Taliban

Nikita Ishchenko, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Kabul, was quoted as saying by RIA: "Four cars were full of money, they tried to stuff another part of the money into a helicopter, but not all of it fit. And some of the money was left lying on the tarmac." Ischenko confirmed his comments to a global news wire, citing "witnesses" as the source of his information, Al Jazeera reported.

While Haibatullah Akhundzada is the Taliban's overall leader, Baradar is its political chief and its most public face.In a televised statement on the fall of Kabul on Sunday, he said the Taliban's real test was only just beginning and that they had to serve the nation. The story of his adult life is the story of the country's unceasing, pitiless conflict. He fought in the Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviets in the 1980s.

"All the flights from Kabul airport have been temporarily cancelled and the passengers should not come to the airport until informed," the statement said. The cancellation of the flights took place in the wake of Kabul's fall to the Taliban on Sunday and the mass migration of Afghans amid fear, reports Xinhua news agency.

Witnesses reported seeing the bloodied bodies lying on the ground just outside the terminal building, according to the report. Officials at the US Central Command weren't immediately available for comment. The US military has taken over security of the Kabul airport to execute the massive airlift of foreign diplomats and citizens after the Afghan government collapsed on Sunday.

"Afghanistan's fall to Taliban doesn't augur well for our country. It'll strengthen the Sino-Pak nexus against India (China has already sought militia's help on Uyghur). The signs are not at all good, we need to be extra vigilant now at all our borders," he tweeted. The Taliban has declared that the war in Afghanistan is over after its fighters swept into the capital, Kabul, and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday.

Afghan media reported the retreat of Afghan national police from their outposts around the capital left the city in chaos and allow the city to be looted and plundered easily. Though the Taliban earlier on Sunday had said that there is no plan to enter the Afghan capital militarily, the security vacuum in Kabul city made them decide to direct their fighters to enter Kabul and occupy the empty police outposts and police districts.

"We assure all embassies, diplomatic missions, institutions and residences of foreign nationals in Kabul that there is no danger to them," Xinhua news agency quoted Muhammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Taliban's political office in Doha, as saying on Sunday evening. He stressed that the forces of the Taliban movement are tasked with maintaining security in Kabul and other cities in the country.

"President Ghani has a real reason to fear that his life was under threat," Asfandyar Mir, an expert at United States institute of peace, told Al Jazeera. "... many Afghans will be disappointed, the contradiction in his messages until yesterday. The fact that he could not hold the country together politically or put up any kind of a military resistance will disappoint his supporters," he said.

Young women in the city have been asking for help in recent days as the Taliban advanced towards Kabul, the BBC reported. Prior to 2002 when the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, the militants practiced a version of Sharia law which included stoning for adultery, amputation of limbs for theft, and preventing girls from going to school beyond the age of 12.

The declaration is expected to be made from the presidential palace in Kabul following the departure of Afghanistan President, Ashraf Ghani, earlier, who apparently fled, initially to Tajikistan. His current location is unconfirmed, the Guardian reported. The Taliban are claiming to have taken over the presidential palace in Kabul. President Ghani left the country earlier on Sunday, but the exact situation at the palace is still unclear.