The U.S. Embassy was being evacuated as Afghanistan’s president fled the country.
One of the most stunning guerrilla campaigns in history reached Afghanistan’s capital on Sunday, forcing the country’s president to flee as countries rushed troops to the airport to evacuate their citizens.
All U.S. Embassy staff in Kabul, including the mission’s top diplomat, were being evacuated to the international airport as the Taliban looming at the capital city’s gates urged the Afghan government to relinquish power on Sunday. Afghan officials confirmed that President Ashraf Ghani departed the country.
The embassy will likely be shuttered by Tuesday, two U.S. officials said, but certain staffers will continue their work from a compound at the airport protected by roughly 5,000 U.S. troops, who will shuttle between the embassy and the airport. Other U.S. diplomatic officials will board flights back to home. CNN first reported on the full evacuation.
U.S. officials on the ground had been in touch with Ghani aides about the possibility of turning Kabul over to a transition government in exchange for some length of military ceasefire, one of the officials said, but the swiftly moving developments in the Afghan capital might already have rendered those talks moot.
Black Hawks and Chinooks whisking staff from the mission dot Kabul’s sky as residents prepare for the Taliban’s takeover of the capital and country. In one instance, a shopkeeper painted over images of women the militants forbid.
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