Taliban takes over Kabul, president Ashraf Ghani flees the country

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said "it is simply not in our interest" to remain in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents entered Kabul on Sunday, President Ashraf Ghani left the country and the US Embassy said the capital’s airport, where diplomats, officials and other Afghans had fled, had come under fire.

It was not yet clear where Ghani was headed or how power would be transferred following the militant Islamist group’s lighting sweep across Afghanistan that led back to the capital two decades after it was overthrown by US-led forces.

“The security situation in Kabul is changing quickly, including at the airport. There are reports of the airport taking fire; therefore, we are instructing US citizens to shelter in place,” a US Embassy security alert said.

Hundreds of Afghans, some of them government ministers and government employees and also other civilians including many women and children, crowded in the terminal desperately waiting for flights out.

Ghani’s destination was uncertain: a senior Interior Ministry official said he had left for Tajikistan, while a Foreign Ministry official said his location was unknown and the Taliban said it was checking his whereabouts.

Some local social media users branded him a “coward” for leaving them in chaos. Taliban fighters reached Kabul “from all sides”, the senior Interior Ministry official told Reuters and there were some reports of sporadic gunfire around the city. Insurgents entered the presidential palace and took control of it, two senior Taliban commanders in Kabul said.