UK warns Britons in Afghanistan to leave immediately

BRITAIN has warned all UK nationals in Afghanistan to leave the country immediately due to the "worsening security situation" as Taliban forces sweep across the country. 

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on Friday (6) updated its website to advise against all travel to Afghanistan.

"All British nationals in Afghanistan are advised to leave now by commercial means. If you are still in Afghanistan, you are advised to leave now by commercial means because of the worsening security situation," it said.

Warning Britons "not to rely on it for emergency evacuation", the office said that the assistance it could provide is "extremely limited".

"Terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Afghanistan. Specific methods of attack are evolving and increasing in sophistication," the foreign office said, adding a warning that there is a “high threat of kidnapping throughout the country”.

The announcement came on the same day that UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab reportedly agreed to consider allowing Afghan journalists who worked for the British to flee to the UK if their lives are endangered, after an outcry from UK newspapers and broadcasters.

UK's warning to its nationals came after the Taliban launched a major offensive to coincide with the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces after nearly two decades of conflict.

On Friday (6), the Islamist militants captured their first provincial capital since stepping up their offensive in May.

Zaranj, the capital of the southwest province of Nimroz, fell "without a fight", as per deputy provincial governor Roh Gul Khairzad, reports said. 

On Friday, the Taliban killed the director of Afghanistan’s government media centre in the capital Kabul, just days after a reported assassination attempt on the country’s acting defence minister.

The Taliban now controls vast swathes of rural Afghanistan and are challenging government forces in several cities, including Herat, near the western border with Iran, and Lashkar Gah and Kandahar in the south, report said.