Taliban enters Kabul as Afghan President flees country
President Ashraf Ghani left Afghanistan on Sunday saying he wants to avoid bloodshed, hours after the Taliban ordered its fighters to wait on the outskirts of the capital following an astonishing rout of government forces.
The Taliban raced closer to a complete military takeover of Afghanistan Sunday after capturing more major cities, leaving only the isolated capital Kabul for them to conquer.
They took control of the key eastern city of Jalalabad on Sunday, just hours after seizing the northern anti-Taliban bastion of Mazar-i-Sharif. Pro-Taliban social media accounts boasted that its fighters were moving rapidly through the outlying districts of Kabul province, with the outskirts of the city in close proximity.
Ghani's government appeared to be left with few options as the Taliban effectively surrounded Kabul.
Afghanistan's president Ashraf Ghani reportedly left the country for Tajikistan after the Taliban arrived near Kabul and sought the surrender of the government. Senior officials confirmed his departure on Sunday as the Taliban made further, swift gains in and around the capital.
On Saturday Ghani had sought to project authority with a national address in which he spoke of "re-mobilizing" the military while seeking a "political solution" to the crisis.
