Image source, Getty Images

Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani is holding emergency talks with US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and other top Nato officials, reports say.

The meetings are being held amid reports that the Taliban are at the gates of the capital Kabul.

In his first national address since the Taliban intensified their military campaign, Mr Ghani on Saturday said that the country was in "serious danger".

He added that steps were being taken to boost Afghanistan's security and defence forces. However, all reports so far have indicated that the militants met little resistance as they began walking into Kabul.

The militants' presence outside the capital came hours after the fall of the key eastern city of Jalalabad - also with little resistance.

The rapid collapse of government forces has left President Ashraf Ghani under growing pressure to resign.

The US has stepped up evacuation efforts of members of staff from its embassy with 5,000 troops on hand to help.

Image source, AFP

As the US evacuates members of staff from its embassy in Kabul, comparisons are being made with the way the Americans left Vietnam in the final act of the war there.

That was another protracted US military campaign which ended in defeat and came to a hasty conclusion in 1975, with the fall of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City).

The last Americans and many South Vietnamese were evacuated by helicopter from the roof of the US embassy.

"Comparisons with Vietnam abound," financial analyst Tim Ash told Reuters news agency, "with that feeling of a Saigon moment and the last US helicopter out."

• Read more here: History of the Vietnam War

Taliban fighters have been parading in trucks on the streets of Jalalabad after capturing the key eastern Afghan city, apparently without a struggle.

The Taliban have moved closer to retaking full control of Afghanistan, with the capital Kabul also surrounded by the militants.

The fall of Jalalabad followed the seizure of the government's northern bastion of Mazar-e-Sharif just a day earlier.

The situation in Kabul is fast-moving this morning.

The Taliban have issued a statement to say they have ordered their fighters to stay at entry points to the capital - citing the risk to the densely populated civilian population.

The statement says responsibility for the security of the city remains with the government for now and asserts that talks for the peaceful transfer of power are continuing.

The statement urges Afghans to stay in the country and insists the Taliban wants people "from all walks of life, to see themselves in a future Islamic system with a responsible government that serves and is acceptable to all”.

However, reports from Kabul say gunfire has been heard and Taliban militants with flags seen on the streets.

Aisha Khurram, a former UN Youth ambassador, shared a tweet about the situation at Kabul University this morning.

The reports reflect anxiety across the country that women will become particularly vulnerable to losing freedoms under Taliban rule.

The BBC's Yalda Hakim wrote about the desperate pleas for help she has been receiving as the Taliban advance toward Kabul.

We've got more from Afghanistan veteran Dave Watson who says many of his army colleagues do not want British troops to return to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban.

He told the BBC: "I’ve heard things about us going back out there and the Americans going back out there - is it worth it? We don’t know.

"If we do go back out there, we’ll have to do it [with] a different structure. So go away from the six-, seven-month tours and do what the Americans do and do 12-month tours. We are going to have to be out there for life if we are out there.

"A lot of guys do not want to go back out there. They just want to come away from that situation now and let the Taliban and the [Afghan army and police] sort it out themselves."

He says British troops were "out there with our arms tied behind our backs" and "didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into".

"The Taliban, they can just lift their rifles and shoot at you. We've got rules of engagement - we have to go by those rules. We can’t do anything until a weapon gets pointed at us. Is that right?

"Why can’t we fight the battle the Taliban want to fight? We are out there to do a job and that’s to push the Taliban back and make Afghanistan safe for the locals again."

An Afghan MP in Kabul, Farzana Kochai, has told the BBC how people are desperately trying to flee the capital.

"I don't know, they can't go to anywhere, there's nowhere left. The aircraft may be full and the flights from Kabul today, I checked with some friends who are going there, out of Kabul, like to India or any other neighbouring countries.

"They're saying that the flights are full and we are stuck here, those who are going to go out and you know, where can they go, they have no choice, they have to stay here."

She said women in other parts of the country, where the Taliban have already taken control, told her they were no longer going to work or to school.

"For the women, the situation is as worse as it was expected. Women will be jailed in their houses, is that what will happen, is that what it will be like? For now, yes. but we'll see if it changes."

The situation in Afghanistan has become "a humanitarian catastrophe" and the country will become a haven for extremist groups and terrorist, the former UK international development secretary says.

Rory Stewart told the BBC: "Everything is going wrong... schools are shutting down across the country, clinics are shutting down across the country, people are taking refuge in their homes, looting is taking place. People are trying to leave the country as refugees, so that now means we are going to have to become involved in humanitarian support."

He says many Afghans are in terror at what's happening.

"It's a situation where we created a vacuum. Pakistan, Iran, other players will start flowing into that space. It's very likely that when the Taliban take over this will be a space in which extremist groups, terrorists and other will function," he says.

