Dramatic footage posted on social media showed a scene of chaos on the runway, with civilians frantically clambering up an already overcrowded and buckling set of airstairs.

In the statement posted on Facebook, Ghani, the country's elected leader, said he chose to leave Afghanistan to prevent further bloodshed.

"We are completing a series of steps to secure the Hamid Karzai International Airport to enable the safe departure of US and allied personnel from Afghanistan via civilian and military flights," the Pentagon and State Department said in a joint statement.

Israel's Magen David Adom national ambulance service reported no serious injuries, and there appeared to be little danger that the fires, some 10 km (6 miles) west of Jerusalem, would reach the city.

Ghani left in order to avoid clashes with the Taliban that would endanger millions of Kabul residents, he said in a Facebook post - his first comments since leaving the country.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left as the insurgents closed in on the capital, before ultimately entering the city and taking over the presidential palace, sealing a nationwide military victory in just 10 days.

Health Minister Adam Niedzieslki said that Poland's vaccine purchases "allow us to meet the needs of our citizens and support others in need".

South Korea and the United States regularly stage military exercises, mainly in the spring and summer, but North Korea has for decades reacted angrily, calling them a rehearsal for war.

"The Islamic Emirate instructs all its forces to stand at the gates of Kabul, not to try to enter the city," a spokesman for the Taliban tweeted, although some residents reported insurgents had peacefully entered some outer suburbs.

In a terrorism warning bulletin issued the same day, the Department of Homeland Security said the country is under a "heightened threat environment" and the Sept. 11 anniversary as well as religious holidays could "serve as a catalyst" for violent activities.

For a third day running, Russia records its highest daily death toll, with 819 fatalities reported over the past 24 hours. 

Officials at the Institut Pasteur had confirmed the case after testing samples taken from an 18-year-old Guinean woman, Health Minister Pierre N'Gou Demba said on RTI state television.

The insurgents took  control of the key eastern city of Jalalabad on Sunday, just hours after the seizing the northern anti-Taliban bastion of Mazar-i-Sharif -- furthering an astonishing rout of government forces and warlord militias achieved in just 10 days.

After consultations with his national security team, Biden said a total of "approximately 5,000" US soldiers -- up from 3,000 -- will now help organize evacuations and the end of the US mission after 20 years on the ground.

Concerned about growing infections in rural areas as recent sewage tests detected the virus in several regional towns, officials on Saturday tightened restrictions and ordered a snap seven-day lockdown across the state.

The 7.2-magnitude quake, which was followed by a series of aftershocks, struck 8 km (5 miles) from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes, about 150 km west of the capital Port-au-Prince, at a depth of 10 km, the United States Geological Survey said.

With the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif, once an anti-Taliban bastion, the insurgents now control almost the entire country -- an astonishing rout of government forces and warlord militias achieved in just 10 days.

The ONS said the percentage of people testing positive for the virus was "high" in England, based on samples of households, although it added that modelling suggested a declining trend may now be underway.

Their meeting in China came a day after senior officials of the so-called Quad grouping of four democracies -- the United States, Japan, India and Australia -- held an online meeting.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace on Thursday announced that some 600 troops would help evacuate British nationals from the country, as the Islamists seize more control.

The region is rebuilding after the deadliest floods in a decade wreaked havoc across the province mid-July, killing over 300 people and damaging thousands of cars and buildings.

Universiti Muhammadiyah Malaysia is part of the grassroots group’s plan to expand its operations internationally as agreed upon in a 2015 congress, the group’s chairman Haedar Nashir has said.

To add to its woes, Washington has announced plans to evacuate its nationals in Kabul, a symbolic and shambolic end of the US presence after nearly two decades of conflict.

Qin Gang, 55, who has earned a reputation for pointed public defenses of his country's positions, struck an optimistic tone as he arrived in Washington in late July to take up his post, saying great potential awaited bilateral relations.

Taking control of the southern city, once a Taliban stronghold and a strategically important trade hub, would be a major win for the militants, the report said.

Meanwhile, the State Department is expected to announce an evacuation of a "significant" number of employees from its embassy in Kabul as the Taliban make rapid gains in Afghanistan, two US officials told Reuters on Thursday.

"Unfortunately, this trend (in cases) will continue for at least the next few days," New South Wales (NSW) state premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney, the state capital.

The altercation, captured in a video that went viral on social media earlier this week, prompted the West African nation to recall its ambassador and review its diplomatic ties with Jakarta.

The speed of the Taliban advance has dimmed the prospects of the peace process that Jakarta helped mediate and has sparked recriminations over the withdrawal of international forces, which has left the Afghan government to fend for itself.

About 400,000 people in the nation's political hub will be under stay-at-home orders from 5:00 pm local time, joining millions more already under lockdown in Australia's southeast.