Taliban fighters have entered Afghanistan’s presidential palace hours after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
And the Taliban commander and leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was declared the new Afghanistan President.
The former Afghanistan’s President, Ghani, had just before fleeing the country, relinquished power to an interim government led by Taliban commander and leader, Mullah Baradar.
At the Presidential Palace, the Taliban group’s leadership, surrounded by dozens of armed fighters, addressed the media from the country’s seat of power.
Officials told Reuters and The Associated Press that President Ghani has left Afghanistan for Tajikistan as the Taliban encircled the Afghan capital, Kabul.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul has suspended all operations and told Americans to shelter in place, saying it has received reports of gunfire at the international airport.
Three Afghan officials had confirmed on Sunday that the Taliban have started entering the capital of Kabul from all sides.
Specifically, the Taliban fighters have entered the presidential palace in the Afghan capital of Kabul
The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has called on the Taliban to immediately halt their offensive.
On Saturday, during a televised address, Ghani said “remobilizing the Afghan security and defense forces is our top priority.”
President Biden has approved the deployment of an additional 1,000 troops to ensure “an orderly and safe drawdown of US personnel and other allied personnel” ahead of the scheduled withdrawal of the US and NATO from Afghanistan by August 31