Taliban - The Taliban destroyed Afghanistan's ancient Buddhas. Now they're welcoming tourists

In the battles for the two cities, mass desertions were reported, as many Afghan National Army soldiers had been demotivated by the rapid rebel advance as well as Taliban propaganda.

Afghan pro-government forces assemble in Escalation Frontiers and major border crossings captured by the Taliban Frontier Province Country Date captured 22 June 5 July Badakhshan 8 July 9 July Abu Nasr Farahi 9 July Herat 9 July 14 July 6 August 14 August 15 August 15 August 16 August In July, the Taliban captured 64 districts from the Afghan government and entered the second and third largest cities of Afghanistan, and respectively.

In 1996, the group administered roughly three-quarters of the country, and established the , with the Afghan capital transferred to from.

Much of Taliban social media communication was carried out on Twitter and , with WhatsApp used to request intervention by the Taliban in solving local problems.