KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban swept into Afghanistan’s capital Sunday after the government collapsed and the embattled president joined an exodus of his fellow citizens and foreigners, signaling the end of a costly two-decade U.S. campaign to remake the country.
Heavily armed Taliban fighters fanned out across the capital, and several entered Kabul’s abandoned presidential palace. Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman and negotiator, told The Associated Press that the militants would hold talks in the coming days aimed at forming an “open, inclusive Islamic government.”
Earlier, a Taliban official said the group would announce from the palace the restoration of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the formal name of the country under Taliban rule before the militants were ousted by U.S.-led forces in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, which were orchestrated by al-Qaida while it was being sheltered by the Taliban. But that plan appeared to be on hold.
Kabul was gripped by panic. 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.
Fearful that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule that all but eliminated women’s rights, Afghans rushed to leave the country, 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 parks and open spaces throughout the city.
Though the Taliban had promised a peaceful transition, the U.S. Embassy suspended operations and warned Americans late in the day to shelter in place and not try to get to the airport.
Commercial flights were suspended after sporadic gunfire erupted at the Kabul airport, according to two senior U.S. military officials. Evacuations continued on military flights, but the halt to commercial traffic closed off one of the last routes available for fleeing Afghans.
Many people watched in disbelief as helicopters landed in the U.S. Embassy compound to take diplomats to a new outpost at the airport. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected comparisons to the U.S. pullout from Vietnam.
“This is manifestly not Saigon,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
The American ambassador was among those evacuated, officials said. He was asking to return to the embassy, but it was not clear if he would be allowed to. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations.
As the insurgents closed in, President Ashraf Ghani flew out of the country.
“The former president of Afghanistan left Afghanistan, leaving the country in this difficult situation,” said Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council and a longtime rival of Ghani. “God should hold him accountable.”
Ghani later posted on Facebook that he left to avert bloodshed in the capital, without saying where he had gone.
As night fell, Taliban fighters deployed across Kabul, taking over abandoned police posts and pledging to maintain law and order during the transition. Residents reported looting in parts of the city, including in the upscale diplomatic district, and messages circulating on social media advised people to stay inside and lock their gates.
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 20 years to build up Afghan security forces. Just days earlier, an American military assessment estimated that the capital would not come under insurgent pressure for a month.
The fall of Kabul marks the final chapter of America’s longest war, which began after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. A U.S.-led invasion dislodged the Taliban and beat them back, but America lost focus on the conflict in the chaos of the Iraq war.
For years, the U.S. sought an exit from Afghanistan. Then-President Donald Trump signed a deal with the Taliban in February 2020 that limited direct military action against the insurgents. That allowed the fighters to gather strength and move quickly to seize key areas when President Joe Biden announced his plans to withdraw all American forces by the end of this month.
After the insurgents entered Kabul, Taliban negotiators discussed a transfer of power, said an Afghan official. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the closed-door negotiations, described them as “tense.”
It remained unclear when that transfer would take place and who among the Taliban was negotiating. The negotiators on the government side included former President Hamid Karzai, leader of Hizb-e-Islami political and paramilitary group Gulbudin Hekmatyar, and Abdullah, who has been a vocal critic of Ghani.
Karzai himself appeared in a video posted online, his three young daughters around him, saying he remained in Kabul.
“We are trying to solve the issue of Afghanistan with the Taliban leadership peacefully,” he said.
Afghanistan’s acting defence minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, did not hold back his criticism of the fleeing president.
“They tied our hands from behind and sold the country,” he wrote on Twitter. “Curse Ghani and his gang.”
The Taliban earlier insisted that their fighters would not enter people’s homes or interfere with businesses and said they would offer “amnesty” to those who worked with the Afghan government or foreign forces.
But there have been reports of revenge killings and other brutal tactics in areas of the country the Taliban have seized in recent days. Reports of gunfire at the airport raised the spectre of more violence. One female journalist, weeping, sent voice messages to colleagues after armed men entered her apartment building and banged on her door.
“What should I do? Should I call the police or Taliban?” Getee Azami cried. It wasn’t clear what happened to her after that.
An Afghan university student described feeling betrayed as she watched the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy.
“You failed the younger generation of Afghanistan,” said Aisha Khurram, 22, who is now unsure of whether she will be able to graduate in two months. She said her generation was “hoping to build the country with their own hands. They put blood, efforts and sweat into whatever we had right now.”
Sunday began with the Taliban seizing Jalalabad, the last major city besides the capital not in their hands. Afghan officials said the militants also took the capitals of Maidan Wardak, Khost, Kapisa and Parwan provinces, as well as the country’s last government-held border post.
Later, Afghan forces at Bagram Air Base, home to a prison housing 5,000 inmates, surrendered to the Taliban, according to Bagram district chief Darwaish Raufi. The prison at the former U.S. base held both Taliban and Islamic State group fighters.
TORONTO (AP) — Canadian special forces will deploy to Afghanistan where Canadian embassy staff in Kabul will be evacuated before closing, a source familiar with the plan told The Associated Press.
The official, who was not authorized to talk publicly about the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity, did not say how many special forces would be sent.
Just weeks before the U.S. is scheduled to end its war in Afghanistan, the Biden administration is also rushing 3,000 fresh troops to the Kabul airport to help with a partial evacuation of the U.S. Embassy.
The moves highlight the stunning speed of a Taliban takeover of much of the country, including their capture on Thursday of Kandahar, the second-largest city and the birthplace of the Taliban movement.
Britain also said Thursday that it will send around 600 troops to Afghanistan to help U.K. nationals leave the country amid growing concerns about the security situation. And Danish lawmakers have agreed to evacuate 45 Afghan citizens who worked for Denmark’s government in Afghanistan and to offer them residency in the European country for two years.
