Taliban fighters have taken control of much of the key city of Kunduz in Afghanistan, according to local officials.
They have also entered the northern Sar-e Pul province.
In both areas, they have seized government buildings and captured weapons and ammunitions.
A Taliban offensive acrossAfghanistanhas continued to grow at an alarming rate in recent days, as US and NATO troops wrap up their withdrawal.
The group is reportedly targeting people who worked with the government and foreign agencies.
Advertisement
Afghan security forces and government troops have retaliated with airstrikes aided by the US, but the fighting has raised concerns about civilian casualties.
Image:Afghans inspect damaged shops after fighting between Taliban and security forces in Kunduz
Mohammad Noor Rahmani, a provincial council member of Sar-e Pul province, said the Taliban had been driving officials out of the main city to a nearby military base.
More on Afghanistan
Meanwhile, an Afghan security forces spokesman said "extremely (heavy) fighting" was going on in Kunduz, which is one of the country's larger cities.
There are fears it could be the latest area to fall, which would be a significant gain for the group.
Kunduz, which has a population of more than 340,000, has good access to much of northern Afghanistan, as well as the capital Kabul, which is about 200 miles (322km) away.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
UK should 'step forward' to help Afghanistan
Officials said insurgents had taken control of the governor's office, police headquarters and the main prison building, with fighting continuing at its airport and in other parts of the city.
Health officials said 14 bodies - including those of women and children - and more than 30 injured people had been taken to hospital.
Amruddin Wali, a provincial lawmaker in Kunduz, said "heavy clashes" had started on Saturday.
The Taliban captured its first provincial capital in years when it took control of Zaranj, on the border with Iran, on Friday.
Shir Mohammad, a Jawzjan provincial council member, said most of the city, including provincial government buildings, had fallen.
However, a spokesman for the Afghan security forces denied the Taliban had taken the city, saying forces were working to defend it without causing civilian casualties.
China has constructed a vast network of bases to house the superpower's growing nuclear arsenal. Satellite images have captured what appears to be a new silo field under construction in the west of China. A nuclear nonproliferation expert has warned the US outlet Fox News that these new facilities are equipped with nuclear weapons capable of targetting the entire United States.
Fox News presenter Bret Baier reported: "A second missile field capable of housing nuclear missiles that could reach the US has just been discovered in China."
"For the second time in two months, new satellite photos show China building over a hundred silos to house nuclear missiles," continued Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson
"When complete it will have more than 200.
"That is half the number of land-based silos the US military has in the western United States."
Nuclear nonproliferation expert Jeffrey Lewis warned the newly discovered missile launch sites were capable of "soaking up" US nuclear strikes.
He told Fox News: "What silos are great for is soaking up enemy warheads.
"If you look at China's silos, which are now in the order of 230/40, it takes at least two nuclear warheads to destroy each silo."
According to Mr Lewis, the new Chinese bases will be able to launch multiple nuclear warheads at targets over 9,000 miles away.
"We have about the next four of five years to work out what the West needs to do to work with and allow a graceful avenue for China and the rest of the world to work together.
"If we don't find a solution then we will be so disempowered that China will hold all the cards."
The Chair of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee continued: "That I think is going to make for a very miserable century."
Team GB was unofficially set a target of between 45 and 70 medals by UK Sport, although the funding body's chief executive Sally Munday said it was taking a more "holistic" approach given the lack of competition for athletes during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Britain finished Tokyo 2020 with 65 medals, equalling their total as hosts in London nine years ago and making Tokyo their second-most successful overseas Olympics after Rio 2016.
Team GB chef de mission Mark England called the medal haul as "the greatest achievement in British Olympic history".
He said: "Not only has the team made history but it has probably made history on the back of the most complex and most challenging and difficult environment that we will face certainly in my lifetime.
"It has been against all the odds and I think it is the greatest achievement in British Olympic history. It has been the miracle of Tokyo and it has been wonderful to be here."
Here we take a look at how each sport fared in Tokyo relative to its funding.
Archery
Funding amount: £1,122,879
Medals: 0
Team GB have not won an Olympic medal in archery since 2004, and that run continued at Tokyo 2020.
Archery was one of several sports to lose its funding after the Rio Games five years ago, before UK Sport U-turned in 2018 and decided to reinstate financial support.
It has had its funding hugely increased for the Paris 2024 Olympic cycle, however, to more than £2.1m.
