 On 25 September, the strategic town of Sarobi, an eastern outpost of Kabul, fell to the Taliban who captured it from interim government troops.50 people were killed and the Taliban captured many arms from fleeing government soldiers.On 26 September, with the Taliban attacking Kabul, interim minister of defense Ahmad Shah Massoud in his headquarters in northern Kabul concluded that his and President Rabbani’s interim government's forces had been encircled, and decided to quickly evacuate or withdraw those forces to the north, to avoid destruction.