A damaged building in Kunduz.
(Image credit: NASIR WAQIF/AFP/Getty Images)

Just 15 days after first capturing the northern Afghanistan city of Kunduz, the Taliban announced Tuesday that they had withdrawn from it, ending their first occupation of an Afghan city in the last 14 years of war. The insurgents delivered the news of their withdrawal on a website associated with the group, ordering fighters to "withdraw from the city to save ammunition and the lives of its fighters, as well as to protect civilians," The New York Times reports.

The Taliban's announcement comes days after the Afghan government announced that it had retaken the city.

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