Athletics
Funding amount: £23,007,531
Medals: 6 (3 silver, 3 bronze)
Athletics funding was cut from £26,824,206 after the 2016 Games, at which GB won two golds, one silver and four bronzes.
Keely Hodgkinson and Laura Muir both broke British records as they claimed silver in the women's 800m and 1500m respectively, while the quartet of CJ Ujah, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, Richard Kilty and Zharnel Hughes missed out on the 4x100m title by just a hundredth of a second.
There were bronze medals for Josh Kerr in the men's 1500m, Holly Bradshaw in the women's pole vault, and in the women's 4x100m for Asha Philip, Imani-Lara Lansiquot, Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita.
The funding is set to be cut again, with the athletics squad receiving £22,175,520 for the next Olympic cycle.
Badminton
Funding amount: £946,779
Medals: 0
Team GB's badminton squad were unable to bring home any medals from Tokyo, capping a difficult five years for the sport since Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis' men's doubles bronze at Rio 2016.
Badminton lost all its UK Sport funding after Rio despite that medal, before a 2018 reprieve. Its funding for the Paris 2024 cycle has been massively increased to £3.2m.
A seven-strong squad competed in Tokyo, with Ellis and Lauren Smith reaching the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles and Toby Penty making the last 16 of the men's singles, showing promise for Paris in three years' time.
Boxing
Funding amount: £12,084,436
Medals: 6 (2 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze)
Tokyo 2020 is Britain's most successful Olympics in the boxing ring since 1920, with six medals.
Lauren Price won middleweight gold, a day after Galal Yafai became Olympic flyweight champion. There were silver medals for Ben Whittaker (light-heavyweight) and Pat McCormack (welterweight), while Karriss Artingstall (featherweight) and team captain Frazer Clarke (super-heavyweight) claimed bronzes.
The team doubled their medal total from Rio, despite a funding cut of £1,680,001.
It is set to lose a further £688,929 before Paris.
Canoeing (sprint and slalom)
Funding amount: £16,344,693
Medals: 2 (1 silver, 1 bronze)
Liam Heath became Britain's most successful Olympic canoeist with K1 200m bronze - his fourth Olympic medal - while Mallory Franklin won women's canoe slalom silver.
The total of two medals was half what the sport won at the London and Rio Games, and the fewest medals won since the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Canoeing faces a huge funding cut for the Paris 2024 cycle, however, from £16.3m to £12.2m - more than 25%.
Cycling (track, road, BMX and mountain bike)
Funding amount: £24,559,306
Medals: 12 (6 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze)
Team GB's cycling team had their funding cut by a huge £5,708,510 before Tokyo, but still won an impressive 12 medals across track cycling, mountain biking and BMX.
Tom Pidcock kicked things off with mountain bike cross-country gold, before Bethany Shriever won gold in the women's BMX racing final, moments after team-mate Kye Whyte claimed the nation's first Olympic medal in the event with silver in the men's.
There was another gold for Charlotte Worthington in the BMX freestyle, where team-mate Declan Brooks took bronze in the men's event.
In the velodrome, Great Britain won seven medals - more than any other nation in Tokyo.
Jason Kenny won his seventh Olympic gold with a spectacular defence of his men's keirin title. Two days earlier, his wife Laura became the first British woman to win gold at three Olympic Games, winning the madison alongside Katie Archibald.
It was an Olympic debut to remember for Matt Walls, who was crowned champion with a dominant performance in the omnium.
There were silvers for GB in the men's team sprint, the men's madison and the women's team pursuit, while Jack Carlin won an impressive bronze medal in the men's individual sprint.
Cycling will receive £3,042,378 more in funding for Paris 2024.
Diving
Funding amount: £7,223,280
Medals: 3 (1 gold, 2 bronze)
Team GB had their diving funding cut from £7,467,860 to £7,223,280 for Tokyo, but won the same number of medals as five years ago.
After winning one gold, one silver and one bronze in Rio, GB won a gold and two bronzes in Japan.
Tom Daley ended his long wait for an Olympic title with a sublime display alongside Matty Lee in the men's synchronised 10m then went on to win bronze in the individual event.
There was another medal on the men's 3m springboard, where Jack Laugher won bronze.
Diving will receive £8,463,542 for Paris.
Equestrian
Funding amount: £12,541,195
Medals: 5 (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
Equestrian lost £5,451,405 in funding before Tokyo 2020, but the team delivered more medals than they did in Rio five years ago.
