August 15, 2021, Afghanistan-Taliban news

Senior US Senate staffers were working with Pentagon officials Sunday night to help Afghan pilots who had fled the country and landed in Uzbekistan, where US officials feared they could be turned over to the Taliban, according to a US Senate source.

Senate staffers were also trying to deal with State Department officials, who are already overwhelmed with the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, the source said.

With Taliban taking control of Afghanistan, more than a dozen Afghan pilots have fled the country on aircraft. The countries that border Afghanistan are grappling with the Taliban takeover and must decide how to deal with Afghans fleeing into their countries.

CNN obtained documentation showing identification of the pilots, whom the US is seeking to protect, but is not sharing the information publicly.

CNN has reached out to the Defense Department and State Department for comment.

What Uzbekistan is saying: Uzbekistan said it detained 84 people from the Afghan Armed Forces at the two countries’ shared border Saturday.

The group of Afghan military personnel did not resist when they were detained by Uzbekistan’s State Security Service, according to a statement from the Uzbek Foreign Ministry published Monday. They asked for help and medical assistance for three people that were wounded.

The ministry said that there was “a growing presence” of Afghan military forces seen on the Afghan side of the Termez-Hairaton bridge, which connects the town of Hairatan in the northern Balkh province of Afghanistan with Termez in the Surxondaryo region of Uzbekistan.

The ministry said it was negotiating with Afghan officials on the return of its citizens, though it did not specify if conversations were being held with the Taliban or the Afghan government that has just collapsed.

All personnel have evacuated from the US Embassy in Kabul and are now at the Kabul airport, the State Department said Sunday night. 

The Russian government is not preparing to evacuate its embassy in Kabul, a senior Russian diplomat told Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti.

Kabulov said the Taliban had guaranteed security for the Russian Embassy.

Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov is planning to meet with representatives of the Taliban to discuss the security of the Russian diplomatic mission, the embassy’s press attache, Nikita Ishchenko, told RIA-Novosti.

Russia has previously designated the Taliban as a terrorist organization, but the Kremlin government has also hosted the group’s top negotiators at diplomatic conferences in Moscow.

Da Afghanistan Bank is seen in Kabul on November 3, 2017.

The abrupt collapse of the Afghanistan government on Sunday has raised questions about assets held by the Afghanistan’s central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank, and whether they could end up in the hands of the Taliban.

However, the “vast majority” of the the bank’s assets are not held in Afghanistan, a US official familiar with the matter told CNN.

Separately, a Biden administration official said Sunday that any assets the Afghan government has in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban.

So while it’s not exactly clear just how much money is being held in reserves at Da Afghanistan Bank, the US administration is pushing back on some critics who believe the Taliban will have access to the money.

Passengers enter the departures terminal of Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 14.

More than five dozen countries are urging “all parties” to safeguard the departure of foreign nationals and Afghans who wish to leave the country, according to a joint statement released by the US State Department on Sunday.

“Those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan bear responsibility – and accountability – for the protection of human life and property, and for the immediate restoration of security and civil order,” the statement read

Joining the United States in the statement are: Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liberia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta , Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Cyprus, Romania, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Togo, Tonga, Uganda, United Kingdom, Ukraine and Yemen.

Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw – a Navy SEAL and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan – said Sunday the sacrifices that US troops have made in the country were not in vain, but in fact prevented terrorist attacks on the United States.

On why he thinks the Afghan forces melted so quickly, Crenshaw said he thinks Afghan forces fell so quickly because the country’s military is young and it takes more than just a few years to build up and train a fighting force.

A new Taliban government will include non-Taliban Afghans, Taliban spokesman Sohail Shaheen told CNN’s Nic Robertson in a video interview on Sunday.

When asked if the new Taliban government will include members of the former Afghan government, Shaheen, speaking from Doha, said it would be “premature” right now to name who the officials will be, but he said that they are trying to have some “well known figures” to be part of the government.

When asked if the Taliban will call on the current Afghan army and police to join Taliban security forces, Shaheen said all those handing over their weapons and joining Taliban forces will be granted amnesty, and that their lives and property would be secure. He added that their names are in a registry and they would be used as a “reserve” force and called upon as needed.

The Departments of State and Defense have announced that US forces will now take over air traffic control at Kabul airport, in addition to expanding security there.

“Tomorrow and over the coming days, we will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens who have been resident in Afghanistan, as well as locally employed staff of the U.S. mission in Kabul and their families and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals,” the joint statement from the two agencies said.

“And we will accelerate the evacuation of thousands of Afghans eligible for U.S. Special Immigrant Visas, nearly 2,000 of whom have already arrived in the United States over the past two weeks,” the statement said. “For all categories, Afghans who have cleared security screening will continue to be transferred directly to the United States. And we will find additional locations for those yet to be screened.”

People protest in support of Afghanistan and against the Taliban take over of the country, at Lafayette Square across the street from the White House in Washington DC on August 15.

The Biden administration has curtailed the number of flights to the United States for Afghans who worked alongside the US, as it prioritizes the evacuation of American personnel from the country, three sources familiar with the situation told CNN.

The last flight of Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants and their families bound for Fort Lee, Virginia, has left Afghanistan, four sources said.

One source said that the limitation on the number of flights that are able to transit in and out of the Kabul airport – which was a scene of mass panic and chaos on Sunday – has impeded efforts to evacuate the Afghans who worked alongside the US in its two-decade military campaign.

It is unclear how long the pause in inbound flights will last. As of last week refugee resettlement agencies were preparing for a large influx of Afghan arrivals, two of the sources said, and Biden administration officials were discussing an uptick in SIV flights. 

As of last Thursday, 1,200 Afghans and their families had been evacuated to America as part of the administration’s “Operation Allies Refuge,” according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

CNN has reached out to the State Department for comment. 

A Qatar Airways aircraft takes off from the airport in Kabul on August 14.

The 6,000 US troops earmarked for security duty in Kabul will now have the task of securing the entire perimeter of the airport, according to a defense official. This is a result in part of hundreds of Afghans rushing on to the airfield to try to get flights out, as well as the potential for Taliban attacks and growing unrest at the airfield.

The official said the continued evacuation flights must happen in a secure atmosphere. Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of US CENTCOM, met with Taliban leaders in Doha Qatar Sunday to underscore the sole US mission was to get people out safely. 

 The original evacuation plan that called for 3,000 troops was essentially the baseline security plan that assumed a safe environment the official said. The Pentagon had to double that to 6,000 as the security situation suddenly deteriorated further.  

The official said US forces could wind up staying “as long as needed” to get Americans and Afghans out, but that the way ahead remains uncertain.

A US Chinook helicopter flies over the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 15.

The US has flown approximately 500 staff members from the US Embassy in Kabul out of Afghanistan today, a defense official told CNN.

Approximately 4,000 US Embassy staff members are still to fly out of the country, including US citizens and Afghan nationals who work for the embassy, two defense officials said.

That number does not include family members of the Afghan staffers. The US plan for those family members remains unclear at this time.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a Facebook post on Sunday following his departure from the country, former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he will “always continue to serve” the nation.

“I will always continue to serve my nation through offering ideas and programs,” Ghani wrote.

“The Taliban have made it a point to remove me, they are here to attack all Kabul and the people of Kabul. In order to avoid the flood of bloodshed, I thought it was best to get out,” he added. 

Earlier on Sunday, sources told CNN Ghani and other senior Afghan officials fled the country. Two sources told CNN Ghani fled to Tajikistan. One of the sources, an Afghan source added that Tajikistan will not be his final destination but refused to say where he would go from there. It is unknown where Ghani made the Facebook post from.

Ghani added that the Taliban have taken control with “swords and guns” and are “responsible for protecting the countrymen’s honor, wealth and self-esteem.”

