Afghan cricketer Rashid Khan appeals to world leaders

KABUL: In a heartfelt plea, Afghanistan cricketer Rashid Khan on Tuesday appealed the world leaders not to leave his country in chaos, as the battles intensified between the Afghan forces and Taliban fighters following the withdrawal of US troops from the country. 

Taking to Twitter, Rashid Khan said thousands of women and children are being killed on a daily basis in Afghanistan.

"Dear world leaders! My country is in chaos, thousands of innocent people, including children & women, get martyred every day, houses and properties being destroyed. Thousands of families displaced," he wrote.

Taliban seizes two more cities

Meanwhile, the Afghan Taliban continued with their swift advance and seized more territory Tuesday, taking the key cities of Fatah and Pul-e-Khumri.

"The Taliban are now in the city," Baghlan MP Mamoor Ahmadzai told AFP earlier.

"They have raised their flag in the main square and on governor's office building."

The Taliban confirmed their seizure in separate tweets.

Six of the other provincial capitals to have fallen since Friday are in the country's north, with the insurgents setting their sights on Mazar-i-Sharif, the region's biggest city.

Its fall would signal the total collapse of government control in the traditionally anti-Taliban north.