Some 40,000 Canadian troops were deployed in Afghanistan over 13 years as part of the NATO mission before pulling out in 2014.
The first planeload of Afghan refugees who supported the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan arrived in Canada earlier this month. The Canadian government last month announced a special program to urgently resettle Afghans deemed to have been “integral” to the Canadian Armed Forces’ mission, including interpreters, cooks, drivers, cleaners, construction workers, security guards and embassy staff, as well as members of their families.
Canada’s airline association says it’s pleased to see the federal government implementing a vaccine passport for international travel.
Mike McNaney, president and CEO of the National Airlines Council of Canada, said a standardized digital certification of vaccine status is critical to restart the country’s travel and tourism sectors.
The federal government announced the passport system Wednesday, saying it’s intended to certify Canadians who choose to travel abroad.
Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said the digital pass will include data on the type of vaccine received, and the dates and location they were given.
The news comes after the government scrapped quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated Canadian travellers earlier this summer.
McNaney said he hopes all governments will work together to ensure that a fall release date for vaccine passports will be met.
Government lawyers are expected to argue today that an international bank risked losses due to the alleged misrepresentations by one of Huawei’s most senior executives.
Meng Wanzhou, who is the Chinese telecom giant’s CFO and daughter of the company’s founder, is facing extradition to the United States on fraud charges that both she and the company deny.
Today is the second day of formal arguments in her extradition hearing, which is unfolding more than 2 1/2 years after her arrest at Vancouver’s airport soured Canada’s relationship with China.
Meng is accused of lying to HSBC about Huawei’s control of another company during a 2013 presentation, putting the bank at risk of violating U.S. sanctions in Iran.
Lawyers for Canada’s attorney general, who represent the United States in the case, are trying to convince the judge that American prosecutors have provided enough evidence to support a case against her, while Meng’s team has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Her long-awaited extradition hearing is proceeding as courts in China prosecute Canadians whose sentencing or detentions are widely seen as retaliation for her arrest.
Western University and University of Toronto have announced they will both require all students, staff and faculty to show proof-of-vaccination in order to be on campus.
The three affiliate colleges at Western, Huron, Kings and Brescia, will have the same COVID-19 vaccine policy.
At both universities those without proof-of-vaccination will have to be tested for COVID-19 twice a week.
Western said in a statement, the decision was made after “careful consultation with public health partners and faculty experts in medicine, law and ethics.”
U of T’s special advisor for COVID-19 Salvatore Spadafora said public health evidence shows, “Vaccination provides the best protection from COVID-19.”
Western and U of T had previously mandated vaccines for students in residences.
It comes after Ottawa University also mandated COVID-19 vaccines for all who attend campus, including students, staff and faculty, earlier this week.
Seneca College became the first Ontario post-secondary school to make vaccines mandatory.
Multiple other university and colleges in the province will require students living in residences to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Council of Ontario Universities and Colleges Ontario have both called for a province-wide policy that would require all students, staff and faculty to be vaccinated.
Ontario’s chief medical officer of health expects the province will be able to fully reopen in a week to 10 days.
Dr. Kieran Moore says we’re getting closer to the vaccination targets needed to move beyond the third and final step of the reopening plan.
“It all depends on how many Ontarians come forward,” said Moore. “We’re at around 50,000 people coming forward a day for first and second doses.”
More than 81 per cent of eligible Ontarians 12 and older have had at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine and almost 72 per cent are fully vaccinated. We need 75 per cent of Ontarians with two doses before a full reopening.
But Moore says he believes the threat of a fall resurgence will boost vaccination rates.
“I’m very, very hopeful that more and more Ontarians, as we get through the summer doldrums and anticipate this rise in risk in the fall, will come forward.”
WASHINGTON — Canada’s immigration minister talked Canada-U.S. border issues Monday with the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
But the federal government’s official account of the meeting between Marco Mendicino and Alejandro Mayorkas, released late Tuesday, makes no mention of the current imbalance in travel between the two countries.
The readout does say that the pair discussed managing what it calls a “secure border that allows for necessary travel as pandemic border restrictions begin to ease.”
Monday marked the first day in nearly 17 months that U.S. citizens and permanent residents who are fully vaccinated were allowed to visit Canada.
Eligible American visitors to Canada must have allowed 14 days to pass since their last dose of a Health Canada-approved vaccine, and must also show proof of a recent negative test for COVID-19.
The U.S., however, still won’t let Canadians, vaccinated or otherwise, cross the land border to enter the U.S. for non-essential purposes.
Ottawa’s readout describes the meeting between the two leaders “as a continuation of their first call” in June.
They “discussed their ongoing commitment to protecting the integrity of our shared North American perimeter,” it says, “and to managing a secure border that allows for necessary travel as pandemic border restrictions begin to ease.”
The meeting was billed as a next-steps followup to the commitments Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Joe Biden made in February when they forged a “road map” for a renewed bilateral partnership.
That agreement specifically calls for “co-ordinated border policies” that keep the virus and its variants in check “while promoting economic growth and recovery.”
Despite that, the traffic over the Canada-U.S. border was markedly one-way Monday, leading to lengthy delays of several hours at some border crossing locations unaccustomed to high numbers of travellers. Those holdups had all but disappeared by 7 p.m. ET Tuesday.
Monday’s discussion also included global migration and refugees — “in particular, addressing the sources and challenges of forced displacement and irregular migration in Central America,” the readout said.
Ottawa says Mendicino also spent his time in Washington talking about immigration and post-pandemic growth at the Migration Policy Institute and the World Bank.