“They didn’t win the legitimacy of hearts,” Ghani said, adding, “They are now facing a new historical test; either they will protect the name and honor of Afghanistan or they will prioritize other places and networks.” 

“In order to win legitimacy and hearts of the people, it is necessary for Taliban to give assurance to all the people, tribes, different segments, sisters and women of Afghanistan and to make clear plans and share them with the public,” Ghani wrote.

President Joe Biden speaks during an East Room event at the White House August 11, in Washington, DC.

President Biden is expected to address the nation in the next few days about the crisis in Afghanistan, according to a senior administration official.

One option under discussion is to have Biden return to the White House, though the official cautioned that they had not completely ruled out making the remarks from Camp David.

Earlier today, CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reported that while Biden can receive the same level of briefings from Camp David, as he has been doing throughout the weekend, officials are aware of the optics of the President being out of town during this perilous moment.

Several administration officials have also been on vacation, but began returning to work remotely Sunday or in the West Wing.

Passengers trying to fly out of Kabul International Airport amid the Taliban offensive wait in line in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 13.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) released a statement on Sunday addressing the situation in Afghanistan saying that there has been an influx of large groups of people seeking safety from conflict and other threats since July 1.

UN OCHA says that they have identified 17,500 newly internally displaced people (IDPs) in the past month in Afghanistan.

Most IDPs arriving to Kabul in the past few days “were reported to have arrived from Ghazni and Logar provinces” the statement reads. The organization says they assisted approximately 13,500 of these people in providing food, cash, health, household items and water and sanitation support.

UN OCHA says that the needs of IDPs continue to be shelter, household items, food, sanitation, hygiene kits and drinking water.

More than 550,000 people have been displaced by conflict in Afghanistan to date this year and the number of those displaced due to conflict has more than doubled since the end of May, according to UN OCHA. The organization also says that the number of people displaced by conflict in 2021 has already surpassed the humanitarian community’s planning figure of 500,000 for the year. 

“Some 18.4 million people were already in need of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan,” the statement reads. “The US $1.3 billion Humanitarian Response Plan for Afghanistan remains just 38 per cent funded, leaving an almost $800 million shortfall.”

Taliban fighters and local residents sit over an Afghan National Army (ANA) humvee vehicle along the roadside in Laghman province on August 15.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved 1,000 more US troops into Afghanistan, a defense official tells CNN, for a total of 6,000 US troops that will be in the country soon.

The additional troops come from the group of 82nd Airborne that were headed to Kuwait, and they are being sent in as a result of the deteriorating security situation, the official said.

Their primary mission is the security of Kabul’s international airport, which is the entry point for the troops and the exit point for the US embassy staff and Afghans who are leaving the country.

As of right now, there are approximately 3,000 US troops in Afghanistan. The remaining troops are en route or will be in the imminent future.

There have been security incidents at or near the airport, the official said, but US forces have not been targeted, nor have they fired on anyone. Turkish forces remain at the field and are also taking part in the efforts to secure the field. The official could not say whether Turkish forces had been engaged in exchanges of fire.

The US military is overseeing air traffic control at the field, which is still being run by Afghan air traffic controllers. Civilian and military flights continue, the defense official said, though there have been delays and temporary stoppages in civilian flights.

The US military will have the maximum capacity to move about 5,000 people per day out of Kabul international airport, though they are not able to move that number yet, the official said. They will reach that capacity “within days.”

The US has made its plans clear to the Taliban in Doha and that any attempt to fire on US forces will be met with a strong response, the official added.

Two French military planes will evacuate French nationals from Afghanistan to the United Arab Emirates as the Taliban continues to claim territory in the country, the French army said in a statement on Sunday.

The transport planes will take off from Kabul Sunday night and Monday morning for Air Base 104 in Al Dhafra, UAE. The planes will be reinforced by French soldiers who are stationed in the UAE.

The French nationals will then be transported to the city by other military planes after arriving at the airbase.

The French army is carrying out the operation in coordination with the ministries of Europe and foreign affairs, the statement said.

A spokesperson for the Elysee Palace announced Sunday that French President Emmanuel Macron will address the nation on Afghanistan on Monday.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a naval ceremony, in Istanbul, Turkey, on August 15.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkey will work with Pakistan to help stabilize Afghanistan, according to the state news agency Anadolu.

Speaking at a ship-launching ceremony in Istanbul alongside his Pakistani counterpart Arif Alvi, Erdogan said that Turkey is “facing a wave of Afghan migrants through Iran,” according to Anadolu.

He said Turkey “will continue efforts to enable the return of stability in the region,” emphasizing the need to pursue and strengthen cooperation with Pakistan in doing so, according to Anadolu.

The Turkish President said his country is determined to mobilize all the means at its disposal to succeed, according to Anadolu Agency.

Erdogan also spoke to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan over the phone on Sunday to review the evolving situation in Afghanistan. Khan conveyed that Pakistan was “extending facilitation in the evacuation of diplomatic personnel and staff of international organizations and others in Kabul,” according to a statement shared by his office.

The statement said that both Erdogan and Khan will reconvene on Monday, following the National Security Committee, which will tackle developments in Afghanistan. The meeting will be held in Islamabad and attended by senior government and military officials, according to the Prime Minister’s office.

Anadolu reported on Saturday that Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, together with military commanders, conducted on-site inspections of the measures taken on the Iranian border. Soldiers at the post reassured Akar that “neither terrorists nor illegal immigrants can enter our country while we are here.”

According to UNHCR figures from 2019, about 90% of the world’s Afghan refugees are hosted in Iran and Pakistan, and according to a 2020 report, more than 116 thousand Afghan asylum seekers and nearly 1,000 Afghan refugees reside in Turkey.

Taliban fighters raise their flag at the Ghazni provincial governor's house in Ghazni, Afghanistan, on August 15, 2021.

After 20 years of US intervention, thousands of deaths and at least $1 trillion dollars, the Taliban’s advance in the country has been strikingly swift — here’s a look back at how the situation evolved to where it stands today:

Less than a month after terrorists linked to al Qaeda carried out the 9/11 attacks, American and allied forces begin an invasion of Afghanistan called Operation Enduring Freedom, to stop the Taliban from providing a safe-haven to al Qaeda and to stop al Qaeda’s use of Afghanistan as a base of operations for terrorist activities.

On Dec. 7, 2001 the Taliban lost its last major stronghold as the city of Kandahar fell. Since then, the Taliban have attempted to gain ground in Afghanistan throughout the time US forces have been there and throughout multiple US administrations.

More recently, in January 2017, the Taliban sent an open letter to then-newly elected US President Trump, calling on him to withdraw US forces from the country.

Between 2017 to 2019 there were attempts at peace talks between the US and the Taliban that never finalized into an agreement.

During a surprise trip to Afghanistan in November 2019 for a Thanksgiving visit with US troops, Trump announced that peace talks with the Taliban were restarting. The peace talks resumed in Doha, Qatar, in December of that year.

The US and the Taliban signed a historic agreement in February 2020, which set into motion the potential of a full withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. The “Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan” outlined a series of commitments from the US and the Taliban related to troop levels, counter terrorism, and the intra-Afghan dialogue aimed at bringing about “a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire.”

In the month following the signing of the Trump administration’s peace deal with the Taliban, the insurgent group increased its attacks on America’s Afghan allies to higher than usual levels, according to data provided to the Pentagon’s Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

In August 2020, Afghanistan’s grand assembly of elders, the consultative Loya Jirga, passed a resolution calling for the release of the last batch of some 5,000 Taliban prisoner, paving the way for direct peace talks with the insurgent group to end nearly two decades of war. The release of the 400 prisoners was part of the agreement signed by the US and the Taliban in February.

