Taliban capture Afghanistan's Lashkar Gah

The Taliban have captured Afghanistan's Lashkar Gah, capital of the southern province of Helmand, after two weeks of heavy fighting, a police official said on Friday.

Government and senior armed forces officials flew by helicopter out of the government's last stronghold in the town at about midnight on Thursday, said the official, who declined to be identified.

"About 200 ANDSF members, who were left in the governor's compound, with the intervention of elders, surrendered to the Taliban," said the official, referring to members of the national defence and security forces and tribal elders.