Taliban official claims insurgents on verge of taking control of Afghanistan after president, Ashraf Ghani, is reported to have left country
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The spokesman for the Taliban’s political office has told Al-Jazeera TV today that the war is over in Afghanistan and that the type of rule and the form of regime will be clear soon.
Reuters reports:
“We assure everyone that we will provide safety for citizens and diplomatic missions. We are ready to have a dialogue with all Afghan figures and will guarantee them the necessary protection,” spokesman Mohammad Naeem told the Qatar-based channel.
Afghanistan’s fallen and president Ashraf Ghani slipped out of his country earlier today, with no warning to the outside world, in the same way he had led it in recent years: a lonely and isolated figure.
Ghani quietly left the sprawling presidential palace with a small coterie of confidants and didn’t even tell other political leaders who had been negotiating a peaceful transition of power with the Taliban that he was heading for the exit.
Abdullah Abdullah, his long-time rival who had twice buried his animosity to partner with Ghani in government, said that “God will hold him accountable” for abandoning the capital.
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