Taliban Seize Kandahar, Prepare to March on Afghan Capital Kabul

The Taliban completed the seizure of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city and the Islamist movement’s birthplace, and took into custody a warlord who organized the failed defenses of the western city of Herat.

Combined with other advances, including the capture of the provincial capital of Helmand, the fall of these two major cities has given the Taliban full control of southern and western Afghanistan, allowing the insurgent movement to pool its forces for a final march on Kabul.

The U.S. has already launched the drawdown of its large embassy in Kabul, sending troops...