KABUL : Taliban fighters on Sunday entered Kabul, freeing inmates at the city’s main prison and triggering a massive effort to airlift Western diplomats and civilians as the country’s demoralized security forces offered no resistance.

       The Taliban in a statement said that they wouldn’t take Kabul by force. The group said it had ordered its fighters to wait and not enter the city and that it was in talks with “the other side" to discuss entering the city without harming residents.

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       Until the transition of power is done, the government would remain responsible for the security of the capital, it said, while adding that a general amnesty was announced for all.

       A senior Afghan official said President Ashraf Ghani was at the US Embassy to consult with the US ambassador. Both the US and Afghan government have asked the Taliban not to enter the city for two weeks until a transitional government could be agreed to, he said. “I do not think the Taliban will accept the offer," he said. He added that negotiations were under way with the Taliban to choose a new head for the transitional government that would be acceptable for all sides.

       Sporadic gunfire erupted in central Kabul in the late morning as the administration of Mr. Ghani told all employees to go home. Many checkpoints were abandoned as panicked residents clogged the streets. By early afternoon, the Taliban took over Kabul’s main Pul-e-Charkhi prison, freeing thousands of inmates, videos on social media showed.

       At the US Embassy Sunday afternoon, helicopters ferried American and Western diplomats and civilians to the military side of Kabul airport. One after another, Chinooks and Black Hawks took off from the landing zone, spraying dust.

       Below them was a city of traffic jams and roundabouts choked by cars—many of them filled with Afghans trying to reach the airport’s relative safety. Dark smoke, presumably from burning documents, rose from the presidential palace.

       In the airport, dozens of gray US Air Force and British transport planes awaited their passengers, the landing strip secured by newly arrived American troops.

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       Some of the evacuating Westerners relaxed on cardboard boxes marked with the words “non-Pork MRE," or meal-ready-to-eat. Others—including Afghan dual citizens—nervously waited their turn for the shuttle bus that would take them to their planes, away from the city they would be unlikely to see again anytime soon.

       In Kabul, long lines formed outside banks and at the city’s few functioning ATMs as residents rushed to withdraw their cash.

       “The other provinces have already collapsed, so there is no reason to think it won’t happen here soon," said Samsur, a student originally from Jalalabad, as he took his place in a line outside a Kabul mall that contained a working cash machine. He said he hoped to be able to withdraw his savings, a total of 5,000 afghanis, or $58, before the money ran out.

       The stunning meltdown of the Afghan state left the city in shock. The Taliban, who controlled none of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals just over a week ago, have seized the bulk of the country and are now readying to assume power, either by force or through negotiating a surrender of Mr. Ghani’s administration.

       In a message to followers Sunday, the Taliban’s leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, urged his fighters to treat conquered cities with a benevolent hand. “The victories are coming, do not be arrogant and conceited, do not betray the spoils of war, and treat well those who surrender to you," he said. “Do your best to avoid civilian casualties."

       The US has rushed 5,000 troops to Kabul to secure the airport and help evacuate American diplomatic personnel. Overnight, the near constant buzz of helicopters hung over central Kabul as the Green Zone that contained much of the foreign presence emptied out. Many embassies have closed or relocated to the military base in the airport. The US, which is in constant contact with the Taliban’s political leadership in Doha, Qatar, has urged the insurgents to hold off on taking Kabul until after the evacuation is complete and all Americans have left the city, according to people familiar with the talks.

       On Sunday, there was no sign of the U.S. military in the city itself. Residents rushed to put their affairs in order and people from areas that have fallen to the insurgents sought refuge in the capital. “We have no idea what will happen from one moment to the next in this situation," said Mohammad Nasim, a worker at a nongovernment organization. “But what can we do? There is nowhere for us to go. There is no chance to leave the city anymore."

       Afghans also mobbed Kabul’s passport offices, seeking to secure valuable travel documents while an internationally recognized Afghan government still exists—and while the airport continues operations. Not many were lucky.

       In the line that snaked past blast barriers outside Afghanistan’s central bank, opinions were divided over who was to blame. Poet Samdel Banwa, originally from the eastern Kunar province, said President Biden’s April decision to withdraw all American forces was the reason for the country’s unfolding tragedy.

       A Kabul schoolteacher who stood in the same line, Mirwais, vented his anger at the infighting and incompetence within the Afghan government. “The government has betrayed the people," he said. “This is why I am standing here today."

       Abdul Wahid, a 23-year-old youth activist, said he had been trying unsuccessfully to get a passport for the last 20 days.

       “We cannot trust the Taliban," said Mr. Wahid. “I heard that all the embassies in Kabul are closed and it means I cannot get a visa. That makes me more scared, I can’t sleep at night."

       Milad Anwari, a 38-year-old businessman also at the passport office, said he had already shifted many family members to Turkey. He said he had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in Afghanistan over the past decade.

       “I never expected that the Taliban would come again. Now everything is going to collapse," said Mr. Anwari. “With the Taliban here, I don’t have any hope for the future of my country."

       While there were days of fierce combat before Afghanistan’s other major cities of Herat, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif fell to the Taliban, Jalalabad changed hands without much of a fight during the night.

       Rahat Gul Ziarmal, the deputy mayor of Jalalabad, said the insurgents had complete control of the city, which sits on the main road connecting Kabul to Pakistan. Pictures circulating on social media showed the Taliban’s new governor sitting with the Kabul-appointed provincial governor in his compound. Locally brokered deals between the Taliban and regional officials have seen many of the country’s other provinces change hands without major battles in recent days.

       Kabul, a metropolis of six million people, is the last remaining target—and the biggest prize—for the Taliban. Mr. Ghani on Saturday appointed Brig.-Gen. Sami Sadat, a highly regarded commander who held the Taliban at bay in the southern province of Helmand for weeks and in recent days assumed command of Afghanistan’s special-operations forces, to lead the defense of the capital.

       Few in the city, however, have the appetite for a last stand against the Taliban. Kabul’s defenses are easily penetrated, and security officials estimate that hundreds of Taliban fighters are in the city, ready to rise up and seize neighborhoods. While Mr. Ghani wants to negotiate a power-sharing agreement with the Taliban, at this stage of the war nothing short of a thinly veiled surrender is likely to satisfy the insurgents.

       For the US, the priority now is to persuade the Taliban to hold off until the evacuation of Americans and other foreigners from Kabul is complete. Mr. Biden said the US has told Taliban representatives in Doha that any action on the ground in Afghanistan against US personnel “will be met with a swift and strong US military response."

       The Afghan military began to unravel soon after Mr. Biden’s April decision to pull out US troops, taking away the logistical and air support on which Afghan soldiers depended. Mr. Biden said Saturday that the withdrawal, which was required under the February 2020 Doha agreement between the Taliban and the Trump administration, was the right decision.

       “One more year, or five more years, of US military presence would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country," he said.

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