INTERNATIONAL: Foreign governments are evacuating their personnel from the Afghan capital of Kabul. The city is expected to fall to the Taliban within the next 72 hours. Previous estimates put that time-frame at 90 days but the Taliban captured major cities on Friday evening and Saturday, putting them within striking distance of Afghanistan’s capital city.

The key cities of Kandahar and Mazar-e-Shariff are now under Taliban control. Governments around the world are calling on their citizens to flee the country and not wait for formal evacuation. That does not include embassy staff who are being evacuated from Kabul International Airport on Sunday. This includes the US Embassy. US President Joe Biden has dispatched a further 600 troops to the country to assist in the evacuation of personnel, including Afghans who worked alongside the US government.

Early on Sunday morning, Reuters reported that Afghan government forces were seen crossing the border into Iran.

Washington announced a full troop withdrawal from the country several weeks ago after a 20-year military presence. A US-led coalition went into the country in 2001 in pursuit of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, who was being harboured in Afghanistan by the Taliban. Bin Laden eventually fled Afghanistan and was killed by US troops in Pakistan in 2011.

The US troop withdrawal prompted the Taliban to launch a lightning offensive late last month, taking just a little over three weeks to recapture over two-thirds of the country. It is already in control of most border crossings in northern, eastern and southern Afghanistan, prompting major security concerns in the region. A high-level security conference was hosted by Qatar on Thursday.

The Taliban, which looks set to take full control of the country within day, is reimposing an extremely conservative interpretation of Islamic law which bans women from work and girls from education. Reports from the cities it has already captured confirm that it has also returned to one of its most infamous practices, public executions of anyone deemed to be against it.