Afghanistan conflict | What it means for the global heroin trade

The Taliban now control many of the key parts of the economy enabling them to systematically tax different points along commodity chains.

By Jonathan Goodhand, University of London The long war in Afghanistan reached a potential watershed on August 6 when Taliban fighters took over Zaranj, a dusty frontier town with a population of some 63,000 on the Afghan-Iranian border. Though geographically and politically marginal, Zaranj was the first provincial centre to fall during a month of rapid advances. In the preceding weeks, the Taliban’s advances had been largely confined to the countryside, taking control of more than half of the country’s 421 districts. But emboldened by these successes and the plummeting morale of the Afghan armed forces, the Taliban turned to major population centres. Since their breakthrough in Zaranj, they have taken over nearby Farah and seven other provincial capitals in the north.