The US embassy in Afghanistan issued a security alert calling on Americans to fly out on commercial flights and said it can provide repatriation loans for citizens who can't afford to buy tickets.

Meanwhile, violence has intensified across Afghanistan as “Taliban” fighters made rapid advances in recent weeks. Having captured large swathes of the countryside, they are now targeting key cities.

The escalation comes after the US and other international forces began to withdraw their troops from the country. The move was described by the Russian Foreign Ministry as an “implicit acknowledgment of US failure”.

Earlier today, an Afghan source confirmed the Afghan Sheberghan Airport had fallen into the hands of the Taliban after officials withdrew from it.

On its account, the US State Department on Wednesday said it is amid forging an international consensus behind the need for an Afghanistan peace accord, even as it acknowledged that "all indications" point to the Taliban seeking a "battlefield victory."

US officials said the Taliban are violating "the letter and the spirit" of the February 2020 US-Taliban deal for a withdrawal of all US troops from America’s longest war.