India has asked its nationals to leave Afghanistan today on a special flight from Mazar-i-Sharif as civil war intensified in the country between government forces and the Taliban.

"A special flight is leaving from Mazar-e-Sharif to New Delhi. Any Indian nationals in and around Mazar-e-Sharif are requested to leave for India in the special flight scheduled to depart late today evening," the Indian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif tweeted.

Sources told NDTV that the Indians working in the Mazar-i-Sharif Consulate will be leaving in this flight too. With this there will be no Indians in any of the four consulates - in Mazar-e-Sharif Kandahar, Jalalabad and Herat.

Only the heavily guarded embassy in Kabul will be operational in the war-torn country now.

Around 1,500 Indians are currently staying in Afghanistan, according to government data.

Last month India pulled out around 50 diplomats and security personnel from its consulate in Kandahar following intense clashes between Afghan forces and Taliban fighters around the city.

The Taliban said Monday they had turned their sights on Mazar-i-Sharif.

A spokesperson of the insurgents announced on social media that they had launched a four-pronged attack on the country’s fourth largest city. They have already captured Sheberghan to its west and Kunduz and Taloqan in the east.

Mazar-i-Sharif is the largest city in the north and considered a linchpin to the government's control over the area.

Afghanistan's long-running conflict has escalated dramatically since May, when the US-led military coalition began the pullout of its forces - the exercise is set to be completed before the end of the month.

As the Taliban have taken control of several districts across the country, US intelligence assessments have suggested the country's civilian government could fall to the fundamentalist Sunni militants group within months of US forces withdrawing. (SAM)