Not long after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani flees the country to safety, the Taliban topped its exponential advances in the country by running into the presidential palace in the capital Kabul.
In early Monday, pictures emerged across countless media outlets showing members of the Taliban sitting right where until days earlier, the head of state used to assure people of his efforts to secure the country against renewal of the group’s rule.
They have for months been leading an exceptionally forceful offensive countrywide.
Despite their initial denials, including their reluctance to take over Kabul, the campaign soon became apparent to be aimed at restoring their full grip on the country that was temporarily lost after the United States’ 2001 invasion.
The US only helped the matters amid the chaos, saying in April that it sought to enable a complete withdrawal from the Central Asian country.
The simultaneity of the two developments have given rise to numerous reports and speculations that Washington could have made an agreement with the Taliban to bring about the situation.
The Taliban said through remarks made by its political office spokesman, Mohammad Naeem, that the war was over in Afghanistan and the type of rule and the form of the regime would be clear soon.
Naeem said no diplomatic body or any of its headquarters had been targeted, and assured everyone it would provide safety for citizens and diplomatic missions.
He said the group was keen on having peace with everyone.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, dismissed all denouncement of his country’s flash departure from Afghanistan.
"This is manifestly not Saigon," he said in reference to the US’s actions in Vietnam.
However, despite Taliban’s assurance of protection for diplomatic staffers, the country airlifted the staff out of Afghanistan and even brought down the American flag that used to billow atop the mission.
The US’s military and political abandonment of the beleaguered nation is not the only area, where it faces criticism over, what observers call, its self-serving attitude towards it.
Washington has also been asked time and again how come its two decades of allegedly training the Afghan security forces had not helped Afghanistan to even slow down the militants’ advances.