Afghanistan: The Taliban seized a major strategic and propaganda prize early Sunday, capturing the key northern commercial hub of Kunduz and then breaking through in two other regional capitals later the same day. The Taliban have received weapons, explosives, and manpower but also direction from across our southern frontiers, which is Pakistan, said Ahmad Shuja Jamal, head of international affairs at Afghanistan's National Security Council.

After sweeping through the country’s rural areas, the insurgents’ military campaign has shifted to brutal urban combat in recent weeks. They have pushed into the edges of major cities like Kandahar and Lashkar  Gah in the south and Herat in the west.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, he said: "If you focus on a given sliver of time, at any given moment, a province may have come under the Taliban's control. But I think the situation remains completely fluid, which means, as we are speaking, the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces are actually rallying and pushing the Taliban out of the province of Kunduz. "Similar action is happening in Sheberghan and similar action is happening in other provinces that you've listed as having fallen into the Taliban's hands," he said.

The Taliban militants are not capable of holding the provincial capitals. They have simply been unable to do that and as you have said a few moments ago, the last time they were able to capture any provincial capital was six years ago in 2015, he added.

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