"So we are ending up to this decision we are going to lose an enormous amount of risk, we are going to have to spend a lot money, we are going to have to take an enormous amount of responsibility for a mess we made."

A message was just posted, external on the Office of the President of Afghanistan's Twitter account seeking to reassure residents, despite reports of Taliban starting to enter the capital.

"There have been sporadic shootings in Kabul, Kabul has not been attacked, the country's security and defense forces are working together with international partners to ensure the security of the city, the situation is under control," the post said, in Pashto.

The BBC's Yalda Hakim, who has reported extensively from Afghanistan for more than a decade, says the militants are not encountering a lot of resistance in the Afghan capital.

The Taliban have ordered their fighters to refrain from perpetrating violence in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and allow safe passage to anyone who chooses to leave, Reuters quotes a Taliban leader in Doha as saying.

He also requested that women head to protected areas.

We are getting reports that the militants are entering Kabul from all sides:

Reuters, citing a Nato official, says that several EU staff members have been moved to an undisclosed safer location in Kabul.

The news agency also says that a US official has confirmed fewer than 50 US embassy officials will stay on, with a core team now working from Kabul airport.

With reports of the Taliban closing in, the tension in Kabul is rising.

A BBC producer based there said he was suddenly evacuated from a government office a short time ago.

Photographs on social media appear to show some residents gathering outside banks, foreign embassies, and in visa processing offices.

Matin Bek, a senior Afghan government aide, has tweeted to try and reassure residents.

Afghan students cannot take up UK scholarshipspublished at 08:36 British Summer Time 15 August 2021

08:36 BST 15 August 2021

Ben Wright
BBC political correspondent

Afghan students who were offered scholarships by the UK government to study here from next month have been told they won't now be able to take up their places.

The Foreign Office says the situation in Afghanistan means the British Embassy in Kabul can't finalise the preparations.

The Chevening scholarship programme enables promising students from all over the world to pursue one-year master's degrees in the UK.

The former Conservative cabinet minister David Lidington said on Twitter, external that the decision seemed both "morally wrong" and "against UK interests".

The former international development secretary Rory Stewart said it was "deeply disappointing" that visas couldn't be sorted out.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's government seems to be on the brink of losing control of the country.

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.

Overnight, US President Joe Biden said the US was urging him to pursue a political settlement to avoid further bloodshed.

It came after President Ghani delivered a sombre, short public address to the Afghan people on Saturday praising the "courageous" security forces and saying his focus was on "preventing further instability, violence and displacement of my people".

There had been speculation he would announce his resignation.

Who is Ashraf Ghani?

• Born in Logar province in 1949
• Moved to the US in 1983 to teach at the University of California and Johns Hopkins University
• Former official at World Bank - he returned to Afghanistan in 2002 to hold various posts
• Ran and lost the presidential election in 2009
• First became president of unity government in 2014, taking over from Hamid Karzai
• Sworn in for a second term in March 2020 after a disputed vote the previous year

Image source, Reuters

The Taliban were removed from power in Afghanistan by US-led forces in 2001, but the group has gradually regained strength.

As the US prepares to complete its withdrawal by 11 September, after two decades of war, the Taliban have overrun Afghan military outposts, cities and villages, fuelling fears once again that they could topple the government.

The group entered direct talks with the US back in 2018. In February 2020 the two sides struck a peace deal in Doha that committed the US to withdrawal and the Taliban to preventing attacks on US forces. Other promises included not allowing al-Qaeda or other militants to operate in areas the Taliban controlled and proceeding with national peace talks.

But in the year that followed, the Taliban continued to target Afghan security forces and civilians. Now, as the US prepares to leave, the group is resurgent and advancing rapidly across the country.

Read more

Jon Sopel, the BBC's North America Editor, has been reflecting on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and looking at what the Taliban advance means for America and President Joe Biden.

In it, he reflects on 20 years of war - including his own time spent covering the War on Terror.

• Read Jon's analysis here

The UN has said it is alarmed by the humanitarian crisis unfolding.

People fleeing violence elsewhere in the country have taken to living in parks and temporary camps in Kabul.

"We arrived here a week ago, but the government does not help us. We have no water, no food, and no shelter in this park," one man from Jawzjan province told AFP.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Many of those fleeing are fearful of the loss of freedoms under Taliban rule.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said he is "deeply disturbed" by the reports coming in.

“It is particularly horrifying and heartbreaking to see reports of the hard-won rights of Afghan girls and women being ripped away from them,” he added.

On Saturday the UN refugee agency UNHCR said about 80% of the estimated 250,000 Afghans displaced since the end of May were women and girls.

• Read more: Afghans living under Taliban lament loss of freedoms