Taliban declare ‘war is over’ as they take control of Kabul; Airport closed to commercial flights

Kabul, Aug 15: As the Afghan president fled the country and the government crumbled, The Taliban declared the war was over and signalling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan.

The Taliban, which for hours had been in the outskirts of Kabul, announced soon after they would move further into a city gripped by panic throughout the day as helicopters raced overhead to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy.

Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out. Civilians fearing that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule that all but eliminated women's rights rushed to leave the country as well, lining up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings. The desperately poor - who had left homes in the countryside for the hoped-for safety in the capital - remained in their thousands in parks and open spaces throughout the city.

Senior US military officials say Kabul's international airport has been closed to commercial flights as military evacuations continue.

The suspension of commercial flights cuts off one of the last avenues to escape the country for Afghans fearful of Taliban rule. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations.

The Taliban captured most of the country in a matter of days and swept into the capital on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday he had left the country to avoid bloodshed as the Taliban entered the capital Kabul.

In a stunning rout, the Taliban seized nearly all of Afghanistan in just over a week, despite the billions of dollars spent by the U.S. and NATO over nearly two decades to build up Afghan security forces. Just days earlier, an American military assessment estimated it would be a month before the capital would come under insurgent pressure. Instead, the Taliban swiftly defeated, co-opted or sent Afghan security forces fleeing from wide swaths of the country, even though they had some air support from the U.S. military.