CAIRO, August 15. /TASS/. Afghanistan’s radical movement the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) says it had asked President Ashraf Ghani to cede power peacefully, but he preferred to flee the country, the television broadcaster Al Arabiya said on Sunday.

"We asked President Ghani to cede power peacefully in order to avoid vacuum in the field of security, but he fled," Al Arabiya quotes a Taliban spokesman as saying.

According to earlier reports the Taliban have entered Kabul, taken the presidential palace and will gain full control of the Afghan capital within several hours. According to the broadcaster, the Taliban has urged the Kabul residents to stay at home for security reasons.

Afghanistan’s acting Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakval has imposed a night-time curfew in the city starting from 21:00 local time in order to prevent provocations and maintain the security of the civilian population.