Afghan president flees country as Taliban takes Kabul

The Taliban’s conquest in Afghanistan is complete as President Ashraf Gani fled the country on Sunday. He joined thousands of his fellow citizens in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban. Helicopters evacuated personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Smoke billowed into the clouds above the compound as staff destroyed important documents and officials lowered the American flag. On Monday, thousands of people flooded into the airport in Kabul in a chaotic last-minute attempt to leave the country.

How was the Taliban able to take over the country so quickly? Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States and its allies invested a great deal in the Afghan military and did not expect it to fold so quickly. Some experts say when U.S. troops departed, morale within the Afghan military plummeted, leading to mass defections. An official with the Taliban said it would soon announce the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the name of the country before U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks. President Joe Biden has maintained that evacuating U.S. troops was the right decision.

Dig deeper: Read Mindy Belz’s report on the return of the Taliban.