Relief Workers Pulled From Capital

Rival leaders assembled in the north in a new alliance against the advancing Taliban army, while international aid groups, fearing a new military onslaught, evacuated foreign staff from the capital, Kabul. At least 36 foreign aid workers were flown out of Kabul’s rocket-scarred airport to neighboring Pakistan. The evacuations followed intense fighting north of the capital between Taliban fighters--who have overrun two-thirds of Afghanistan--and forces loyal to former government military chief Ahmed Shah Masoud. It took the Taliban’s conquest of the capital and overthrow of the government two weeks ago to bring Masoud together with Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is commander of the only other military force still capable of standing up to the Taliban.