Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday that he fled his country to avoid a "bloodbath", acknowledging the Taliban victory.

President Ghani, who did not specify where he had gone, said he was convinced that "countless patriots would have been killed and Kabul would have been destroyed" had he remained in Afghanistan.

"The Taliban have won"

"The Taliban have won with the judgment of their swords and rifles and are now responsible for the honor, possession and self-preservation of their country," he added in a post on Facebook.

“They are now facing a new historic challenge.

Either they preserve the name and honor of Afghanistan or they give priority to other places and other networks, ”continued the fugitive head of state.

Ashraf Ghani did not say where he was going but Afghan media group Tolo suggested he had visited Tajikistan.

The Taliban in the presidential palace

The Taliban entered the Afghan capital on Sunday and dozens of fighters seized the presidential palace, claiming victory over the Afghan government, according to television footage.

"Our country has been liberated and the Mujahedin are victorious in Afghanistan," an insurgent told Al Jazeera television from the palace.

Fighters seized the building after President Ashraf Ghani fled abroad, who admitted that the Taliban had "won".

In ten days, the radical Islamist movement, which launched an offensive in May with the start of the withdrawal of American and foreign troops, took control of almost all of Afghanistan.

Abdullah Abdullah, who heads the peace process, had previously accused Ashraf Ghani of having abandoned "people in this situation".

The former vice-president was the first to let it be known that President Ghani had "left" his country, without specifying where he was going.

The departure of the head of state had been one of the main demands of the Taliban during the months of negotiations with the government, but Ashraf Ghani had clung to power.

He was elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2019 on the promise to redress Afghanistan and end the corruption that plagued his country, but he ultimately did not keep either of these two promises.

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