Yahoo TV

Taliban insurgents entered Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Sunday (August 14), an interior ministry official said, as the U.S evacuated diplomats from its embassy by helicopter.

The senior official told Reuters the Taliban were coming in "from all sides" but gave no further details.

There were no reports of fighting.

A Taliban spokesman said in a statement that the group was in talks with the government for a peaceful surrender of Kabul.

A tweet from the Afghan Presidential palace account said firing had been heard at a number of points around Kabul but that security forces, in coordination with international partners, had control of the city.

Earlier on Sunday the Taliban also took control of the key eastern Afghanistan city of Jalalabad, without a fight.

The fall of Jalalabad- has given the Taliban control of a road leading to the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

On Saturday U.S President Joe Biden authorized 5,000 U.S troops to Afghanistan to help safely draw down the American embassy and remove personnel.

Biden also issued a warning to the Taliban that any action that put U.S. personnel at risk "will be met with a swift and strong U.S. military response."

Biden's decision to go ahead with Trump-era plan to pull U.S. forces out of Afghanistan after a 20-year war has given way to a Taliban resurgence.

The extremists have taken city after city far more quickly than predicted.

The U.N has warned of a humanitarian catastraophe as more than 250,000 people have been forced from their homes since May.