Taliban seize Kabul as Afghan government collapses
The militant group swept into the capital as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, ending two decades of Western-backed government.
Taliban fighters entered Kabul on Sunday and took control of the Afghan capital with stunning speed, as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and the Western-backed government that the United States and its allies had spent two decades supporting collapsed.
The fall of Kabul came just months after the US and NATO announced the withdrawal of their remaining troops, and far faster than almost anyone had predicted. Provincial capitals had tumbled one after another over the preceding weeks, often with little resistance, as Afghan security forces melted away. By the time the Taliban reached Kabul, the government had effectively ceased to function.
Scenes of chaos unfolded at the city's airport, where thousands of Afghans desperate to leave converged in hope of boarding evacuation flights. Some clung to a departing military aircraft as it taxied down the runway. The United States and other countries rushed troops back in to secure the airport and airlift their citizens and vulnerable Afghans in the days that followed.
The takeover marked a dramatic end to America's longest war, launched after the September 11 attacks in 2001, and raised urgent fears for the rights of Afghan women and girls and for those who had worked with foreign forces.
For many around the world, the images from Kabul recalled past moments of retreat and defeat, and prompted hard questions about what two decades of intervention had achieved.