US officials say they are taking steps to secure Kabul’s international airport to enable the safe departure of thousands of US and allied personnel from Afghanistan on civilian and military flights.
Afghanistan’s embattled president left the country earlier on 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.
In a joint statement on Sunday night, the State Department and the Pentagon say the US security presence will have expanded to nearly 6,000 troops over the next two days. Those forces will take over air traffic control and focus on civilian and military departures.
The officials say those leaving include American citizens who have been living in Afghanistan, locally employed staff of the US mission in Kabul and their families, and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals.
Also part of the departure plan are thousands of Afghans eligible for US special immigrant visas. Nearly 2,000 of those with special visas have arrived in the United States over the past two weeks.
The Taliban fanned out across the capital on Sunday, and an official with the militant group said it would soon announce the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the presidential palace in Kabul.
That was the name of the country under Taliban rule before the militants were ousted by US-led forces after the 9/11 attacks.
A State Department official told The Associated Press that almost all US Embassy personnel have relocated to a facility at the Hamid Karzai International Airport.
President Joe Biden and other top US officials were stunned by the pace of the Taliban’s nearly complete takeover of the country, as the planned withdrawal of American forces urgently became a mission to ensure a safe evacuation.
The speed of the Afghan government’s collapse and the ensuing chaos posed the most serious test of Mr Biden as commander in chief, and he has been the subject of withering criticism from Republicans who said that he had failed.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the Taliban and all other parties to exercise the “utmost restraint” in order to protect the lives of Afghans and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to the country.
