Taliban's rapid advance across Afghanistan

Taliban militants have seized three of Afghanistan'smajor cities and a slew of other provincial capitals, with their week-long onslaught of victories showing no sign of letting up as the fate of the capital, Kabul, became a top concern. The capital cities of Uruzgan, Zabul and Ghor provinces were among those to fall into Taliban hands on Friday.

The insurgents secured control of the city centres and government buildings without facing much resistance, local officials in the areas said. After a stunning blitz across the country, 18 of Afghanistan's 34provincial capitals have been captured in a matter of days.

The Taliban has also secured the culturally and commercially important western city of Herat; the country's second-largest cityKandahar; and Lashkargah, the capital of south-western Helmand province, the largest province in Afghanistan. The Taliban also overran the city of Pul-e Alam, the capital of the central province of Logar, about 80 kilometres away from the national capital Kabul.

The Taliban have been battering the cities for months, but the situation finally became untenable for overextended and demoralized government forces who could expect little military backup. Security began to deteriorate as the pace of withdrawal among US and Nato forces picked up in recent weeks.

Governments around the world were hoping for a political solution to stem the fighting.

The Gulf emirate Qatar, which has hosted intra-Afghan political talks, published a statement on Friday in which 13 envoys - including from the European Union and the United Nations - called on the Taliban to immediately stop attacks against urban areas. The statement further reads that these stakeholder countries and organizations have also stressed the need for the long-stalled peaceprocess between the Taliban and the Afghan government to be accelerated especially as the toll on civilians mounts.

Pakistani media reported that Prime Minister Imran Khan said the Taliban informed him that as long as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is in power, the militant group will not negotiate with the government. Ghani in the past has said he would hand over power only to a democratically-elected successor. In the face of growing Taliban influence and control over cities, theUS ordered a partial evacuation of diplomatic staff from Afghanistan, with US troops temporarily heading back to Kabul to help with embassy evacuations amid worries about the security situation in the Afghan capital.

"It is not a full evacuation. Right now, the embassy remains open, we will continue to have a diplomatic presence on the ground," US state department spokesperson Ned Price told a news conference on Thursday. Britain also said it would send in troops to help evacuate its citizens.

The German government's crisis team met on Friday to discuss its next steps, with a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry saying the focus was on preparing the German embassy in Kabul "for all conceivable scenarios."

Many countries have advised their citizens to immediately leave Afghanistan on commercial flights still operating from Kabul. US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State AntonyBlinken said they spoke with Ghani to stress Washington remains invested in the stability of Afghanistan, even as it looks to have almost all troops out of the country by month's end and a reduced diplomatic presence.

"We are on the brink of a humanitarian disaster," said Shabia Mantoo, a spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency in Geneva, on Friday. Women and children, in particular, were fleeing for safety from advancing Taliban militants, she said. Food supplies for about one-third of the population are no longer assured, said Tomson Phiri, spokesperson for the UN World FoodProgramme, adding: "We fear the worst is yet to come." "Terrified families have been fleeing into Kabul in the past days," said Tracey van Heerden, the Norwegian Refugee Council's acting country director in Afghanistan.

"Camps are overcrowded and children are sleeping out in the open.

Families are fighting over food. We fear this situation is being replicated across the country at an unprecedented pace." Some 390,000 people have been displaced in Afghanistan since thebeginning of the year, according to UN estimates, but the actual number is likely to be much higher.