Ben Maher won individual showjumping gold on Explosion W, after Oliver Townend, Laura Collett and Tom McEwen won team eventing gold.
McEwen also won a silver in the individual event, and Charlotte Dujardin won her sixth Olympic medal with dressage bronze.
A day earlier, Dujardin claimed bronze in the team dressage event alongside Carl Hester and Charlotte Fry.
The equestrian team's funding will be reduced again for Paris, to £11,085,964.
Gymnastics (artistic and trampoline)
Funding amount: £13,408,688
Medals: 3 (1 gold, 2 bronze)
Team GB won seven gymnastics medals in Rio five years ago, but with a vastly different squad brought home only three from Tokyo.
Max Whitlock and Bryony Page - the only members of the squad to compete in both Rio and Tokyo - were among the medals, Whitlock retaining his pommel horse title and Page winning bronze on the trampoline to add to the bronze the women's artistic gymnasts won in the team all-around competition.
That bronze was GB's first medal in the women's team event for 93 years, while Whitlock's gold saw him become the most successful gymnast of all time on the pommel horse.
Gymnastics will receive slightly less - £12.5m - for the Paris 2024 cycle.
Hockey
Funding amount: £12,905,612
Medals: 1 (bronze)
Great Britain's women's hockey team entered the Tokyo Games as defending Olympic champions, but the five years since Rio have been difficult with captain Hollie Pearne-Webb saying it had been far from a rollercoaster because "there haven't been too many highs".
Just seven of the gold medal-winning squad from Rio competed in Tokyo, but they were able to put the difficulties of the last cycle behind them to win bronze - marking it the third Olympics in a row at which they have won a medal.
"For the girls it means a hell of a lot," said head coach Mark Hager. "It's so rewarding for the group. Four months ago, if you asked me if we could get a medal I'd probably have said no. We had belief so it's very pleasing."
The men's team were knocked out in the quarter-finals.
Judo
Funding amount: £6,564,334
Medals: 1 (bronze)
Chelsie Giles claimed Great Britain's first medal of the Tokyo Olympics with bronze in the women's -52kg event.
Judo will lose £1,117,530 in funding for Paris.
Modern Pentathlon
Funding amount: £5,498,321
Medals: 2 (2 gold)
Kate French's Olympic gold was Great Britain's first since Steph Cook's victory at Sydney 2000, with two silvers and a bronze won across the Athens, Beijing and London Games.
Joe Choong added a second gold in the men's event after finishing 10th in Rio five years ago.
Pentathlon GB faces a 20% cut to its funding for the Paris cycle.
Rowing
Funding amount: £24,655,408
Medals: 2 (1 silver, 1 bronze)
Rowing has historically been one of Team GB's most successful sports, and as such received the most funding for the Tokyo cycle, but took home just a silver and bronze from Japan.
Their two medals - in the men's quadruple sculls and men's eight respectively - is the team's lowest haul since Atlanta 1996, and the first time GB has failed to win a gold medal since 1980.
In December, it was announced rowing's funding had been reduced by about 10% to £22.2m for the Paris 2024 cycle.
British Rowing performance director Brendan Purcell said GB's performance in Tokyo was "heartbreaking" and "frustrating" but added: "We're really confident we're on the track to lift up and deliver in Paris."
Sailing
Funding amount: £22,249,000
Medals: 5 (3 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
Sailing was one of the success stories for Team GB in Tokyo, as they finished as the top sailing nation for the fifth time in six Olympics.
Hannah Mills became the most successful female Olympic sailor of all time with her 470 gold alongside Eilidh McIntyre, adding to Giles Scott's Finn gold, Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell's 49er gold, John Gimson and Anna Burnet's Nacra 17 silver and Emma Wilson's windsurfing bronze.
After winning his second successive Finn title, Scott said British sailing was "in a good place" but much will change going into Paris, with the Finn class being dropped and the 470 changing to a mixed event.
Shooting
Funding amount: £6,008,790
Medals: 1 (bronze)
Team GB had their shooting funding boosted from £3,950,888 to £6,008,790 for Tokyo 2020.
Matthew Coward-Holley was going for gold, but had to settle for bronze in the men's trap shooting final.
Funding is set to be reduced to £5,802,749 for Paris.
Sport climbing
Funding amount: £678,722
Medals: 0
Shauna Coxsey was Team GB's sole hope as sport climbing made its Olympic debut but Coxsey, set to retire after the Games, failed to reach the women's final.
