President Ashraf Ghani fled Afghanistan on Sunday, a top official said, effectively ceding power to the Taliban as they reached the capital Kabul to seal a nationwide military victory in just 10 days.
“The former Afghan President has left the nation, leaving the people to this situation,” Abdullah Abdullah, who heads the peace process, said in a video on his Facebook page.He gave no indication where Ghani was going, but leading Afghan media group Tolo news suggested he was heading to Tajikistan.Ghani’s departure from office was one of the key demands of the Taliban in months of peace talks with the government, but he had stubbornly clung to power.
The group ordered its fighters earlier Sunday not to enter the capital, saying the remnants of the government’s forces were responsible for security. The United States began moving its citizens and Afghan staff to Kabul airport, with the help of thousands of troops deployed to the capital to assist with the evacuation.However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday dismissed comparisons with the chaotic American departure from Saigon in 1975.
That was on top of the 3,000 American soldiers deployed in recent days, and 1,000 left in-country after Biden announced in May that the final withdrawal of the US military presence in Afghanistan would be completed by September 11. Ghani’s government was left completely isolated on Sunday after the insurgents overran the anti-Taliban northern stronghold of Mazar-i-Sharif and the eastern city of Jalalabad.
Most of the fighters appeared young, suggesting they were most likely infants or unborn when the Taliban was toppled from power in 2001.As the Taliban closed in on the capital, panicked residents swarmed banks for a second straight day, hoping to withdraw their savings.“My only wish is that their return leads to peace. That is all we want,” said Kabul shopkeeper Tariq Nezami.
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