KABUL: The US State Department issued another dire warning to citizens in Afghanistan on Thursday, urging them to leave the country immediately as security conditions deteriorate amid a speedy Taliban advance across the country.
“The US Embassy urges US citizens to leave Afghanistan immediately using available commercial flight options,” a notice on the embassy’s website said, warning Americans about the capability of the mission at this time in serving citizens.
The U.S. Embassy warned that its ability to assist American citizens in Afghanistan is “extremely limited even within Kabul” due to deteriorating security conditions and reduced staffing.
The United States on April 27 ordered government employees out of its embassy in Kabul if their work could be done elsewhere, citing increasing violence in the city.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price earlier this week said the official posture of the embassy has not changed, when answering questions about whether an evacuation of the embassy is more likely.
Since President Joe Biden’s April decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban have made stunning battlefield advances with now nearly two-thirds of the nation under its control.
The Taliban captured the strategic city of Ghazni on Thursday, bringing their front line within 95 miles of Kabul. The militants also claim to have captured Afghanistan’s third-largest city, Herat, in the northwest close to Iran.
Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday that the continued Taliban offensive across the war-torn country runs against a commitment made last year by the group to engage in peace talks with the Afghan government.
“What we’re seeing on the ground is that the Taliban continues to advance and to assume control of district and provincial centers that clearly indicates that they believe it is possible to gain governance through force, through brutality, through violence, through oppression, which is at great odds with their previously stated goal of actually wanting to participate in a negotiated political solution,” Kirby said.
