An Afghan security force member exchanges fire with Taliban militants after U.S. forces conducted an airstrike in Kandahar city, capital of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, July 23, 2021.(Photo: Xinhua)

Afghan forces and the Taliban were fighting fiercely Sunday in the center of Kunduz, officials and residents said, after the insurgents captured two other provincial capitals in the last 48 hours.

The fall of the northern city would be a major blow for the central government, which has largely abandoned fighting in the countryside to defend urban centers against Taliban attacks.

"Fierce street-to-street fighting is ongoing in different parts of the city," Amruddin Wali, a member of the Kunduz provincial council, told AFP.

"Some security forces have retreated toward the airport."

The Taliban have taken two provincial capitals since Friday, but Kunduz would be the most significant to fall since the insurgents launched an offensive in May as foreign forces began the final stages of their withdrawal.

On Friday, the Taliban seized their first provincial capital, Zaranj in Nimroz, and followed it up a day later by taking Sheberghan in Jawzjan, a province in the north of the country.

"The Taliban have reached the main square of the city. Aircraft are bombing them," said Abdul Aziz, a Kunduz resident reached by phone.

"There is total chaos." 

Fighting was also reported on the outskirts of Herat, in the west, and Lashkar Gah and Kandahar in the south.

The pace of Taliban advances has caught government forces flatfooted, but they had some respite late Saturday after US warplanes bombed Taliban positions in Sheberghan, the Jawzjan province capital seized earlier in the day.

AFP