https://news.yahoo.com/former-afghan-president-ashraf-ghani-164512529.html
Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled country with only the clothes he was wearing, an official says
John L. Dorman
Sat, August 21, 2021, 11:45 AM·3 min read
Former President Ghani left Afghanistan with only the clothes he had on, per a former official.
Ghani was reportedly dumbfounded by the rapid pace at which the Taliban advanced on Kabul.
After fleeing the country, the ousted leader turned up in the United Arab Emirates.
Ashraf Ghani
Business Insider
Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled country with only the clothes he was wearing, an official says
John L. Dorman
Sat, August 21, 2021, 11:45 AM·3 min read
In this article:
Ashraf Ghani
President of Afghanistan
Ashraf Ghani
Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Former President Ghani left Afghanistan with only the clothes he had on, per a former official.
Ghani was reportedly dumbfounded by the rapid pace at which the Taliban advanced on Kabul.
After fleeing the country, the ousted leader turned up in the United Arab Emirates.
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Afghanistan's former president, Ashraf Ghani, was so dumbfounded by the rapid pace at which the Taliban advanced on the capital city of Kabul that he left the country with only the clothes he had on, according to a former senior official who spoke to CNN.
Last Saturday, even after the key northern provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif fell to insurgents amid a sweeping military campaign across Afghanistan, Ghani was ill-prepared to depart the county in such a hasty manner.
Hours before the now-ousted president fled in exile, the official said that a senior member of the Ghani administration met with an individual with ties to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, who said that the ruling government needed to surrender.
"In the days leading up to the Taliban coming in Kabul, we had been working on a deal with the US to hand over peacefully to an inclusive government and for President Ghani to resign," the former official told CNN. "These talks were underway when the Taliban came into the city. The Taliban entering Kabul city from multiple points was interpreted by our intelligence as hostile advances."
The former official added: "We had received intelligence for over a year that the President would be killed in the event of a takeover."