AMERICA’S LONGEST WAR: Taliban Overruns Second District in Ghazni.

The Taliban claim that it took control of Ajristan cannot be independently verified in the Afghan press. However, the Taliban is very credible when it comes to making assertions related to control of districts in Afghanistan.

The Afghan press has reported that the Taliban has been advancing on Ajristan’s district center and it has been on “the verge of collapse.” The district governor and police chief have fled the district center to another area in Ajristan and have been surrounded by the Taliban, TOLONews reported. This means it is very likely that Afghan forces abandoned the governor’s compound and police headquarters.

Ajristan is the second district in Ghazni to fall to the Taliban in the past week. On May 16, the Taliban said it overran the Jaghatu district in Ghazni province “after an intense gunfight of heavy and light arms.”

Security in Ghazni province has deteriorated rapidly over the past year. Of Ghazni’s 19 districts, the Taliban control five and contest nine more, according to information compiled by FDD’s Long War Journal. Only five districts are considered to be controlled by the Afghan government.

Ghazni City, the provincial center, is one of seven provincial capitals under direct Taliban threat, according to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense.

On the one hand, this isn’t going very well. On the other, Ghazni is home to one of the world’s largest lithium deposits.