KABUL: Afghanistan's beleaguered president vowed Saturday to prevent further bloodshed, as Taliban fighters closed in on Kabul after routing his armed forces over the past 10 days.
In a recorded address to the nation - his first since the Taliban launched their sweeping offensive - Ashraf Ghani said he wanted to stop the violence "as a historic mission".
"I will not let the imposed war on people cause more deaths," he said, appearing sombre and sitting before an Afghan flag.
The president gave no hint he would resign or take responsibility for the calamitous military collapse, but said the armed forces could be "remobilized" and consultations were taking place to try to help end the war.
He offered few specifics on what his administration was planning, with government control over Afghanistan all but collapsed, but the presidential palace later said in a statement that "a delegation with authority should soon be appointed by the government and be ready for negotiation".
Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif falls to Taliban: provincial official
Further details were not immediately available.
Ghani's speech came as US Marines were sent in to oversee an evacuation of embassy employees and thousands of Afghans and their families, who fear retribution for working for the United States during its 20-year occupation.
With the country's second-and third-largest cities having fallen into Taliban hands, Kabul has effectively become the besieged last stand for government forces who have offered little or no resistance elsewhere.
As the Taliban closed in on Kabul, panicked residents formed long lines outside banks, hoping to withdraw their savings. Some branches appeared to have already run of cash.
Insurgent fighters are now camped just 50 kilometres (30 miles) away from Kabul, with the United States and other countries scrambling to airlift their nationals out of the Afghan capital ahead of a feared all-out assault.
Heavy fighting was also reported around Mazar-i-Sharif, an isolated holdout in the north where warlord and former vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum had gathered his virulently anti-Taliban militia.
The only other cities of any significance not to be taken yet were Jalalabad, and Khost - Pashtun-dominated and unlikely to offer much resistance.
In Kabul, US embassy staff were ordered to begin shredding and burning sensitive material, as the first American troops from a planned 3,000-strong re-deployment started arriving to secure the airport and oversee evacuations.
Afghan president Ghani flies into besieged northern city as Taliban extend gains
A host of European countries - including Britain, Germany, Denmark, and Spain - all announced the withdrawal of personnel from their respective embassies on Friday.
For Kabul residents and the tens of thousands who have sought refuge there in recent weeks, the overwhelming mood was one of apprehension and fear.
Muzhda, 35, a single woman who arrived in the capital with her two sisters after fleeing nearby Parwan, said she was terrified.
"I am crying day and night," she told.
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