The Taliban further closed in on Kabul Sunday, with the insurgents taking over the eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, as US forces arrived in the country to evacuate its citizens.
The fall of the last major city outside the capital secured for the insurgents the roads connecting Afghanistan to Pakistan, a western official said.
It followed the Taliban’s seizure of the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
“There are no clashes taking place right now in Jalalabad because the governor has surrendered to the Taliban,” a Jalalabad-based Afghan official told Reuters. “Allowing passage to the Taliban was the only way to save civilian lives.”