'Will not bow to Taliban', says Afghanistan vice president as Ashraf Ghani flees

Kabul, Aug 15: As the Taliban takes control of the presidential palace in Kabul on Sunday, vice president Amrullah Saleh announced on social media that he will never bow to the Taliban, not under any circumstances.

"I will never, ever and under no circumstances bow to d Talib terrorists. I will never betray d soul & legacy of my hero Ahmad Shah Masoud, the commander, the legend and the guide. I won't dis-appoint millions who listened to me. I will never be under one ceiling with Taliban. NEVER," Saleh tweeted.

I will never, ever & under no circumstances bow to d Talib terrorists. I will never betray d soul & legacy of my hero Ahmad Shah Masoud, the commander, the legend & the guide. I wont dis-appoint millions who listened to me. I will never be under one ceiling with Taliban. NEVER.

— Amrullah Saleh (@AmrullahSaleh2) August 15, 2021

Afghanistan''s embattled president left the country Sunday, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan.

The Taliban entered the capital early Sunday and an official in the militant group said it would soon announce the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the presidential palace - a return rich in symbolism to the name of the country under the Taliban government ousted by US-led forces after the 9/11 attacks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

The militants had earlier moved into a city gripped by panic, where helicopters raced overhead throughout the day to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents, and the American flag was lowered. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out.

Afghans 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 presumed safety of the capital - remained in their thousands in parks and open spaces throughout the city.

Though the Taliban had promised a peaceful transition, the U.S. Embassy warned Americans late in the day to shelter in place and not try to get to the airport, where it said there were reports of gunfire. The embassy also suspended its own operations.

with PTI inputs