Afghan Taliban kill head of government media department

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- The Taliban shot and killed the director of Afghanistan's Government Information Media Centre on Friday, the latest killing of a government official and one that comes just days after an assassination attempt on the acting defence minister.

The assassination comes as Taliban wage fierce battles across the country laying siege to provincial capitals in the south and west of the country. In southwestern Nimroz , the capital Zaranj was on the precipice of collapse with fierce fighting inside the city around key infrastructure, said provincial council chief Baz Mohammad Nasir.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told The Associated Press that the groups' fighters had killed Dawa Khan Menapal, who ran the government's press operations for the local and foreign media. Menapal had previously been a deputy spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani

In a statement Mujahid put out later, he said Menapal "was killed in a special attack of Mujahideen" and was "punished for his deeds."

Mujahid did not give any more details. The killing of government officials by the Taliban are not uncommon, and several recent attacks against civilians have been claimed by the Islamic State. The government most often holds the Taliban responsible.

The war between the Taliban and Afghanistan's government forces has intensified over the past few months as U.S. and NATO troops complete their pullout from the war-torn country.

The Taliban are now trying to seize provincial capitals after already taking smaller administrative districts.

The killing of Menapal occurred as weekly Friday prayers were being said, Interior Ministry Deputy Spokesman Said Hamid Rushan said. It was unclear where Menapal was at the time of the shooting.

Late Tuesday, a Taliban bombing attack targeting Afghanistan's acting defence minister killed at least eight people and wounded 20 in a heavily guarded upscale neighborhood of Kabul. The deputy minister was unharmed.

The blast was followed by a gun battle that also left four militants dead. The Taliban said it was to avenge its fighters killed during government offensives in rural provinces.

Meanwhile Afghan and U.S. aircraft pounded Taliban positions in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province Friday, as the insurgent force closed a major border crossing with neighbouring Pakistan.

Residents in Helmand's contested provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, said airstrikes destroyed a market in the centre of the city -- an area controlled by the Taliban. Afghan officials say the Taliban now control 9 out of 10 police districts in the city.

Afghanistan's elite commandos have deployed to Lashkar Gah, backed up by air strikes by the Afghan and U.S. air forces. The provincial capital of Nimroz in the southwest of the country was also on the verge of collapse, according to local officials.

The Taliban began sweeping through territory at an unexpected speed after the U.S. and NATO began their final withdrawal from Afghanistan in late April. More than half of Afghanistan's 421 districts and district centres are now in Taliban hands.

While many of the districts are in remote regions, some are deeply strategic, giving the Taliban control of lucrative border crossings with Iran, Tajikistan and Pakistan.

In southeastern Afghanistan, the Taliban last month took control of the border town of Spin Boldak, opposite Pakistan. The crossing is one of Afghanistan's busiest and most valuable. Thousands of Afghans and Pakistanis cross daily and a steady stream of trucks pass through, bringing goods to land-locked Afghanistan from the Pakistani Arabian port city of Karachi.

On Friday the Taliban slammed shut the border crossing over a visa dispute.

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