The Afghan province where Australian troops served for close to a decade could be the first to fall back under Taliban control as foreign militaries withdraw from the war-torn country.
Fierce fighting between government forces and Taliban insurgents is continuing across Uruzgan Province with both sides claiming to have inflicted heavy casualties against each other.
Military and Afghan analysts believe the Taliban now controls five of the six districts in Uruzgan Province, while the provisional capital of Tarin Kot is considered contested.
"The city is coming under a lot of pressure from the Taliban and one would not be surprised if Tarin Kot falls to the Taliban, and that would be the first provincial capital that the Taliban has taken over," said Afghanistan expert Professor Amin Saikal.
"There is fighting going on in a number of provinces right now in the country and one could expect the fighting to intensify as we approach the withdrawal of foreign forces by the 11th of September."
On Tuesday, the Taliban's propaganda service Alemarah boasted it had taken control of the administration centre, police headquarters, defensive check posts and other installations in the Khas Uruzgan district.
"All the puppet personnel of the district and post fled to a mercenary camp in the area where the enemy is still under siege by the Mujahideen," the Alemarah website claimed.
"Numerous ammunitions and weapons were seized by Mujahidin as well."
At the same time, Afghanistan's Defence Force tweeted that it had killed dozens of Taliban "terrorists" over recent days.
"Twenty-six Taliban terrorists were killed and 28 others were wounded in an operation conducted by Afghan National Defense and Security Forces with support from the Afghan Air Force in Chora district [on Tuesday]," the Afghanistan Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday.
"Also, some amount of their weapons and ammunition were destroyed."
In 2006, the Australian Defence Force deployed its first Reconstruction Task Force to Uruzgan, and in 2008 a Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force began work in the province.
At the end of 2013, then-prime minister Tony Abbott announced the last Australian troops had left Uruzgan province, while 400 military personnel would remain in Afghanistan in training and support roles, mainly in Kabul and Kandahar.
US President Joe Biden announced in April that America would finally end its 20-year war in Afghanistan from May 1, with US and allied forces to completely depart no later than September 11 this year.
Over recent weeks, safety fears have been growing for a number of former translators and other local staff who worked with Australian forces but remain in Afghanistan, following death threats from the Taliban.
Earlier this month, Australia's Chief of Defence General Angus Campbell told Parliament the Afghanistan war would not be resolved militarily, but dismissed claims the Taliban could overrun the war-torn country once international troops left.
"I do not think that the situation is at all assured in terms of the Taliban's claimed ascendance — or that they seek to claim," he said.
"I think this is very much going to be a negotiated settlement."
