TALIBAN TAKE KABUL AS GHANI FLEES
Taliban to declare Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from Prez Palace: Official Taliban discussing transfer of power; ex-Prez Karzai among govt negotiators Citizens fearing reimposition of brutal rule rush to leave country
Kabul, Aug. 15: Afghanistan’s embattled President Ashraf Ghani left the country Sunday, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signalling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan.
The Taliban, who for hours had been on the outskirts of Kabul, announced soon after they would move further into a city gripped by panic where helicopters raced overhead throughout the day to evacuate personnel from the US embassy.
Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out.
Afghans, fearing that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule that all but eliminated women’s rights, rushed to leave the country as well, lining up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings. The desperately poor who had left homes in the countryside for the presumed safety of the capital remained in their thousands in parks and open spaces throughout the city.
A Taliban official said the group will soon declare the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the Presidential Palace in Kabul. That was the name of the country under the Taliban government ousted by US-led forces after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
President Ashraf Ghani flew out of the country,
The former President of Afghanistan left Afghanistan, leaving the country in this difficult situation… God should hold him accountable. — Abdullah Abdullah, Afghan National Reconciliation Council head
two officials told AP. Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council, later confirmed that Mr Ghani had left. “The former President of Afghanistan left Afghanistan, leaving the country in this difficult situation,” Mr Abdullah said. “God should hold him accountable.”
On Sunday, the insurgents entered the outskirts of Kabul but initially remained outside of the city’s downtown. Meanwhile, Taliban negotiators in the capital discussed the transfer of power, said an Afghan official.
It remained unclear when that transfer would take place and who among the Taliban was negotiating. The negotiators on the government side included former President Hamid Karzai, leader of Hizb-e-Islami political and paramilitary group Gulbudin Hekmatyar and Mr Abdullah, who has been a vocal critic of Mr Ghani.
Kabul, Aug. 15: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday dismissed comparisons with the chaotic American departure from Saigon in 1975.
“The fact of the matter is this: We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission in mind,” he said.
“That was to deal with the people that attacked us on 9/11. That mission has been successful.”
The Taliban’s imminent takeover triggered fear and panic in Kabul among residents fearful of the group's hardline brand of Islam.
The scale and speed of the insurgents' advance have shocked Afghans and the US-led alliance that poured billions into the country over the past two decades.
President Joe Biden ordered the deployment of an additional 1,000 US troops to help secure the emergency evacuation from Kabul of embassy employees and thousands of Afghans who worked for American forces and now fear Taliban reprisals.
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.
That decision has come under increased scrutiny given the collapse of the Afghan armed forces, but he insisted Saturday there was no choice.
“I was the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan — two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth,” Biden said.
Ghani’s government was left completely isolated on Sunday after the insurgents overran the antiTaliban northern stronghold of Mazar-i-Sharif and the eastern city of Jalalabad. Like with most of the other captured cities, the seizure of power came after government forces surrendered or retreated. Videos posted
on pro-Taliban social media accounts showed the group's heavily armed fighters in cities across the country, waving white flags and greeting locals.
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. Many were already resigned to the Taliban taking power.