The Taliban entered Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Sunday as Taliban negotiators headed to the presidential palace for a ‘peaceful transition of power’, Associated Press reported.
An official said President Ashraf Ghani had left the city for Tajikistan. Asked for comment, the President’s office said it “cannot say anything about Ashraf Ghani’s movement for security reasons”.
A representative of the Taliban said the group was checking on Ghani’s whereabouts. Taliban were poised to run Afghanistan again 20 years after they were toppled by US-led forces following the September 11 attacks on the United States. Taliban fighters were reaching the capital “from all sides”, a senior Afghan interior ministry official told Reuters.
But there were no reports of fighting and the group’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said they were waiting on the outskirts and were in talks with the Western-backed government for a peaceful surrender. Power would be handed over to a transitional administration, acting interior minister, Abdul Sattar Mirzakawal, tweeted.
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