Climbing is one of seven sports that will receive 'progression' funding during the Paris 2024 cycle, "marking the start of a programme of support in the long-term medal potential". It has been awarded £1,562,811.
Swimming
British swimming's remarkable Tokyo 2020 campaign will not be forgotten in a hurry, such was the success in the pool.
Eight medals, four of them gold, made it GB's greatest ever Olympic performance in the pool and the first time in 113 years that GB had won four swimming golds at one Games.
It was kick-started by Adam Peaty winning the 100m breaststroke to become the first British swimmer to retain an Olympic title, before Duncan Scott claimed four medals - the most by a Briton at a single Games.
"I really do think this squad is going to go from strength to strength heading to Paris," said four-time Olympic medallist Rebecca Adlington.
"None of our top swimmers will be stopping and there are loads of talented female and male swimmers who aren't even in Tokyo who will be bursting through soon, so it's looking very bright for the future."
Britain's taekwondo hopes were dealt a blow early on when two-time defending champion Jade Jones suffered a shock defeat in the first round.
But up stepped Bradly Sinden and Lauren Williams, who won silvers in their respective events, before Bianca Walkden added a second bronze medal to her collection.
It meant GB Taekwondo equalled its record haul from Rio 2016, despite missing out on gold for the first time since 2008.
British athletes are a common sight on the Olympic triathlon podium and Tokyo 2020 was no different, with three medals.
Alex Yee kicked off the success, winning men's silver on his Olympic debut, before Georgia Taylor-Brown added another silver in the women's event.
But better was to come as Yee and Taylor-Brown teamed up with Jonny Brownlee and Jess Learmonth to win gold in the mixed relay event, ensuring Brownlee would bid farewell to the Olympics with a complete set of medals.
British Triathlon will receive a slight reduction in funding for Paris but with young athletes like Yee taking over the mantle from the Brownlees, the future looks bright.
Skateboarding received just £197,725 from UK Sport but Sky Brown's bronze medal at the age of 13 means more Olympic success could be on the agenda at future Games.
Like sport climbing, skateboarding, basketball, fencing, surfing, table tennis and weightlifting will all receive 'progression' funding from UK Sport for the Paris cycle.
In weightlifting, Emily Campbell became the first British woman to win an Olympic medal with her +87kg silver - Great Britain's first Olympic weightlifting medal since 1984.
That came despite the sport losing its UK Sport funding after Rio 2016.
The Taliban has captured the city of Kunduz, the armed group said, the third provincial capital it has taken over in the last three days.
A Taliban statement on Sunday said it has captured the police headquarters, the governor’s compound and the prison in the city.
Local sources and journalists in Kunduz confirmed to Al Jazeera that Taliban fighters are present in the capital.
“Heavy clashes started yesterday afternoon, all government headquarters are in control of the Taliban, only the army base and the airport is with ANDSF [Afghan security forces] from where they are resisting the Taliban,” Amrudddin Wali, a member of Kunduz provincial assembly, said.
Health officials in Kunduz said 14 bodies, including those of women and children, and more than 30 injured people have been taken to hospital.
“We don’t know what’s going on outside because all our efforts and attention is on the patients coming in,” a doctor told Al Jazeera from a Kunduz hospital.
Kunduz had previously fallen to the group in 2015 and 2016.
On Saturday, the Taliban captured Jawzjan capital Sheberghan, the city’s deputy governor said, a day after Zaranj, capital of Nimruz, fell “without a fight”, according to its deputy governor.
The defence ministry said that on Saturday evening, US B-52 bombers struck several Taliban targets in Sheberghan.
‘Feels like a military city’
People in Kunduz tried to flee ahead of the Taliban’s arrival, a resident told Al Jazeera, and are still afraid of going outside their houses.
“Though the fighting has calmed, it still feels like a military city,” the resident said, referring to the presence of Taliban forces in key parts of the city and the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces carrying out operations in the city.
Afghanistan’s defence ministry released a video of an Afghan commando saying the ANDSF have been conducting coordinated operations in the province over the last 24 hours.
The commando said in the video the Taliban suffered heavy casualties in these operations as “they were trying to take key points” in the province, adding that the armed group’s “dream” would not be fulfilled.
“You should be certain that the Afghan forces are with you,” the commando tells the people of Kunduz.
Al Jazeera’s Charlotte Bellis, reporting from the capital, Kabul, said: “A journalist in the centre of Kunduz told us the Taliban has taken over the police chief’s office, the election commission’s office and that the Taliban flag is flying at the central roundabout.”
