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       Boris Johnson says 'vast bulk' of UK embassy staff will come back from Kabul over coming days

       American soldiers have begun arriving in Kabul to help evacuate embassy personnel and other civilians, according to an anonymous US official who told Reuters their embassy is instructing staff to burn all sensitive materials in an incinerator.

       It comes one day after the Taliban seized the country’s second- and third-biggest cities, with insurgents continuing to make gains at a pace faster than any Western nation predicted.

       The regime now controls about a third of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals and, according to the latest US intelligence, it will likely take Kabul, the Afghan capital, in the next 30 days.

       Some 3,000 US troops, including two battalions of Marines and one infantry battalion, will arrive in the south Asian country by Sunday. They will join the 600 UK troops who flew to Afghanistan on Friday in a bid to oversee the safe departure of British nationals still there.

       Boris Johnson says no ‘military solution’ in Afghanistan as Labour says ‘all possible measures’ on table Taliban closes in on Kabul amid fierce clashes near the capital Former Afghanistan ambassador blames Trump for Taliban resurgence It is government weakness, not Taliban strength, that condemns Afghanistan

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       Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s rolling political coverage in the UK. Stay tuned as the situation in Afghanistan worsens and US and UK troops scramble to get nationals evacuated as quickly and safely as possible.

       Sam Hancock 14 August 2021 08:10