In March 2021, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the Biden administration proposed to the Afghan government that they enter into an interim power-sharing agreement with the Taliban.

In April 2021, President Biden announced that the US would withdraw forces from Afghanistan by September 2021.

In August, just months after the US began withdrawing forces, the Biden administration sent in 5,000 troops into Afghanistan after the Taliban began gaining control in the country.

On Aug. 15, after the Taliban seized control of every major city across Afghanistan, apart from Kabul, in just two weeks, the Taliban engaged in talks with the government in the capital over who will rule the nation. 

The Taliban is now edging closer to taking full control of the country and have seized the presidential palace in Kabul after President Ghani fled the country. Earlier talks to form a transitional government appear to have been scuppered by Ghani’s departure.

CNN’s Clarissa Ward, Tim Lister, Vasco Cotovio, Angela Dewan, Mostafa Salem and Saleem Mehsud contributed reporting to this post. 

A US Black Hawk military helicopter flies over the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 15.

The presidential palace in Kabul has now been “handed over” to the Taliban, according to the Al Jazeera network.

It was vacated just hours ago by government officials, including former President Ashraf Ghani who has fled the country.

According to the Al Jazeera network, which broadcast scenes of the Taliban live from the palace, one of the Taliban officials said that Kabul was a different city to the one they left 20 years ago. 

“Securing Kabul is a huge responsibility. It’s different from the city we left 20 years ago,” Al Jazeera reported, quoting the Taliban official at the palace.

The Al Jazeera correspondent at the palace reported that three Afghan government officials were present for the palace “handover” to the Taliban.

A Taliban security official then said that “no blood was shed in the handover.” He also said there is a “peaceful handover of government facilities ongoing across the country.”

One of the Taliban officials also said that they want an all-inclusive government in Afghanistan.

He further said that Taliban leader as well as two of his deputies are now in Afghanistan and that they will come to Kabul when the security situation improves.

Another Taliban member present for the ceremony, spoke briefly in English to say he had formerly been held by the US in Guantanamo.

Taliban fighters sit on a vehicle along the street in Jalalabad province, Afghanistan on August 15.

The Taliban was making empty promises leading up to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Ampour reported.

“Most analysts who understood what was not happening in Doha, i.e. peace talks that were meant to engineer some kind of proper transition from one US-led force to the Afghans, didn’t pay off. The Afghan Taliban continued to fight on the ground while they continued to make empty promises to the United States in Doha, Qatar,” Amanpour told CNN’s Fredericka Whitefeld Sunday.

Amanpour noted that the Afghan Taliban’s efforts to gain control in the country are “very similar to what they did back in 1996, and the 90s, when they also stormed in and by and large took most of the cities, including Kabul, without a fight.”

The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms that they are facilitating the evacuation of the country’s diplomatic mission from Afghanistan, according to a statement obtained by CNN.

The UAE MFA also tells CNN that they are working on evacuating diplomatic staff from France, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, Australia, the Office of the United Nations Food Program, the United States, Germany, and Egypt.

UAE MFA said several aircrafts “from a variety of nations” are departing from Kabul airport on Sunday and are due to arrive to the UAE Sunday night and Monday morning.

A spokesperson for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, said that flights in and out of the airport will be allowed to proceed as normal. There has been no Taliban effort to take the airport. “We assure all embassies, diplomatic missions, institutions and residences of foreign nationals in Kabul that there is no danger is posed to them,” Mujahid said in a statement on Sunday. 

Taliban fighters entered Afghanistan’s presidential palace hours after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday, a milestone in the insurgent group’s assumption of control over the capital city Kabul.

One unit shared pictures of the palace interior – intact, but empty and apparently abandoned by Afghan officials – on an official Telegram account.

Taliban representatives had been in talks with the government for hours over who would rule the nation, following the militant group’s strikingly rapid advance across the country, in which it seized power over dozens of key cities, often with little to no resistance.

Who are the Taliban?

The Taliban are a Sunni Islamist organization operating primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

They formed in 1994 under the leadership of Mullah Mohammed Omar a few years after the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan. They were members of the Afghan resistance fighters, known collectively as mujahedeen, who were students of Omar.

Taliban, in Pashto, is the plural of Talib, which means student.

The group’s aim is to impose its interpretation of Islamic law on Afghanistan and remove foreign influence from the country.

The group started gaining ground in 1994 and captured the capital city of Kabul in September 1996. They had a controlling presence in the country between 1996 to 2001.

During those years, the group imposed strict Islamic laws on the Afghan people. Women had to wear head-to-toe coverings, were not allowed to attend school or work outside the home and were forbidden to travel alone. Television, music and non-Islamic holidays were also banned.

Omar led the Taliban from the mid-1990s until his death in 2013. Omar formed a relationship with Osama Bin Laden in 1997.

Less than a month after terrorists linked to al Qaeda carried out the 9/11 attacks, American and allied forces began an invasion of Afghanistan called Operation Enduring Freedom, to stop the Taliban from providing a safe-haven to al Qaeda and to stop al Qaeda’s use of Afghanistan as a base of operations for terrorist activities.

On Dec. 7, 2001 the Taliban lost its last major stronghold as the city of Kandahar fell.

Read more about the group here.

CNN’s Clarissa Ward, Tim Lister, Angela Dewan and Saleem Mehsud contributed reporting to this post. 

The United Nations Security Council will meet regarding Afghanistan Monday morning, a diplomatic source tells CNN.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres is expected to brief the Council, with private consultations to follow, they said.

In remarks on Friday, Guterres called on the Taliban to halt their offensive in Afghanistan and didn’t directly answer when asked what he would say to those who feel Afghanistan has been abandoned by the international community.

US President Joe Biden speaks at the White House in Washington, DC, on August 12, 2021.

Discussions are underway among top White House advisers for how President Biden should address the deepening crisis in Afghanistan, officials said Sunday, but no final decision has yet been reached about whether the President should return to Washington from his planned August vacation.

While Biden can receive the same level of briefings from Camp David, as he has been doing throughout the weekend, officials are aware of the optics of the President being out of town during this perilous moment. Several administration officials have also been on vacation, but began returning to work remotely Sunday or in the West Wing.

A range of options are being debated – about returning to Washington or addressing the nation – but several officials said events were too fluid and no final decisions have been made.

“He is deeply engaged from Camp David,” one senior administration official said, who did not rule out the President returning to the White House.

But the official said the White House “did not want this to become the Biden administration’s Katrina,” a reference to the 2005 hurricane that the Bush administration was slow in responding to during his August vacation.

Another readout of Biden’s Sunday briefings, including conversations with foreign leaders, is expected later today, an official said.

The White House also posted this photo of Biden, donned in a polo shirt, in today’s virtual briefing:

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley holds a press conference in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2021.

In a briefing for senators on Sunday morning, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said terrorist groups like al Qaeda could reconstitute in Afghanistan sooner than the two years defense officials had previously estimated to Congress because of the recent, rapid Taliban takeover of the country, according to a Senate aide briefed on the comments. The situation could result in a greater counterterrorism threat, he acknowledged. 

Senators were also told there are as many as 60,000 people who could potentially qualify as Special Immigrant Visa holders or applicants, P1 and P2 visa holders, or others like human rights defenders, two Senate aides said. The White House did not return a request for comment on those numbers. 

Axios was first to report on Milley’s comments. 

During a briefing for the House later in the morning, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the situation in Kabul “the worst outcome possible.”

