Taliban seizes Afghanistan-China borders

As the Taliban offensive gets closer to the suburbs of Kandahar city, some 50 Indian diplomats and security personnel evacuated in Indian Air Force aircraft from the Indian consulate based in the city, a report by the Khaama Press said on Sunday.

The consulate is now temporarily shut and all the diplomats, security personnel and staff have been flown to New Dehli.

The vacation comes only five days after the Indian embassy based in Kabul in a statement said that they have no plan to shut embassy or consulates in northern Mazar-e-sharif city or southern Kandahar. The press release had read that they will closely track security in the cities and will take all necessary steps to ensure the safety and security of Indian officials.

Meanwhile, Khaama quoted the Defense Ministry of Australia as confirming that its servicemen have left Afghanistan in recent weeks which brought its military presence in the war-battered country officially to an end.

Moreover, the shared borders with China in Badakhshan Province fell to the Taliban, according to an Afghan authority in the Badakhshan province.

Abdullah Naji Nazari told local Afghan media on Sunday that the Taliban had reached the border with China's Xinjiang province as they continued their advance.

He added that the city had fallen to the Taliban without any clashes and that the Kabul government security forces had retreated to Tajikistan.