The Taliban have taken control of a key area in their former stronghold of Kandahar after violent nighttime clashes with Afghan government forces, officials said Sunday, prompting dozens of families to flee.

The insurgents have been continuing their campaign to grab land in rural areas across Afghanistan since early May, when the US military began withdrawing its last soldiers.

The fall of the Panjwai district in the southern province of Kandahar comes two days after US and NATO soldiers evacuated the Bagram air base near Kabul, which had served as a center of operations against the Taliban and its allied al-Qaeda organization during the past two decades.

For years, the Taliban and Afghan forces repeatedly clashed in and around Panjwai, as the insurgents sought to seize control of it due to its proximity to Kandahar, the provincial capital.

Taliban leader Hebatullah Akhundzada hails from Panjwai.

Kandahar is the cradle of the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan under a hardline Islamist regime until it was toppled by a US-led invasion in 2001.

Panjwai district governor Hasti Muhammad said that fighting took place between the Taliban and Afghan forces during the night, which prompted the government forces to withdraw.

"The Taliban have taken control of the police headquarters in the area and the local administration building," he told AFP.

The head of the Kandahar provincial council, Jan Khakriwal, confirmed the fall of Panjwai, accusing the government forces of "deliberately withdrawing."

- 'The Taliban don't want peace' -

Dozens of families fled their homes in Panjwai after the Taliban took control of the area, according to an AFP correspondent.

"The Taliban shot at our car while I was running away with my family. At least five bullets hit my car," one resident, Gheran, told AFP.

The witness, who fled to the city of Kandahar, added that "the Taliban are stationed at the top of the mountains and they shoot at any moving cars. The Taliban do not want peace."

The border police chief in the area, Asadullah, said the police force was fighting the rebels alone.

He stressed that "the army and special forces that have better military equipment do not fight at all."

Panjwai is the fifth district in Kandahar province to fall to the rebels in recent weeks.

Later Sunday, an aide to the governor of Kandahar was killed when a bomb planted in his car exploded near a compound housing their offices, the Interior Ministry announced.

And battles erupted in several provinces of Afghanistan, while the Taliban announced that it now controls a hundred of about 400 districts in the country.

Afghan officials dispute this, but acknowledge that government forces have withdrawn from some areas. It is difficult to verify the situation independently.

The withdrawal of foreign forces from Bagram air base (north of Kabul) raised fears that the insurgents might intensify their campaign to seize new territory.

The base bears great military and symbolic importance, as the foreign forces that were stationed there in the past provided essential air support in the war against the rebels.

Experts point out that one of the main reasons that led the government forces to lose dozens of areas is the absence of US air cover in recent weeks.

But Afghan Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal said the Afghan Air Force is ready to defeat the Taliban.

"We will stand against them with all our might," he told the local Tolo News network. "We are preparing for attacks soon."

"Cities are a red line for us," he noted, stressing that the security forces will fiercely defend the country's urban centers.

The Afghan authorities, who took control of Bagram Air Base, confirmed that they would use it to fight terrorism, and reactivated its radar system.