Families flee as Taliban seize key Kandahar district July 5, 2021 KANDAHAR: The Taliban have captured a key district in their former bastion of Kandahar after fierce night-time fighting with Afghan government forces, officials said on Sunday, sending scores of families fleeing from the area. The insurgents have pressed on with their campaign to capture territory across Afghanistan’s rural areas since early May when the US military began its final pullout of troops from the violence-wracked country. The fall of Panjwai district in the southern province of Kandahar comes just two days after US and Nato forces vacated their main Bagram Air Base near Kabul, from where they led operations for two decades against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.