Kabul, Aug. 13: The Taliban have captured Afghanistan’s second biggest city of Kandahar, officials said on Friday, fueling fears the U.S.-backed government could fall to the insurgents as international forces complete their withdrawal after 20 years of war.

The Taliban also captured the towns of Lashkar Gah in the south and Qala-e-Naw in the northwest, security officers said.

The Taliban claimed to have captured the third-largest city of Herat in the west after days of clashes there but Reuters was unable to confirm that claim.

Kandahar is the heartland of the Taliban, ethnic Pashtun fighters who emerged in the province in 1994 amid the chaos of civil war to sweep through most of the rest of the country over the next two years.

“Following heavy clashes late last night the Taliban took control of Kandahar city,” a government official said.

Government forces were still in control of Kandahar’s airport, which was the U.S. military’s second biggest base in Afghanistan during their 20-year mission.

Lashkar Gah is the capital of the southern opium-growing province of Helmand, where British, U.S. and other foreign forces battled the insurgents for years.

A police officer said officials and commanders had flown by helicopter out of the last government stronghold there at around midnight on Thursday and some 200 soldiers had surrendered to the Taliban after tribal elders intervened.

The fall of major cities was a sign that Afghans welcomed the Taliban, a spokesperson for the group said, according to Al Jazeera TV.-Agencies