President flees as Taliban enter Kabul
AFGHANISTAN’S embattled President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country as the Taliban moved further into the capital city, Kabul.
His countrymen and foreigners alike raced for the exit, signalling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan.
Ghani flew out of the country, two officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to brief journalists. Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council, later confirmed Ghani had left in an online video.
“He left Afghanistan in a hard time, God hold him accountable,” Abdullah said.
Civilians fearing that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule that all but eliminated women’s rights rushed to leave the country, lining up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings.
Helicopters buzzed overhead to evacuate personnel from the US Embassy, while smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out.
In a stunning rout, the Taliban seized nearly all of Afghanistan in just over a week, despite the billions of dollars spent by the US and Nato over nearly two decades to build up Afghan security forces.
Just days earlier, an American military assessment estimated it would be a month before the capital would come under insurgent pressure.
Instead, the Taliban swiftly defeated, co-opted or sent Afghan security forces fleeing from wide swathes of the country, even though they had some air support from the U.S. military.
Yesterday, the insurgents entered the outskirts of Kabul but apparently remained outside of the city centre. Sporadic gunfire echoed at times though the streets were largely quiet.
Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Qatar’s Al-jazeera English satellite news channel that the insurgents are “awaiting a peaceful transfer of Kabul city”. He declined to offer specifics. But when pressed on what kind of agreement the Taliban wanted, Shaheen acknowledged that they were seeking an unconditional surrender by the central government.
Taliban negotiators headed to the presidential palace yesterday to discuss the transfer, said an Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The official, discussing details of the closed-doors negotiations, described them as “tense”.
“We are trying to solve the issue of Afghanistan with the Taliban leadership peacefully,” former President Hamid Karzai said.
Ghani had appeared increasingly isolated.
Warlords he negotiated with just days earlier have surrendered to the Taliban or fled, leaving him without a military option.
Negotiations in Doha, Qatar, the site of a Taliban office, have failed to stop the insurgents’ advance.
Still, acting Defence Minister Bismillah Khan sought to reassure the public that Kabul would remain “secure”.
The insurgents also tried to calm residents of the capital, insisting their fighters would not enter people’s homes or interfere with businesses.
They also said they would offer an “amnesty” to those who worked with the Afghan government or foreign forces.
But there have been reports of revenge killings and other brutal tactics in areas of the country the Taliban have seized in recent days.