Taliban reaches outskirts of Kabul, takes over major cities in Afghanistan

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An Afghan man (Image: Pixabay)
An Afghan man (Image: Pixabay)

New Delhi : Taliban members have reached the outskirts of Kabul, in a bid to take a complete military takeover of Afghanistan; it has captured almost all cities in the country.

The insurgents took control of the key eastern city of Jalalabad on Sunday, just hours after seizing the northern anti-Taliban bastion of Mazar-i-Sharif -- extending an astonishing rout of government forces and warlord militias achieved in just 10 days.

Pro-Taliban social media accounts noted that their members are rapidly moving toward Kabul province.

"Don't panic! Kabul is safe!" tweeted Matin Bek, President Ashraf Ghani's chief of staff.

In the current circumstances when Taliban has almost covered Kabul from all sides, Ghani's government has only two options - either prepare for a bloody fight for the capital or capitulate.

The loss of Mazar-i-Sharif and Jalalabad were huge back-to-back blows for Ghani and his government.

Meanwhile, the US president Joe Biden has ordered an additional deployment of 1000 US troops to ensure swift emergency evacuation from Kabul of embassy employees and thousands of Afghans who worked for American forces and now fear Taliban reprisals.

That was on top of the 3,000 American soldiers deployed in recent days, and 1,000 left in-country after Biden announced in May that the final withdrawal of the 20-year military presence in Afghanistan would be completed by September 11.