“This is remnants of Vietnam, watching helicopters come off and fly by our embassy right now,” he said, according to a GOP source on the call. McCarthy added: “yes, I have passion, I have anger. … For everyone who we promised we would protect, how are they ever going to get out of there as of today?” 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeated that the administration had little option but to withdraw beginning on May 1 because of a deal made by the Trump administration, which would have resulted in resumed attacks by the Taliban on US and coalition forces amid the militant group’s nationwide offensive. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that while the Pentagon had been planning for “a number of potential outcomes,” the “lack of resistance that the Taliban faced from Afghan forces has been extremely disconcerting.”

“They had all the advantages, they had 20 years of training by our coalition forces, a modern air force, good equipment and weapons,” he said, according to sources on the call. “But you can’t buy will and you can’t purchase leadership. And that’s really what was missing in this situation.”

The Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, on March 9, 2020.

Taliban fighters are assuming control of the Afghan capital of Kabul and have taken control of the presidential palace, after the country’s president Ashraf Ghani fled to Tajikistan. 

One of its units shared pictures of the Palace interior – seemingly intact, but empty and abandoned by Afghan officials – on an official Telegram account. A video posted on social media a few hours before showed fighters arriving at the Presidential Palace in Kabul 

The group’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said earlier that its forces would begin entering areas of the city where the government officials and security forces had abandoned their posts. 

“Therefore, in order to avoid any looting and burglary in Kabul and stop opportunists from harming the people, the Islamic Emirate has advised its forces to enter those areas of the city where the enemy has left and the areas are at risk of looting and burglary,” he added.

Social media posts and witness accounts suggest Taliban presence within the city is growing. 

“Our forces are quietly entering the city, they won’t bother anyone, government employees both civilian and military should be assured that no one will harm them, no Mujahid is allowed to enter people’s houses, or hurt or bother anyone,” the groups spokesperson added.

The Taliban takeover happens amid a massive evacuation effort by the US and NATO allies of their citizens and support staff within the country. 

Earlier reports suggested a transitional government would be formed but the departure of President Ghani seems to have scuppered those efforts. 

A meeting, which was expected to happen between a high-level Afghan government delegation and Taliban in Doha, now “may not happen,” a source with knowledge of the intra-Afghan talks told CNN on Sunday.

Regardless, the Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, politician Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and former President Hamid Karzai have established a Coordinating Council to “better manage the affairs related to peace and peaceful transfer,” Karzai said in a statement. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks in London on July 12, 2021.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says it is clear there will be a new government in place in Afghanistan “very shortly.”

Johnson went on to call on the UK’s allies in the West to “work together” to make sure Afghanistan does not become the breeding ground for terrorism that it once was.

“I think it’s very important that the west, collectively, should work together to get over to that new government, be it by the Taliban or anybody else, that nobody wants Afghanistan once again to be a breeding ground for terror,” he said. “We don’t think that it’s in the interests of the people of Afghanistan that it should lapse back into that.”

“We don’t want anybody bilaterally recognizing the Taliban, we want a united position amongst all the like-minded, as far as we can get one,” he added.

Johnson described the situation in Afghanistan as “extremely difficult” and worsening, adding that, in his view, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was expected.

“I think it’s fair to say the US decision to pull out has accelerated things,” he explained. “We’ve known for a long time this was the way things were going.”

The British prime minister added that his government’s priority was first and foremost to UK citizens and Afghan support staff that helped the UK over the past two decades.

“Our priority is to make sure we deliver on obligations to UK nationals in Afghanistan, to all those who have helped the British effort in Afghanistan over 20 years and to get them out as fast as we can,” he said, adding that the UK ambassador was working around the clock.

“Two thousand have left, we’re going to get as many as we can in the next few days,” he concluded. 

French embassy officials have relocated their embassy to a site at the Kabul airport citing “the extremely rapid deterioration of the security situation in Afghanistan,” according to a statement issued on Sunday by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

The embassy remains operational in order to facilitate the evacuation of French citizens currently in Kabul, according to Le Drian.

On instructions from French President Emmanuel Macron, the Ministry of the Armed Forces will deploy military reinforcements to the United Arab Emirates to assist with evacuations from Afghanistan to Abu Dhabi which are expected to take place in the coming hours, the statement reads.

Senators received their own intelligence briefing from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley Sunday on the unfolding collapse of Afghanistan, but a senate aide told CNN the meeting was not contentious and focused mostly on evacuations. 

Senators were told there are as many as 60,000 people who could potentially qualify as Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders or applicants, P1 and P2 visa holders, or others like human rights defenders.

The Biden administration has surged capacity for evacuations but a key challenge will be whether people can get to Kabul, per this aide. Blinken said Qatar and a couple other countries are being helpful in housing people at least temporarily.

The officials were also asked about the potential for terrorist activity as well as engagement with Pakistan. They would not provide information on the terrorist threats in an unclassified setting, but the aide said it didn’t sound like Pakistan was being helpful on the situation.

Another source tells CNN that both the House and Senate briefings were both roughly 45 minutes long and that the State Department is following up with members who weren’t able to have their questions answered due to “technical issues.” 

Asked about the briefings, a White House official told CNN that “the White House remains in touch with House and Senate leadership to conduct classified briefings with staff soon and when Members are in Washington.”

The UK ambassador to Afghanistan remains in Kabul and staff are doing all they can to help remaining UK nationals leave the country, UK Foreign Office spokesperson told CNN on Sunday. 

“We have reduced our diplomatic presence in response to the situation on the ground, but our Ambassador remains in Kabul and UK Government staff continue to work to provide assistance to British nationals and to our Afghan staff,” the Foreign Office spokesperson said. 

Then-Afghan Minister of National Defense Gen. Bismillah Mohammadi speaks to the media at the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 11, 2014.

The acting Afghan Minister of National Defense Gen. Bismillah Mohammadi issued a brief tweet Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani and senior officials had left Afghanistan. In a clear reference to the former President, he said:

“They tied our hands behind our backs and sold the homeland, damn the rich man and his gang,” Bismillah wrote on his official Twitter account.

Earlier, the Afghan Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah bitterly criticized Ghani for fleeing the country.

Ghani is a former economist and academic, who served as Afghanistan’s president since 2014. He was reelected in September 2019 but due to a protracted process was not sworn in until March 2020.  

The US Embassy in Kabul – which is now operating out of the Kabul airport – instructed US citizens in the capital to shelter in place Sunday.

The embassy said that Americans “wanting assistance in departing the country should register for any option that might be identified to return to the United States,” and must complete an online form for each person.

“Spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens in Afghanistan who are awaiting immigrant visas should also complete this form if they wish to depart,” the embassy said. “Please do so as soon as possible. You must complete this form even if you’ve previously submitted your information to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul,” it said.

“Do not call the U.S. Embassy in Kabul for details or updates about the flight. This form is the only way to communicate interest in flight options,” the security alert emphasized.

CNN's Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward on August 15, 2021.

“Things are getting very, very quiet on the streets,” CNN’s Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward told Brian Stelter as the Taliban entered the capital Kabul. 

But Ward described the sense of fear and panic on the streets saying, “People for the moment are bracing themselves for the worst. What tomorrow will bring, what the future will look like.”

She explained the sense of chaos as the president had fled the country with no transitional government in place.

“The Taliban says they will now begin assuming responsibility for key ministries. Only tomorrow I suppose will we really get a sense of what that is going to look like, what a fall in Kabul will look like with the Taliban in full control,” Ward added.

In a virtual briefing with members of Congress this morning with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, they were pressed by lawmakers about the rapid timeline of the drawdown in Afghanistan amidst the news that Taliban fighters have entered Kabul. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pushed officials on why the process happened so quickly, saying “We didn’t give them air cover. You say you had this plan. No one would plan out this outcome. The ramifications of this for America will go on for decades and it won’t just be in Afghanistan,” according to a GOP source on the call.

