Recriminations ring loud in US

While Taliban forces entered the Afghan capital Kabul and took control of the presidential palace, halfway across the globe in Washington finger-pointing dominated the discourse over the rapid changes in Afghanistan.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked on Sunday about the scenes in Kabul in an interview on ABC News.

"Just last month, President (Joe) Biden said that under no circumstance, and those were his words, under no circumstance would the US personnel, embassy personnel be airlifted out of Kabul in a replay of the scenes that we saw in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in 1975," reporter Johnathan Karl said. "So, isn't that exactly what we're seeing now?"

"Let's take a step back," Blinken said. "This is manifestly not Saigon."

Biden had said at a July 8 news conference: "There's going to be no circumstance where you're going to see people being lifted off the roof of (an) embassy of the United States from Afghanistan."

Ross Wilson, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, and some of his staff were seen fleeing Kabul with the US flag on Sunday, as the Pentagon increased the number of troops from 1,000 to 6,000 to help with the evacuation. Biden had said the US would largely complete its troop withdrawal by Aug 31.

Biden said on Saturday that his predecessor Donald Trump "left the Taliban in the strongest military position since 2001".

"When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor－which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019－that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001 and imposed a May 1, 2021, deadline on US forces," Biden said in a statement.

"Shortly before he left office, he also drew US forces down to a bare minimum of 2,500. Therefore, when I became president, I faced a choice－follow through on the deal, with a brief extension to get our forces and our allies' forces out safely, or ramp up our presence and send more American troops to fight once again in another country's civil conflict."

In a statement on Saturday, Trump responded: "He ran out of Afghanistan instead of following the plan our administration left for him－a plan that protected our people and our property, and ensured the Taliban would never dream of taking our embassy or providing a base for new attacks against America."

When the Taliban swept into Kabul, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani joined an exodus of citizens and foreigners on Sunday, signaling the end of a costly two-decade US campaign to remake the country.

US Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators that day that a previous assessment of how soon terrorist groups will likely regroup in Afghanistan will be expedited because of the current situation, reported news platform Axios, citing three sources on the phone call.

As Taliban fighters fanned out across the capital, Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman and negotiator, told The Associated Press that the group would hold talks in the coming days aimed at forming an "open, inclusive Islamic government".

Also, a Taliban commander claimed he had spent eight years as a US prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, in a triumphant speech livestreamed from inside the presidential palace by the Al-Jazeera network.

Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem said the war was over.

"We have reached what we were seeking, which is the freedom of our country and the independence of our people," he said.

Helicopters hovered above Kabul through the day to evacuate personnel from the US embassy. Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed documents.

Five people were killed in chaos at Kabul airport on Monday, witnesses said, as people tried to flee the country, according to Reuters.

With the Taliban closing in, Ghani's departure was announced by a political rival, Abdullah Abdullah.

Difficult situation

"The former president of Afghanistan left Afghanistan, leaving the country in this difficult situation," said Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council. "God should hold him accountable."

Ghani later posted on Facebook that he left to avert bloodshed in the capital, without providing his destination.

An Afghan university student described feeling betrayed as she watched the US embassy evacuation.

"You failed the younger generation of Afghanistan," said Aisha Khurram, 22, who is unsure of whether she will be able to graduate in two months. She said her generation had put "blood, efforts and sweat" into building the country.

Earlier on Sunday, the Taliban seized Jalalabad before marching into Kabul. Afghan forces at Bagram Air Base, home to a prison housing 5,000 inmates, surrendered to the Taliban, according to the Bagram district chief.

Agencies contributed to this story.