“The government is denying Kunduz has fallen but, by all accounts, it has,” she added.
Though the Taliban has taken two provincial capitals since Friday, Kunduz – in the far north – would be the most significant to fall since the armed group launched an offensive in May as foreign forces began the final stages of their withdrawal from the country.
The Taliban has gained vast parts of rural Afghanistan since launching a series of offensives in May to coincide with the start of the withdrawal.
Intense fighting continued in the capitals of the southern Kandahar and Helmand provinces, which the Taliban has been trying to take over for several weeks now.
A Helmand provincial council member said on Sunday that government air attacks damaged a health clinic and high school in Lashkar Gah, the capital.
The defence ministry statement also confirmed that air attacks were carried out in parts of the city that killed 54 Taliban fighters and wounded 23 others.
It made no mention of a clinic or school being bombed.
“We condemn the Taliban’s violent new offensive against Afghan cities. This includes the unlawful seizure of Zaranj, the capital of Afghanistan’s Nimroz province, the attack on Sheberghan, capital of Jowzjan province yesterday and today, and continuing efforts to take over Lashkar Gah in Helmand and provincial capitals elsewhere,” the statement read.
Dostum: ‘Time to stand against the enemy’
Sheberghan is home to notorious strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum, who returned to Afghanistan only this week after medical treatment in Turkey.
Dostum has overseen one of the largest militias in the north, which garnered a fearsome reputation in its fight against the Taliban in the 1990s – along with accusations that his forces massacred thousands of prisoners of war.
On Saturday, Dostum held a meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the presidential palace. A palace statement quoted Dostum as saying that “it is time to stand alongside” the security forces and to “stand against the enemy”.
Any retreat of Dostum’s fighters would dent the government’s recent hopes that militia groups could help bolster the country’s overstretched military.
In Zaranj, social media posts suggested the Taliban was welcomed by some residents.
They showed captured military vehicles, luxury SUVs and pick-ups speeding through the streets, flying white Taliban flags, as residents – mostly youths and young men – cheered them on.
“The Afghan security forces lost their morale due to intense propaganda by the Taliban,” a senior official from the city, who asked not to be named, told AFP. “Even before the Taliban attacks … most of the security forces put their weapons on the ground, took off their uniforms, and left their units and fled.”
On entering Zaranj, the fighters opened the gates of the city jail, officials said, freeing Taliban prisoners along with common criminals.
The Taliban have captured the key northern Afghan city of Kunduz after fierce fighting with government forces.
A local official told the BBC all but the city's airport had fallen to the militant group.
Chaotic scenes have been reported inside Kunduz, with buildings and shops ablaze. The Taliban's flag has been seen raised in the city centre.
Kunduz is the third regional capital to fall to the Taliban since Friday and their most important gain this year.
Violence has escalated across Afghanistan after US and other international forces began to withdraw their troops from the country, following 20 years of military operations.
Taliban militants have made rapid advances in recent weeks. Having captured large swathes of the countryside, they are now targeting key towns and cities.
On Friday, Zaranj in the south-western province of Nimroz fell into their control. Less than 48 hours later, the northern city of Sheberghan in Jawzjan province was seized.
There are reports that another northern city, Sar-e-Pul, has also been captured, although this is yet to be independently confirmed.
Thousands of civilians have been displaced during the fighting this year. Families, including babies and young children, have been sheltering in a school in the north-eastern city of Asadabad.
"Many bombs were dropped on our village. The Taliban came and destroyed everything. We were helpless and had to leave our houses. Our children and ourselves are sleeping on the ground in dire conditions", Gul Naaz told AFP.
"There was firing, one of my seven-year-old daughters went out during that fighting and disappeared. I don't know if she is alive or dead," another displaced resident said.
AFP
The importance of Kunduz
The seizure of Kunduz is the most significant gain for the Taliban since they launched their offensive in May.
It is one of Afghanistan's largest cities and considered a gateway to its northern provinces. Its location makes the city strategically important - there are highways connecting Kunduz to other major cities, including the capital Kabul, and the province shares a border with Tajikistan.
That border is used for the smuggling of Afghan opium and heroin to Central Asia, which then finds its way to Europe. Controlling Kunduz means controlling one of the most important drug smuggling routes in the region.
It also holds symbolic significance for the Taliban because it was a key northern stronghold before 2001. The militants captured the city in 2015 and again in 2016 but have never been able to hold it for long.
