Taliban set to retake power in Afghanistan 20 years after being ousted by US-led forces and the country's president has fled
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Ashraf Ghani, the country's president, has fled Afghanistan, Reuters and CNN reported.
Afghanistan will have a "peaceful transfer of power" to the Taliban, the country's interior minister said on Sunday.
Two Taliban officials told Reuters there would be not be a transitional government and the group expects a complete handover of power.
The Taliban is set to retake power in Afghanistan 20 years after being ousted by US-led forces, with the country's president fleeing the country by plane and the militant group pushing into Kabul on Sunday after a rapid offensive.
Afghanistan will have a "peaceful transfer of power," Afghan Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal said Sunday.
In a video message, broadcast on local news outlet Tolo TV, Mirzakwal said: "The Afghan people should not worry... There will be no attack on the city and there will be a peaceful transfer of power."
A Taliban official said later on Sunday the group will soon declare the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the presidential palace in Kabul," the Associated Press reported. Two senior Taliban commanders earlier in the day told Reuters they have taken over the presidential palace.
Read more: Read more: Why the US-trained Afghan National Army have been defeated with ease by the Taliban
President Ashraf Ghani boarded a plane and left Afghanistan for Tajikistan early Sunday evening, a senior interior ministry official told Reuters. The president's office told the news agency it "cannot say anything about Ashraf Ghani's movement for security reasons."
Tolo TV also confirmed that Ghani has gone into exile.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that US embassy staff in Kabul are leaving the facility and moving to the airport. The US plans to completely pull all personnel from its embassy over the next two or three days, both Reuters and CNN reported.
A security update released Sunday by the US Embassy in Kabul said the situation in the capital city is "changing quickly including at the airport. There are reports of the airport taking fire; therefore we are instructing U.S. citizens to shelter in place."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, members of Congress, and top officials in President Joe Biden's administration -- Blinken, General Austin Miller, America's top general in Afghanistan, and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- held a briefing on the situation in Afghanistan Sunday morning, Insider has learned.
The Taliban has advanced rapidly through Afghanistan over the past few weeks as American troops left the South Asian country two decades after entering to hunt down Osama bin Laden following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C. A series of smaller towns and cities systematically fell to the militant group as it overran US-trained forces. As Afghan troops have surrendered, the Taliban has seized weapons provided by the US, forcing the US to carry out strikes on captured military equipment to stop the Taliban from turning it on the Afghan forces.
A Taliban official claimed Sunday the group will assume formal administrative control of Kabul "within hours," Al Arabiya reported.
Read more: WATCH: Tearful Afghan girl facing grim future under Taliban rule
The Taliban's international media spokesperson, Suhail Shaheen, initially said to Al Jazeera that the group will remain on standby on the outskirts of the city while transition talks take place.
According to NBC's Richard Engel, the Taliban will now enter Kabul to "stop looting."
Photos and videos on social media show Kabul in gridlock as thousands of people try to get out of the city, fearing a return to the Taliban's extremist rule.
Taliban spokesman Shaheen told the BBC that Afghans who are not Taliban would be included in the Islamic government and that claimed that the militants will respect the rights of women.
The previous period of Taliban rule saw women denied access to work, education, and punished for flouting laws with imprisonment, flogging, and even execution.
Shaheen also claimed to The Wall Street Journal's Sune Engel Rasmussen that journalists will be safe under the Taliban.
High-ranking Afghan officials, including some of Ghani's advisors, are at Hamid Karzai International Airport waiting for a flight out, according to a reliable source, CNN''s Kaitlan Collins said on Twitter.
International reactions
Pope Francis led the calls for "dialogue" in Afghanistan to avoid bloodshed, Reuters reported. "I join in the unanimous worry about the situation in Afghanistan. I ask you to pray along with me to the God of peace so that the din of weapons ends and that solutions can be found around a table of dialogue," he said to pilgrims in St. Peter's Square.
NATO has said that a political solution in Afghanistan is "more urgent than ever," according to AFP. It is maintaining its diplomatic presence in Kabul and is helping to keep the city's airport open, a NATO official told Reuters.
Nobel Prize laureate Malala has urged "global, regional, and local powers" to advocate for a ceasefire, humanitarian aid, and the protection of refugees and civilians in a tweet to her 1.9 million followers.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has agreed to recall parliament to debate the Taliban's seizure of Afghanistan, according to local media. Downing Street has said that he has convened an emergency COBRA meeting for this afternoon, Sky News reported.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
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