Local officials said Afghan government troops have retreated from Kandahar, Herat and Lashkar Gah. The seizures mark the biggest victory yet for the militants, who now control more than a dozen of the country’s provincial capitals and are closing in on the national capital, Kabul.

In Kandahar and Herat, Afghan government troops and officials have retreated to bases on the outskirts of the cities, according to local officials, and clashes are ongoing around the central government compounds.

Kandahar’s governor, police chief and several other officials abandoned administrative buildings there overnight, according to Sayed Ahmad Seylab, a provincial council member. In Herat, a similar scenario unfolded overnight, according to Ghulam Habib Hashimi, a provincial council member, who said the city’s main officials fled to a military base.

In Helmand province, after weeks of intense clashes during which Taliban fighters besieged the local government compound in Lashkar Gah, Afghan forces abandoned the cluster of buildings for a military base, according to Mirwais Khadem, a parliament member from Helmand.