[This post will be updated at the bottom as new developments are happening quickly]
After taking most of Afghanistan, the Taliban has began the offensive to capture country’s capital Kabul.
On Sunday morning, Taliban forces launched a multipronged attack on the Afghan capital, German weekly Der Spiegel reported. The Afghan military posted in the city was failing to offer any resistance to the Mujahedeen onslaught, the magazine confirmed.
Der Spiegel reported as Taliban offensive reaches its final stages:
According to the [Afghan] Ministry of Interior, the attack on Kabul has begun. The Islamists advanced from all direction, the Afghan ministry informed. According to the information received by Der Spiegel, the fighters were still at the outskirts. The advance into the city is now only a matter of time. There is no noticeable resistance by the Afghan troops. [Translated by the author]
According to the Reuters, “United States evacuated diplomats from its embassy by helicopter.” It is unclear if they have safely left the country.
Surprised by the Taliban’s sweeping military gains, President Joe Biden, on Saturday, presented an 11-hour scramble to evacuate the U.S. embassy staff.
However, the rapid Taliban advance on Afghan capital could seriously jeopardize Biden administration’s plans to evacuate the diplomats from the besieged city.
There will be no other way to safely airlift U.S. diplomats and personnel if the Kabul airport were to fall into the hands of the Taliban, news reports suggest. “As a Taliban offensive encircles the Afghan capital, there’s increasingly only one way out for those fleeing the war, and only one way in for U.S. troops sent to protect American diplomats still on the ground: Kabul’s international airport,” The Associated Press noted.
The Reuters reported Biden’s last-minute evacuation plan:
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday that he had approved additional military forces to go to Kabul to help safely draw down the American embassy and remove personnel from Afghanistan.In a lengthy statement, Biden defended his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, arguing that Afghan forces had to fight back against Taliban fighters sweeping through the country.”Based on the recommendations of our diplomatic, military and intelligence teams, I have authorized the deployment of approximately 5,000 U.S. troops to make sure we can have an orderly and safe drawdown of U.S. personnel and other allied personnel,” Biden said.A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said of the 5,000 Biden announced, 4,000 were already previously announced. About 1,000 were newly approved and would be from the 82nd Airborne Division.
The U.S. State Department has ordered the embassy staff to destroy “sensitive documents and computers,” the NPR reported.
Britain has dispatched special forces to rescue its ambassador and diplomats. “An SAS rescue operation has been ordered to get the UK ambassador and staff out of the Afghan capital Kabul as Taliban fighters close in,” London-based Daily Mirror reported.
According to reports just breaking, the Afghan government has agreed to surrender and transition power to the Taliban.
Deposed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other some top members of his government left the country and headed to neighboring Tajikistan. “Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has left the capital Kabul for Tajikistan, a senior Afghan Interior Ministry official said on Sunday,” Reuters reported.
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