Taliban insurgents from nearby Helmand and Kandahar provinces overran security checkpoints into the city, and a Taliban spokesman said large parts of the city of about 75,000 are now under their control.
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Uruzgan sits on the border of the southern province of Helmand, the hub of Afghanistan’s poppy production.
Aircraft and helicopters flew over the city, providing air support to embattled government troops, and the Taliban suffered heavy casualties, Nayab added.
The fighting in Uruzgan comes as the Taliban are threatening to capture Lashkar Gah in neighbouring Helmand province, and northern Kunduz, which the insurgents briefly seized previous year in a stinging blow to Afghan forces.
As expected, the offensive centered around the prison on the city’s outskirts, though the Taliban was unable to rescue any prisoners in the advance, as reports are that the Afghan forces took all the prisoners with them when they fled, and are now holding them at the airport.
“Uruzgan is now in a very problematic situation where the police and the [Afghan army] are more and more leaving their posts, not defending the government”, she said. “This morning the circle of fighting was a kilometer or so from the main bazaar”.
“Many provincial officials including the governor and other heads of government departments are at the airport”, Khademzai told AFP.
Tarin Kot’s normally bustling streets were deserted and shops closed as civilians sought to escape from the city.
President Ashraf Ghani’s office said the government will not allow “Uruzgan to become a sanctuary for terrorists”.
In separate phone interviews with Reuters, security officials were already assigning blame for the apparent collapse of the defences.
According to provincial police chief Wais Samim, the militants had reached within a few hundred meters of the governor’s compound and police headquarters.
Late on Wednesday, the Taliban released a statement promising government forces protection if they surrendered peacefully.
But Nayab said that fighting was still ongoing in 17 locations around Tirin Kot, a city of 70,000 inhabitants.
Taliban, which ruled the country from 1996 until the 2001 US-led military invasion of Afghanistan, has since retreated to rural areas, resorting to hit-and-run attacks on cities.
Since August, Taliban fighters have attacked Afghan security forces in northern Kunduz province, briefly taking control of a district headquarters.
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At least 69 coalition troops died in Uruzgan during almost a decade and a half of global military efforts to defeat the Taliban and other militant groups after 2001.
