Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday said the Taliban had won, as the militants entered Kabul after he fled the country.
"The Taliban have won with the judgement of their swords and guns, and are now responsible for the honour, property and self-preservation of their countrymen," Ghani said in a statement posted to Facebook, his first since fleeing.
Three senior Taliban sources also told AFP that their fighters had taken control of the presidential palace and were holding a meeting on security in the capital."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.
A US defense official said several hundred embassy employees had already been evacuated from Afghanistan, and that the airport remained open to commercial flights. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken nevertheless dismissed comparisons with the chaotic American departure from Saigon in 1975. President Joe Biden ordered the deployment of an additional 1,000 US troops to help secure the evacuation of embassy employees and thousands of Afghans who worked for American forces and now fear Taliban reprisals.
Like with most of the other captured cities, the seizure of power came after government forces surrendered or retreated.
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