UPDATE - Turkish aircraft with 200 on board departs Kabul

ADDS MORE DETAILS; REVISES DECK, HEADLINE, EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Aykut Karadag, Sefa Mutlu and Kenan Irtak

KABUL, Afghanistan/ISTANBUL (AA) - A Turkish Armed Forces airplane carrying over 200 Turkish citizens departed the Afghan capital on Wednesday.

After waiting in the safe zone of Hamid Karzai International Airport, the citizens left Kabul on board an A400M plane, also known as a "flying fortress."

They will be brought to Istanbul from the Pakistani capital Islamabad via a Turkish Airlines plane, and efforts to evacuate all Turkish nationals continue.

As part of a peace deal reached in February 2020 between the US and the Taliban, this year international forces began their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The agreement mandated that the Taliban not target foreign forces, but there was no provision on its action toward Afghan security forces.

While keeping negotiations with the government ongoing in Doha, Qatar, the Taliban intensified their attacks since June, taking control of small administrative districts and provincial centers in the past month.

The group on Sunday took the capital Kabul, with President Ashraf Ghani and other key officials fleeing the country. Efforts are now underway to form a new government.