Afghan President Ghani flees country as Taliban surrounds Kabul

Ashraf Ghani leaves Afghanistan hours after Taliban ordered its fighters to wait on the outskirts of the capital.

Afghanistan’s embattled president has left the country, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signalling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan. Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council, confirmed in an online video that President Ghani had left on Sunday. “The former president of Afghanistan left Afghanistan, leaving the country in this difficult situation,” Abdullah said. “God should hold him accountable.”