US, India and Canada are among the nations pulling out their citizens and embassy personnel from Afghanistan as Taliban entered the capital city of Kabul.
Air India flight AI244 carrying 129 passengers from Afghanistan’s capital Kabul landed in Delhi yesterday.
According to sources, India is closely monitoring the fast-changing situation in Afghanistan and will be deciding on the evacuation of diplomatic personnel from Kabul amid the Taliban gaining control. Earlier, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani left the country for Tajikistan, after the Taliban entered the gates of the capital city Kabul.
The United States is pulling out all US personnel from its embassy in Kabul over the next 72 hours, including top officials, reports citing sources said.
Taliban's conquest across Afghanistan forced the US President Joe Biden-led administration to send fresh troops to the Kabul airport to help with a partial evacuation of the US Embassy in the capital and rush thousands more to the region, for those Afghans who have worked with the American military.
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.
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”.
Yesterday, 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. Canada and Sweden are also set to withdraw their personnel from the embassy in Kabul. Canada has suspended its operations at the country’s embassy in Kabul, CNN reported citing a Foreign Ministry statement.
Sweden will evacuate all embassy staff in Kabul, Afghanistan, by no later than Monday, CNN quoted Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde as saying.
