Taliban seize Kabul in nine days Afghan government collapses Biden defends withdrawal decision

The Taliban capture Kabul in just nine days of their final offensive, stunning US intelligence officials who had assessed the city would hold for weeks. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani flees the country without warning. The Taliban take control of the Presidential Palace within hours. Thousands of Afghans flood Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport, with videos of people clinging to departing US military planes going viral worldwide. Biden delivers a televised address from Camp David defending the withdrawal, saying he was not going to "pass this war on to a fifth president." He says no one predicted the Afghan forces would refuse to fight. Critics from both parties condemn the chaotic evacuation. Over the next 17 days, the US airlifts 124,000 people out of Afghanistan.