Afghan Prez flees country as Taliban enter Kabul

Afghanistan’s embattled president left the country on Sunday, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan. A Taliban official said the group will soon declare the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the Kabul presidential palace.

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. Meanwhile, Taliban negotiators in the capital discussed the transfer of power, said an Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the closed-doors negotiations, described them as “tense.” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said that the insurgents are “awaiting a peaceful transfer of Kabul city.” NATO said it was “helping to maintain operations at Kabul airport”.

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