Taliban fighters stormed the Presidential Palace on Sunday and demanded a peaceful transfer of power as Kabul descended into chaos, with US helicopters evacuating diplomats from the embassy in the capital.
The US Embassy in Kabul, which has been the been the US s intelligence hub for 20 years and nerve center of the war on terror, is destroying all sensitive material and will be evacuated in 72 hours.
Prominent Afghan warlords Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Muhammad Noor, who were defending Mazar-e-Sharif, have fled to Uzbekistan along with their fighters and sons after the fall of the city to the Taliban.
With Kabul the only major city left standing, the President appears to face a stark choice between surrendering to the Taliban or a fight to hold the capital.