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On Friday, many European countries announced the withdrawal of personnel from their embassies.
The Afghan Taliban strengthened their territorial control over Kabul on Saturday. Refugees relentlessly attacked by rebels poured into the capital, and the U.S. Marines returned to supervise the emergency evacuation.
With the country’s second and third largest cities falling into the hands of the Taliban, Kabul has effectively become the last stop under siege, with government forces in other places with little or no resistance.
Insurgent militants are now camping 50 kilometers (30 miles) away, allowing the United States and other countries to scramble to airlift their nationals out of Kabul to avoid full-scale attacks.
U.S. Embassy staff were ordered to start crushing and burning sensitive materials as the planned redeployment of 3,000 U.S. troops began to arrive to ensure airport security and supervise evacuation.
Many European countries-including the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark and Spain-announced the withdrawal of personnel from their embassies on Friday.
For the residents of Kabul and the tens of thousands of people who have sought refuge there in recent weeks, the overwhelming emotion is a kind of confusion and fear for the future.
“We don’t know what happened,” Khairddin Logari, a resident, told AFP.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply disturbed” by reports of the harsh treatment of women in areas occupied by the Taliban.
Guterres said: “It is especially frightening and heartbreaking to see reports of Afghan girls and women being denied their hard-won rights.”
Despite frantic evacuation efforts, the Biden administration still insists that a complete takeover by the Taliban is not inevitable.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Friday: “Kabul is not currently in an imminent threat environment,” while acknowledging that Taliban militants are “trying to isolate” the city.
In recent days, the Taliban’s offensive has accelerated and captured Herat in the north. A few hours later, they captured Kandahar, the spiritual center of the organization in the south.
Abdul Nafi, a resident of Kandahar, told AFP that after government troops abandoned it as a refuge for military installations outside, the city was calm and they were negotiating terms of surrender there.
“I came out this morning and I saw the Taliban white flag in most squares of the city,” he said. “I thought it might be the first day of Eid al-Fitr.”
Pro-Taliban social media accounts boasted of the large amount of loot captured by the insurgents—posted photos of armored vehicles, heavy weapons, and even drones captured by their fighters at abandoned military bases.
In Herat, the Taliban captured the longtime strongman Ismail Khan, who, together with his militia fighters, helped lead the defense of the provincial capital.
Pule Alam, the capital of Lohar Province, is the latest city to collapse on Friday, and the Taliban are within easy reach of Kabul.
The US-led evacuation operation focused on thousands of people, including embassy employees, as well as Afghans and their families who feared reprisals for serving as American translators or other supporting roles.
Pentagon spokesman Kirby said that most of the evacuation forces will be in place on Sunday and that “thousands of people will be able to evacuate every day” from Afghanistan.
“Capacity will not be an issue,” he said.
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