Taliban take provincial capital 50 km south of Kabul

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AFP
AFP

Pul-e-Alam - NATO will hold urgent meeting on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.

By AFP

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Published: Fri 13 Aug 2021, 3:52 PM

The Taliban captured the provincial capital of Logar province Friday, just 50 km from Kabul, effectively opening a path to the seat of the nation.

"Now the Taliban are 100 per cent in control. There is no fighting at the moment. Most of the officials fled to Kabul," lawmaker Saeed Qaribullah Sadat told AFP.


Meanwhile, NATO will hold an urgent meeting Friday on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan after the US said it was sending troops to evacuate its nationals, diplomatic and official sources told AFP.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will lead discussions with envoys from the 30 allies in the meeting, with one source saying it would focus on evacuation planning from Afghanistan.


"It is about determining who does what, when, and how, and what support is given for this," the source said.

The Taliban has overrun a string of regional capitals in a lightning offensive since NATO troops largely pulled out of the country on the back of US President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw.

Leading NATO powers the US and Britain have ordered the deployment of thousands of troops to Afghanistan to evacuate their citizens

A NATO official told AFP that the US had briefed its NATO allies ahead of the announcement by the State Department.

"NATO is monitoring the security situation very closely," the official said.

The official said the alliance was maintaining its own diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, but refused to give any details on the number of NATO staff still in the country for security reasons.


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