less than an hour’s drive west of Kabul, and in nearby Logar province to the south. Afghan officials say the Taliban have used the provinces — gateways to the capital — as launchpads for hit-and-run attacks and suicide bombings on Kabul.

Kabul has been on high alert since Washington announced plans last month to pull out all US troops by Sept 11, with Afghan officials saying the Taliban stepped up attacks across the country following the announcement.

The fall of the district came three days after deadly bombings outside a school in Kabul that killed at least 68 people, most of them students, and injured more than 165 others.

As of Monday, the United States had “retrograded” the equivalent of enough gear to fill 104 C-17 Globemasters, the military’s massive transport, Centcom said in a statement using the Pentagon’s term for the pullout.

US pullout proceeding steadily, says Pentagon

The US military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan is proceeding steadily towards President Joe Biden’s September deadline with as much as 12 percent of the work completed, the Pentagon’s regional Central Command said on Tuesday.

They had also turned over more than 1,800 pieces of equipment to a separate logistics agency from destruction.

US forces have also turned over one of the bases, Camp Antonik in Helmand Province, to Afghan forces.

Centcom estimated that it had completed between six and 12 percent of the retrograde process.

The US military is declining to be precise about the speed of the withdrawal and likely final date in order to “preserve operational security.”

In April President Joe Biden ordered the military to withdraw its last 2,500 troops and some 16,000 civilian contractors who support coalition operations from the country by September 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the Al Qaeda attacks on the United States which led to the US invasion of Afghanistan, where the extremist group was based.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2021