But a Democratic source on the call said Austin defended the administration’s actions as an extension of the timeline for withdrawal initially laid out during the Trump administration.

Austin also said the US maintains the capacity to do air strikes to respond to any Taliban actions that interfere with evacuation.

Milley said the evacuation was a “highly dynamic and very risky operation” and also called it a “deliberate and controlled evacuation.”

Austin said the security situation rapidly deteriorated across the country, with Taliban controlling the majority of the territory. The Taliban faced very little resistance from Afghan forces.

Austin also said they want to keep Kabul airport open and secure. They had a contingency plan in place, which is why they were able to respond so rapidly to the rapidly deteriorating situation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked about the status of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani; officials refused to say where he is because it wasn’t a secure line.

Some more background: The call largely walked members of Congress through the strategy for removals from the country and specifically the capital with the secretaries saying that the following groups would be prioritized. Officials did not have any answers for who interpreters and other Afghanis could actually call to leave.

Blinken said the DOD is deploying aircraft to move more people out and will be brought directly to DOD places in the US. They are still having conversations with third countries, and nothing is finalized. They are prioritizing US citizens and local staffs and Afghan SIV holders and applicants; P1 and P2 folks; and women advocates. Embassy staff (non combatants), local employed staff, SIV, qualifying refugees and other third country staff under agreements that the US has with those embassies would also be prioritized.

A Democratic member on the call tells CNN that diplomatic efforts to find third countries for Afghans for processing is still underway, and a number of offers have been put out there, but nothing has been finalized yet. Officials made clear it is still a priority. Officials also said as of now Kabul airport is still open to charter and commercial flights

The American flag at the US embassy in Kabul has been taken down, marking a final step in the evacuation of the embassy, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The withdrawal of US embassy personnel from Afghanistan is happening incredibly rapidly today and the process is now expected to conclude by this evening, minus the small number of diplomats who will stay at the Kabul airport for now, the source said.

Right now there are still a few security contractors at the embassy but they will leave soon, explained a second source familiar with the situation.

In recent days the State Department was taking steps that looked like they were heading in the direction of a full withdrawal, but State Department spokesperson Ned Price claimed it was not true when asked. Price said on Thursday that the US drawdown of diplomats was not an evacuation. Now, three days later, the evacuation is on the verge of being complete.

CNN's Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward on August 15, 2021.

Afghan journalists are “absolutely petrified, particularly women journalists” as the Taliban enters Kabul and gains ground across the country, CNN’s Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward reports.

In the capital city, a majority of news organizations are “hunkered down” and waiting to see what’s going to happen, Ward said.

“Some of these journalists and reporters know that they have a big ‘X’ on their backs, that they’re big targets because they have been so outspoken against the Taliban in the past. And while the Taliban is trying to adopt this much more mature tone and pragmatic tone in saying that they are not going to hurt anybody, that they want things to be peaceful, that there will be no retaliation, there is also the reality on the ground that when you have a bunch of fighters roaming around, things can very quickly get out of control,” she said.

Watch CNN’s Clarissa Ward report from Kabul:

Video Ad Feedback

045c98e6-5cb0-4da1-9723-4a8c6ac75b49.mp4

03:39 - Source: CNN

The US military is considering the possibility of sending additional US forces to Afghanistan, a defense official and US official familiar with the ongoing discussions said. Both officials caution no decision has been made.  

Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, arrived in the Persian Gulf region Sunday to directly oversee the situation in Afghanistan, according to the defense official. The official declined to publicly name McKenzie’s location but said he is not in Afghanistan.

In the coming hours, a military team is expected to arrive and set up its own air traffic control system at the airport in Kabul in order to increase the number of evacuation flights out of the airfield. This type of capability is routinely maintained by the Air Force so it can operate at airfields in remote or war zone environments.

“We are going to ramp up flights” the defense official said.

The official also said the “current plan” is that as long as any US diplomats maintain a presence at the airport, there will be a contingent there of US forces to protect them. But the official acknowledged that if the Taliban are essentially in charge then that “reality” of keeping diplomats and troops at the airport may not hold.

The defense official also said “the current situation is going south pretty fast” and in his folks view from the outset “there was no assessment pessimistic enough.”

On Saturday, President Joe Biden authorized an additional 1,000 troops to be deployed to Afghanistan to assist in the “orderly and safe drawdown of US personnel and other allied personnel and an orderly and safe evacuation of Afghans who helped our troops during our mission and those at special risk from the Taliban advance.” The bulk of troops are expected in Kabul by the end of the weekend.

Taliban fighters entered Kabul on Sunday, despite saying earlier they would remain outside the city until there was an agreement with government officials, because Afghan security forces had deserted their posts in parts of the city, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement on Sunday. 

Read the translation of the Taliban’s statement below:

Mahbouba Seraj, women's rights activist, on August 15, 2021.

The rapid gains across Afghanistan by Taliban militants have stunned observers both at home and abroad. Mahbouba Seraj from the Afghan Women’s Network told CNN she was “surprised” by how quickly the government collapsed. 

“In a matter of two days, four provinces of Afghanistan going into the hands of Taliban. And I was wondering what on earth could be doing that?” Seraj said. “But then again, at the same time, because of the way this country has become in the corruption, the way it is in the world, and in Afghanistan today, I knew we were sold out.” 

After years in exile, Seraj – who was born in Kabul – returned to her homeland in 2003 to work with women and children. She says her goal was not to turn women into government officials but to help those that needed help the most. She spent years traveling around the country talking to women about their rights, education and healthcare.

She said that despite seeing the Taliban return to Kabul, she wants to continue her work and is choosing to remain in the country because “my duty is my responsibility.”

“I want to do it for my girls, for my sisters and for my daughters … but at the same time, I just want to be here because I know my presence really gives them the kind of normal, and the kind of support that they really need in this very hard times,” she added.

The Taliban entered Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, “peacefully,” CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh reported from the ground.

He added that it is unprecedented times, “Partly, because nobody imagined the Taliban would enter into the city of six million unimpeded,” and because the Afghan President “said that he essentially wanted to stick around and has now disappeared without a transitional government in potentially to take over.”

US President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting at the White House on August 3, 2021.

President Biden and his administration struggled Sunday to project order amid a race by American and other foreign personnel to evacuate Afghanistan as Taliban fighters entered Kabul.

The rapid fall of Afghanistan’s national forces and government has come as a shock to Biden and senior members of his administration, who only last month believed it could take months before the civilian government in Kabul fell – allowing a period of time after American troops left before the full consequences of the withdrawal were laid bare.

Now, officials are frankly admitting they miscalculated.

“The fact of the matter is we’ve seen that that force has been unable to defend the country,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” referring to Afghanistan’s national security forces. “And that has happened more quickly than we anticipated” he said.

The risks for Biden politically are uncertain; a majority of Americans say in polls they support withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, and Biden’s aides have calculated the country shares his weariness at prolonging a 20-year conflict.

Yet the chaotic scenes playing out as that war ends — evoking the fall of Saigon in 1975, an image that haunted Biden as he weighed a withdrawal earlier this year — are certain to trail Biden as the Taliban asserts control over large swaths of the country.

Already, some members of Congress are demanding more information from the administration on how its intelligence could have so badly misjudged the situation on the ground, or why more robust contingency plans for evacuating Americans and their allies weren’t in place. 

The notion the civilian government led by President Ashraf Ghani would be unable to withstand the Taliban’s advances is not a surprise. Intelligence assessments over the past year have offered differing timetables for what was viewed by many national security officials as an inevitability.

Read the full article here.

The majority of US Embassy staff are out of the diplomatic compound in Kabul, a US official told CNN.

