Washington (US): The United States is pulling out all US personnel from its embassy in Kabul over the next 72 hours, including top officials, CNN reported citing sources on Sunday.
Most of the American diplomats will go to the airport in Kabul and then fly back to the US. A small number of core personnel, including the top US diplomat in the country, will remain at the Kabul airport, for now, said the sources. This means that the US Embassy in Kabul will be shuttered -- at least for the time being -- by Tuesday (local time), it added.
The decision to pull diplomatic personnel out of the country comes as the Taliban has surrounded Kabul on Sunday after taking control of key provincial capitals. Earlier, on Saturday, US President Joe Biden authorised the deployment of additional 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, raising the number of American troops in the war-torn country to 5,000 to ensure a safe and orderly drawdown of personnel.
Read: Taliban enter Kabul, negotiators headed to presidential palace to prepare for "transfer" of power
The US President, in a statement, announced that he has authorised the deployment of approximately 5,000 US troops to make sure "we can have an orderly and safe drawdown of US personnel and other allied personnel and an orderly and safe evacuation of Afghans who helped our troops during our mission and those at special risk from the Taliban advance".
Earlier today, the Taliban entered the Afghan capital Kabul from all sides faced with little or no resistance. There are negotiations going on in the Afghan Presidential Palace ARG to transfer power to the Taliban. Moreover, Ali Ahamd Jalali will be appointed as head of the new interim government, The Khaama Press Agency reported citing sources.
Read: Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani flees country
(ANI)
