Taliban fighters enter Afghan capital, Kabul

Taliban insurgents have stepped up their quest to taking over conflict-ridden Afghanistan as they have entered the Afghan capital, Kabul on Sunday, an interior ministry official said.

The senior official who refused to disclose his location for security reasons, said the Taliban fighters were coming in “from all sides” but gave no further details.

In response to the incursion, the United States has hurriedly begun the evacuation of their diplomats from its embassy by helicopter.

A tweet from the Afghan Presidential palace account said firing had been heard at a number of points around Kabul but that security forces, in coordination with international partners, had control of the city.

US officials said the diplomats were being ferried to the airport from the embassy in the fortified Wazir Akbar Khan district as more American troops were being sent to help in the evacuations after the Taliban’s lightning advances brought the Islamist group to Kabul in a matter of days.

A Taliban official told Reuters the group did not want any casualties as it took charge but had not declared a ceasefire.

There was no immediate word on the situation from President Ashraf Ghani, who said on Saturday he was in urgent consultations with local leaders and international partners on the situation.

Earlier on Sunday, the insurgents captured the eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, giving them control of one of the main highways into landlocked Afghanistan.

READ ALSO: Taliban fighters seize Afghanistan’s second largest city, Kandahar

They also took over the nearby Torkham border post with Pakistan, leaving Kabul airport the only way out of Afghanistan that is still in government hands.

The capture of Jalalabad followed the Taliban’s seizure of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif late on Saturday, also with little fighting.

“There are no clashes taking place right now in Jalalabad because the governor has surrendered to the Taliban.

“Allowing passage to the Taliban was the only way to save civilian lives,” a Jalalabad-based Afghan said.

A video clip distributed by the Taliban showed people cheering and shout Allahu Akbar – God is greatest – as a convoy of pick-up trucks entered the city with fighters brandishing machine guns and the white Taliban flag.

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