Drawdown of US embassy in Kabul is under discussion, sources say, as Taliban makes rapid gains in Afghanistan

There are active discussions about a further drawdown of the US embassy in Kabul among State Department officials, according to two sources familiar with the discussions, as the Taliban continues to gain ground in Afghanistan.

Those gains -- which have occurred much more rapidly than many US officials expected -- have made the situation more urgent and sped up the conversations that have been happening for some time now, one source said. US officials are no longer talking about six months as the likely timeline for the government of Afghanistan to collapse; they now believe it could happen much more quickly, the two sources said. The US military began withdrawing from the country earlier this year and has completed more than 95% of the US troop withdrawal, which will be completed by late August.