The territory controlled by the crumbling Afghan government shrank to little more than Kabul on Sunday as the Taliban took the key eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, while the United States sent more troops to help evacuate its civilians.
The fall of the last major city outside the capital secured for the insurgents the roads connecting Afghanistan to Pakistan, a western official said.
It followed the Taliban's seizure of the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.