Taliban blitz across Afghanistan
news agency
KABUL
The United States and Britain ordered the deployment Friday of thousands of troops to Afghanistan to evacuate their nationals, as the Taliban overran more key regional cities in an offensive that has left the capital dangerously exposed.
The orders came as the Taliban took control of Kandahar, the nation’s second-biggest city in the insurgency’s heartland, leaving only Kabul and pockets of other territories in government hands.
They were also closer to taking Logar province, at the gates of Kabul, with a Taliban spokesperson saying insurgents had captured the police headquarters and city jail in the capital, Pul-e-Alam.
Earlier, officials and residents in Kandahar told AFP that government forces had withdrawn en masse to a military facility outside the southern city. “Kandahar is completely conquered. The Mujahideen reached Martyrs’ Square,” a Taliban spokesperson tweeted.