CNN reported earlier that a small number of core personnel, including the top US diplomat in the country, will remain at the Kabul airport for now, the sources said.

The Afghan Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah has bitterly criticized President Ashraf Ghani for fleeing the country.

Abdullah also told the Afghan people: “During the current circumstances, the only one thing I want for you is that God give you the ability to maintain your peace. I request the country’s defense and security forces to cooperation in maintaining security. I request forces of the Taliban movement to give negotiations a chance, without entering the city, so the suffering of the people does not continue or deterioration of the security situation, which will result in causing casualties and losses inflicted upon the people.”

“Once again I request patience for you and may God help you and be with you, and that these difficult days pass and a solution is realized for the peaceful living of the Afghan people,” Abdullah said. 

Abdullah served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Unity Government of Afghanistan from September 2014 until March 2020. 

Taliban fighters have entered Kabul, arguing they were doing so because Afghan government security forces had abandoned their posts in parts of the city, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement on Sunday. 

In the statement, the Taliban called on the people not to be afraid of the Taliban.

“That is certainly a huge update,” CNN’s Chief International correspondent Clarissa Ward told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, adding that it will “undoubtedly be frightening very many people who face an uncertain future.” 

Ward described the panic people there are feeling right now as the Taliban have been inching closer and closer.

The Taliban have made sweeping gains seizing control of every other major city across the country in just two weeks.

A witness CNN has spoken with at Kabul airport has described a chaotic situation, as most foreigners attempt to leave the country.

“There are big crowds trying to get in and at one stage shooting erupted,” the witness said. 

“There was also a warning of a ground attack and we were in a bunker for the past hour but now it is all clear,” the witness added. “It’s all foreigners here. One young European woman was freaking out.”

CNN also saw photographs of lots of soldiers and groups of civilians waiting around, on the floor.

Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani speaks in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 2, 2021.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has left the country, an Afghanistan senior official and a senior diplomatic source have told CNN.

Afghan Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah has also said in a video statement that President Ghani has left the country, referring to him as “former president.”

CNN reported earlier that discussions were taking place at the presidential palace in Kabul between government officials and Taliban representatives.  

Ghani is a former economist and academic, who has served as Afghanistan’s president since 2014. He was reelected in September 2019 but due to a protracted process was not sworn in until March 2020.  

He used to be an American citizen but he gave up his passport to run for the Afghan presidency in 2009.

Ghani previously taught anthropology at Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University in the United States between 1983 and 1991, and later began working at the World Bank. He was at the global financial institution in Washington during the September 11 attacks, and used the tragedy as a springboard for his re-engagement in Afghan politics, returning to his home country just months after the event. 

Canada has suspended its operations at the country’s embassy in Kabul, its Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday. 

“The situation in Afghanistan is rapidly evolving and poses serious challenges to our ability to ensure the safety and security of our mission,” the statement read. “After consulting with Canada’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, the decision was made to temporarily suspend our diplomatic operations in Kabul.”

“The Canadian embassy will resume its operations as soon as the security situation in Afghanistan allows us to guarantee appropriate service and adequate security for our staff,” the statement added.

The foreign ministry also condemned the escalation in violence and remembered the sacrifices its armed forces as well as Afghan citizens had made in the pursuit of democracy.

“Canada firmly condemns the escalating violence and calls for a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire. We call for an end to the injustices faced by Afghans, especially women, girls, and ethnic minorities, in areas controlled by the Taliban,” it added. “Canada remains committed to Afghanistan and the Afghan people and we will continue to do all that we can to support them.”

Sweden will evacuate all embassy staff in Kabul, Afghanistan, by no later than Monday, Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde told reporters during a news briefing on Sunday.

On Friday, the Swedish Foreign Ministry announced it was reducing the number of embassy staff but noted it would wait to decide whether to fully evacuate the embassy.

Linde said last week that well-developed evacuation plans could be activated on short notice. “The safety of the staff at the embassy is a top priority,” Linde said on Friday.

US Sen. Ben Sasse speaks during a hearing in Washington, DC, on April 27, 2021.

US Senator Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, released a statement on Afghanistan Sunday, saying the US would “regret” its moves and foreign relations would suffer as a consequence.

“The unmitigated disaster in Afghanistan – the shameful, Saigon-like abandonment of Kabul, the brutalization of Afghan women, and the slaughter of our allies – is the predictable outcome of the Trump-Biden doctrine of weakness,” Sasse said in a blistering statement.

“History must be clear about this: American troops didn’t lose this war – Donald Trump and Joe Biden deliberately decided to lose. Politicians lied: America’s options were never simply this disgraceful withdrawal or an endless occupation force of 100,000 troops (we haven’t had that in Afghanistan in a decade).”

Sasse continued that US leadership “didn’t tell the truth” over how crucial the nation’s peace-keeping force to Afghan security was.

Earlier US Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted that Taliban gains in Afghanistan happened “more quickly than we anticipated,” but defended America’s withdrawal.

The UK House of Commons will be recalled from summer recess on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. local, the British Parliament announced on its website. 

“The Speaker of the House of Commons granted a request from the Government to recall the House of Commons at 9.30am on Wednesday 18 August in relation to the situation in Afghanistan,” the announcement read.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also convened a Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR) meeting this afternoon to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, his office said in a statement. 

Pakistan has just reopened the Torkham border crossing in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the busiest commercial point of entry between Pakistan and Afghanistan, for the transfer of goods and supplies, according to senior border official. 

The border is not open to pedestrians or travelers on Sunday afternoon. Heavy trucks transporting perishable items including fruits and vegetables are being given priority.

The only other open border crossing between the two countries is the Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing, another of the key points of entry between the two countries. 

The Taliban had closed that border for a period, but reopened it to the transfer of goods on Saturday, according to the same official speaking to CNN. 

The official previously told CNN on Saturday night the Torkham Border crossing had been “completely sealed” by Pakistani authorities as the Taliban continued to make gains across Afghanistan.

This picture taken from a hillside shows a view of Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 15, 2021.

Journalist Najibullah Quarashi in Kabul tells CNN the streets are empty, and the normally busy capital has been transformed into a ghost town.

He added that it reminded him of the ’90s, when the Taliban swept across the country and stood at the gates of the city to take the capital.

Government and private security have removed their uniforms and are wearing normal clothes, he said. Many government and private security personnel are wearing white scarves, the color of the Taliban.

Earlier in the day, images and video from Kabul showed long lines at ATMs at some locations around the city where people were trying to take out cash from the bank. Others had rushed to food markets to stockpile food, uncertain of what the weeks ahead would bring.

A high-level Afghan delegation has arrived in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

The delegation is expected to discuss the current situation in Afghanistan with the political leadership in Pakistan. 

Two Taliban sources have confirmed to CNN that the group has taken control of the large prison east of Kabul known as Pul-e-Charki. 

Video from the area around the prison that appeared on social media early on Sunday showed hundreds of people outside its walls, many of them carrying belongings.

CNN has reached out to Taliban spokesmen for confirmation. There has been no word from government officials.

By some estimates there were up to 5,000 inmates at Pul-e-Charki, the biggest prison in Afghanistan. 

The prison has a notorious history. Some senior Taliban figures were housed there after the prison at Bagram airbase was closed down. A number of alleged ISIS fighters and members have also been imprisoned there. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on August 15, 2021.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted that Taliban gains in Afghanistan happened “more quickly than we anticipated,” but defended America’s withdrawal.

“The idea that the status quo could have been maintained by keeping our forces there is simply wrong,” Blinken told CNN’s Jake Tapper adding that the prime focus is getting all Americans out of the country safely.

Blinken said the US is not asking the Taliban for anything to allow for a safe US evacuation.

