Afghan president addresses country amid Taliban blitz

Kabul: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is delivering a televised address, his first public remarks since the Taliban made major gains in recent days.

Ghani’s last public appearance was on Wednesday in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, where the insurgents launched a multi-pronged attack early Saturday.

The Taliban have captured much of northern, western, and southern Afghanistan, and are now battling government forces just 11 kilometres south of the capital, Kabul.

The lightning advance comes less than three weeks before the US is set to withdraw its last forces after nearly 20 years of war.

Ghani and other top officials in the Western-backed government have been largely silent on the insurgents’ recent gains.