Footage in this video shows scenes of the Taliban taking control of key spots inside of the city, establishing check-points inside of Herat, and members of the Afghan National Army retreating.

For the longest time, I've been telling the rest of the team at Funker530 that as long as Maz and Herat still stand, there's a chance for Kabul to clean up this mess and still win the fight. As of today, Herat is now firmly in the hands of the Taliban, and the civilians that live in that city are now being ruled under Taliban law.

As of right now, footage coming out of the area is sporadic at best, and mostly disjointed and confused. I've put this video together that contains some key clips from around the region as the Taliban start to flex their control over the population there.

In the last few weeks, we have seen a number of large cities fall to the Taliban. The ANA retreating are doing so, not because their position is fully untenable, but because they are logistically drained, and they hope to keep the damage caused by fighting inside of the cities minimized in order to prevent civilian casualties. I believe this is a tactical error on the part of the Afghan National Army, but I also don't have the full picture.

What we do know, is that since the Taliban have seized control in many of these provincial capitals, things have started to get ugly for the civilians on the ground who have nowhere to turn. For example. there are reports coming out of those regions that Taliban fighters are going door-to-door and abducting under-aged girls, forcing them to into becoming sex slaves. Also, in the city of Balkh, a woman was tried and summarily executed in the street for the crime of being outside without a male from her family, and for wearing jeans underneath of her burqa.

In Afghanistan, the situation is deteriorating rapidly. While Herat is confirmed to have fallen, there are sporadic reports coming that Kandahar is also beginning to see the mass withdrawal of ANA forces as well. This however, has not been confirmed. We will continue to keep you updated on the situation in Afghanistan as more information becomes available.