CNN reported earlier that the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilizad has requested that Taliban fighters not enter Kabul until the US citizens are evacuated, according to a source familiar with the discussions. 

Former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai speaks during an interview with Anadolu Agency in Moscow on March 25, 2021.

The former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai has said he intends to stay in Afghanistan, along with his family, and calls for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. 

“I request the security forces and forces of the Taliban Islamic movement, wherever they are, to protect people’s lives and property, and pay attention to protecting people’s lives and property,” he also said. 

Karzai went on to ask people to stay at home, adding that negotiations were ongoing. 

“We are making efforts to have the Afghan problem resolved, [through talks] with Taliban leaders, peacefully and based on brotherhood and patriotism,” he added.

Some background: Hamid Karzai was chosen as interim President of Afghanistan following the overthrow of the Taliban regime by US and NATO forces in 2001. He served two years as interim President and was subsequently elected for two consecutive terms as Head of State in 2004 and 2009. 

In total, he served as Afghanistan’s President between December 2001 and September 2014.

Germany has moved its embassy in Kabul to the military part of the Hamid Karzai international airport and will take urgent measures to evacuate its staff, the country’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a post on twitter on Sunday. 

“I decided this morning to move the personnel of the Kabul embassy to the military part of the airport,” he wrote. “The personnel has since already arrived there and setting up its ability to work.”

“This afternoon I have called a meeting of the security staff of the German federal government to initiate urgent measures for the security and exit of workers and other people in danger from Afghanistan,” he added.

A high-level Afghan government delegation will be traveling to Doha “soon,” a source with knowledge of the intra-Afghan talks told CNN. 

“The situation is changing by the minute but we could expect an Afghan government delegation that has more power and authority to travel to Doha soon,” the source said. 

The delegation is expected to hold talks with Taliban representatives. 

The ongoing discussions within the presidential palace in Kabul are “utterly extraordinary” after two decades of war, CNN International Security Editor Nick Paton Walsh reports.

“This has been a morning of stunning events and that looks like we are heading towards some sort of transitional government here,” Paton Walsh said. He said names are being floated around, though nothing is confirmed, and President Ashraf Ghani would need to agree to step aside to make way for a transitional administration.

Yesterday Ghani made a brief but sombre address to the nation in which he said he was consulting with elders and other leaders both inside and outside of the country. In the short speech, he told the Afghan people his “focus is to avoid further instability, aggression and displacement,” but he did not resign.

As talks on Sunday continue, Paton Walsh said there hasn’t been evidence of Taliban fighters moving into the city. Earlier panic appeared to be a clash around a bank where people were trying to withdraw money.

The apparently last-ditch diplomatic efforts would hopefully avoid the Taliban presumably moving to its next phase of slowly entering the city, which Paton Walsh said would “not be remotely pleasant for anybody living here.”

“There will be elements of resistance too so I think everybody would prefer to avoid that kind of situation,” he added.

It’s been years since Haji and his wife have had a good night’s sleep.

“All night, my wife wakes up,” says Haji. “She’s scared. If [she hears] somebody is coming, she calls me, ‘Haji, someone is coming!’”

His wife says the first thing she does is hide the children.

“Then I get up and go to the door to see what is going on. If there are Taliban, I tell them no one is at home,” she says.

Haji’s English has become tentative since CNN first met him 10 years ago, during an embed with the US Marine Corps in Afghanistan. But his message cuts through the telephone static loud and clear: “If [the Taliban] find me, they will kill me and they will kill my family because I was an interpreter with the US Marines.”

The danger Haji and his family face grows every day as the Taliban claims more territory across the country, yet his repeated efforts to reach safety through a US visa program for interpreters keep hitting a brick wall, despite support from a half dozen US Marines.

Haji was what you might call a “combat interpreter.” Stationed in Helmand province – the heart of the insurgency – he lived and patrolled with the Marines and Army, translating as they searched vehicles, talked to locals and interviewed suspected Taliban members.

He has been paying for his loyalty to the US ever since. He and his family have been in hiding for five years, scared for their lives – his fear of retribution compounded with news of every province that falls into Taliban hands.

CNN has spoken to many linguists who say their lives remain under threat as the insurgents launch revenge attacks following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which is expected to be completed by the end of August.

Read Haji’s full story here:

Haji and Lance Corporal Jimmy Hurley (Ret.), 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines. Helmand province, Afghanistan, about to go on patrol. (Editor's note: A portion of this photo has been obscured by CNN to protect an individual's identity.)

Related article The Taliban 'will kill me and my family,' says abandoned Afghan interpreter

Emirates flight EK 640 from Dubai to Kabul had to abandon its approach to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Sunday for security reasons, the airline told CNN. 

The airline also said all further flights to Kabul airport are cancelled for the day. 

Russia is working together with other countries to call an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Afghanistan, an official told state media on Sunday.

“We are working on this. Our colleagues are closely working on this,” Zamir Kabulov, who is the head of the second department of Asia at the Russian Foreign Ministry said, according to RIA Novosti.

Kabulov added that while they will convene the meeting, it will not change the situation at this stage, and it should have been called for sooner to tackle the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement Sunday that the country “is closely following the unfolding situation in Afghanistan.”  

“A special inter-ministerial cell has been established in the Ministry of Interior to facilitate visa/arrival matters for diplomatic personnel, UN agencies, international organisations, media and others,” the statement added.

Overnight Sunday Pakistan sealed its largest border crossing in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with Afghanistan, a senior border official told CNN, who added that talks between the Taliban and Islamabad were underway.

Afghans who work at different offices rush to homes in Kabul, Afghanistan, after news broke that the Taliban reached the outskirts of Kabul on August 15, 2021.

The acting Afghan Minister of National Defense Gen. Bismillah Mohammadi has sought to assure Kabul residents of their safety.

“On behalf of the Afghan Security and Defense Forces, I assure all of you that the security of Kabul is ensured,” Mohammadi said in a speech broadcast Sunday, speaking alongside several military officers. “Your security and Defense forces are committed to defending Kabul.”

“International forces are ready to cooperate with the Afghan security and Defense forces,” he added.

The acting defense minister went on to say Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had met with the country’s elders on Saturday. They had agreed to send a delegation to Doha on Monday to “reach an agreement on the issue of Afghanistan.”

Pope Francis delivers the Sunday Angelus prayer from the window of his study overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.

Pope Francis has shared his “concern” over the situation in Afghanistan and called for “dialogue” to address the conflict during his Angelus prayer on Sunday.

“I join in the unanimous concern for the situation in Afghanistan, I ask you to pray with me to the god of peace, so that the clamor of weapons ceases and solutions can be found at the dialogue table,” the pontiff said.

“Only in this way will the battered population of that country, elderly men, women and children, will be able to return to their homes, live in peace and safety in full mutual respect.”

The US Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has requested that Taliban fighters not enter Kabul until the US citizens are evacuated, according to a source familiar with the discussions.  

The Taliban is currently in talks with “the opposing side” for a peaceful surrender of the capital and are telling their fighters to be on standby on the edges of the city as they seek a calm transfer of power, a Taliban spokesperson said on Sunday. 

CNN reported earlier that representatives of the Taliban’s Qatar talks delegation are currently inside the presidential premises.

The US has sped up the evacuation of its embassy in Kabul and hopes to complete the process within the next 72 hours.

Eight or nine representatives of the Taliban’s delegations from Qatar are currently inside the Afghan presidential palace, a source there tells CNN.

Among them is Anas Haqqani, brother of the deputy Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, the source added.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, is also the head of the Haqqani network, a family-run terrorist group that is aligned with the Taliban as well as al-Qaeda.

