Ariana: Taliban insurgents have seized most of Herat, Afghanistan‘s third-largest city, and also captured Ismail Khan, the veteran local commander leading militia resistance there, local officials said on Friday. The fall of Herat, the latest in a series of major provincial cities to be taken by the Taliban in the past few days, has dealt a shocking blow to the government of President Ashraf Ghani only weeks after the withdrawal of U.S. forces. Click here to read more (external link).