All US embassy staff evacuated to Kabul airport

The US State Department has confirmed about evacuating all of its embassy staff to a compound at the Hamid Karzai airport after the fall of Afghanistan capital Kabul.

The country is flying out its personnel from the beleaguered city in batches. It has sent around 6,000 troops to assist with the evacuation process.

The US took down the flag at its diplomatic quarters after completing evacuation.

Reports say that US soldiers are guarding the perimeter of the airport amid reports of intermittent gunfire and clashes from other parts of the city.

The US military will be taking over air traffic control in Kabul as it rushes to get embassy staff out of the country, BBC reported quoting a US State department statement.

This was one among a number of steps to facilitate speedy evacuation of "US and allied personnel".

Just a reminder that this comes amidst the scenes of chaos we're seeing at the Kabul airport - as thousands are rushing to flee Afghanistan.

The statement added that the US would accelerate the evacuation of thousands of Afghans who were eligible for special viasas - saying that nearly 2,000 of these people had already arrived in the US over the past two weeks.

Afghanistan's Taliban entered the capital Kabul on Sunday and Western-backed President Ashraf Ghani left the country, with the insurgents saying they were seeking complete power.

Two officials from the militant Islamist group told Reuters there would be no transitional government following their lighting sweep across Afghanistan that led back to the capital two decades after the Taliban was overthrown by US-led forces.