Taliban officials said on Friday the Sunni Muslim insurgent group had taken control of 85 per cent of territory in Afghanistan, and its fighters were tightening their grip on strategic areas.

Government officials dismissed the assertion by a Taliban delegation visiting Moscow as part of a propaganda campaign that was launched as foreign forces, including the United States, continue to withdraw troops after almost 20 years of fighting.

But, local Afghan officials said Taliban fighters, emboldened by the withdrawal, had captured an important district in Herat province, home to tens of thousands of minority Shi’ite Hazaras. Dozens of civilians and fighters aligned with a prominent anti-Taliban commander of a private militia, Mohammad Ismail Khan, gathered at a ceremony in Herat and picked up arms with plans to fight.

The insurgents have been gaining territory for weeks but accelerated their thrust as the United States vacated its main Afghan base, effectively ending an intervention that began with the ousting of the Islamist Taliban government in 2001.

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