According to previous CNN reporting, the Haqqani network is considered by security experts to be one of the most significant threats to stability in Afghanistan. It has been blamed for numerous large-scale attacks in Afghanistan.

Doha hosted talks last week between Taliban representatives and Afghan government officials, along with envoys from the United States, China, Pakistan, the UN, the European Union, among others.

This post has been updated with additional reporting.

A source at the Hamid Karzai international airport in Kabul has told CNN that a number of high-ranking Afghan officials, including some of President Ashraf Ghani’s advisors, arrived at the VIP lounge of the airport and were waiting for a flight out of Kabul.

Their intended destination is unknown.

Earlier Sunday an Air India flight from Delhi landed at the airport, according to flight tracking data, but an Emirates flight due to arrive from Dubai abandoned its approach. 

The British Parliament is being recalled from its summer recess to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, the Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg told CNN on Sunday. 

This picture taken on Saturday shows planes on the tarmac of the airport in Kabul.

The US is completely pulling out all personnel from the embassy in Kabul over the next 72 hours, including the top officials, according to two sources familiar with the situation. 

This is a rapid acceleration of the process that was only announced on Thursday. It is a situation that many State Department security officials expected would have to happen as Taliban gains accelerated in recent days. 

Most of the diplomats will go to the airport in Kabul and then fly back to America.

A small number of core personnel, including the top US diplomat in the country, will remain at Kabul’s airport for now, the sources said. This means that the US embassy in Kabul will be shuttered – at least for the time being – by Tuesday. 

The other thing to note is that US officials have repeatedly been telling CNN over the last few days that the US doesn’t have great intelligence on the ground right now. This is one of the things that is fueling the decision to get these diplomats home because they really don’t know the precise dynamics of what is happening. 

One of the major reasons for this is because the United States has withdrawn most of their troops – those who were able to collect some intelligence – and as one US defense official put it, this makes the United States blind in the face of some potential intelligence that they used to have.

The UK is working to help its citizens and other eligible former UK staff to leave Afghanistan, said UK Home Office in a post to Twitter on Sunday as Taliban approached Kabul. 

The Home Office said its officials have already resettled over 3,300 Afghan staff and their families.

A senior official from Afghanistan’s presidential palace said the Taliban had not entered Kabul.

There had been reports of gunfire in the city, which occurred when a scuffle erupted over access to a bank and security guards and army nearby started shooting.

He said the shooting had since died down. The official pointed to the Taliban statement that they would not enter the city.

The official said that there were ongoing negotiations with a sense “of urgency” and that the president was in the palace with his national security adviser and other senior officials. 

He said the Americans and Taliban were part of the “contacts” but would not specify where they were happening.

A member of Afghan security force walks through a road in Panjshir province on Sunday.

After seizing much of the country in the last several weeks, Taliban militants now surround the Afghan capital of Kabul. Carter Malkasian, a former senior adviser to the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, says there are a couple of reasons for the armed group’s rapid advancement.

“Afghan forces, for a long period of time, have had problems with morale and also their willingness to fight the Taliban,” Malkasian, who is also the author of “The American War in Afghanistan: A History,” told CNN on Sunday.

“First of all, the Taliban can paint themselves as those who are resisting and fighting occupation, which is something that is kind of near and dear to what it means to be Afghan. Whereas that’s a much harder thing for the government to claim, or the military forces forces fighting for the government.”

He also said the Taliban’s repeated successes in taking provincial cities will have impacted the confidence of Afghan security forces. “There’s no doubt that morale suffers when forces face defeat after defeat,” he continued. 

“The more defeats that are suffered, the worst morale is going to get, so they’ve been suffering this kind of chain reaction for, really, the past three months. And on the other side of the fence, the Taliban are getting emboldened by success after success, and these kind of compounding effects make it even harder for the Afghan forces to hold ground.”

Multiple videos from the city of Qalat, the capital of Zabul province in southeastern Afghanistan, appear to show the Taliban in control of the city, with fighters evident in the main square and the Taliban’s white flag flying in several locations. 

A local journalist told CNN Friday that the Taliban had entered the city.

There has been no word from the government or any provincial official on the city’s status.

Twenty-five of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals are now held by the Taliban. The capital, Kabul, is the only city with a population of more than 100,000 still held by the government. 

Afghan men walk through a sreet in the Green Zone of Kabul on Sunday.

The embattled Afghan government is in talks with the Taliban over the country’s future as the militant group surrounds the capital, Kabul.

Acting Afghan Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal said Sunday that Kabul will not be attacked and that they will shift power peacefully to a transitional administration, though he did not say what a transitional government may look like.

In an on-camera video statement carried by Afghan news agency TOLO, he assured Kabul residents that security forces would secure the city.

Around the same time on Sunday, the Taliban issued a statement saying it was in talks with “the opposing side” for a peaceful surrender of the capital.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah said that all fighters had been instructed to be on standby at all entrances to Kabul until a peaceful and satisfactory transfer of power was agreed. They were also instructed about the lives, dignity and belongings of the residents of Kabul, and about not creating any danger or discomfort to them. 

The security of the capital was the responsibility of the government and they should guarantee it, Zabihullah added.

Afghans wait in long lines for hours at the passport office as many are desperate to have their travel documents ready to go in Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday.

A statement issued by the Taliban on Sunday appealed for calm in the capital, Kabul, and offered assurances to its residents. It said its fighters were now closing in on the city, and wanted to seize control there “peacefully.” 

The statement, issued by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, said the group was “assuring all the banks, businesses, money exchange shops that they will be safe and protected under the Taliban and nobody would touch or bother anyone in Kabul.”

Tensions are running high in the capital after key cities including Jalalabad and Mazar-i-Sharif fell to the militant group overnight. Video from the city in the last 24 hours show Afghans waiting en masse at ATMs as people tried to withdraw cash, while photos show long queues at the passport office where others are trying to get their documents in order.

Zabihullah also said those who had fought against the Taliban had nothing to fear.

He continued: “We will never ask about their past or who they were and we would like to take the city peacefully. They shouldn’t worry about us. We are normal people And the people who work for the Kabul government, in the military or other offices, they will all be forgiven and they’re all our brothers.”

A US military helicopter is pictured flying above the US embassy in Kabul on Sunday.

A US official tells CNN that evacuations are well underway in Afghanistan, with a goal to get US Embassy personnel out by Tuesday morning, if not sooner.

The Taliban is making rapid advances and is edging closer to the borders of the capital, Kabul.

The embassy expects to be running evacuations 24/7 “very soon.” Earlier, sources told CNN that helicopters were continuing to shuttle personnel from the embassy to the airport.

The current plan is to try to evacuate the embassy personnel, followed by American citizens, then special immigrant visa (SIV) holders. They are also looking into expediting people who are in the process of getting their SIV and looking to get Afghan nationals who work at the US Embassy out.

There will be a handful of embassy staff who will remain, a skeleton crew.

Pakistani paramilitary soldiers stand at the Torkham border crossing on August 3, 2021.

The border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan has been “completely sealed” by Pakistani authorities, a senior border official at the Torkham border crossing in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has confirmed to CNN.

The official told CNN that Saturday night, between 9 and 10 p.m. local, all the border transit and administrative offices on the Afghanistan side were “taken over by the Afghan Taliban.”

According to the official, there have been attempts to reach out to the Afghan Taliban but they were stopped by “senior officials” from Islamabad, who are “already in discussions with them.”

Attempts are being made to retrieve Pakistanis who are stuck on the Afghan side of the border. Two other border officials that CNN spoke to confirmed this situation.

The Torkham border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan is the busiest entry points between the two countries. 

We’ll bring you the latest developments from the ground in Afghanistan, where the Taliban’s rapid gains continued overnight as militants edge closer to Kabul.