Taliban militants have reached the outskirts of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, after taking control of most of the rest of the country.
The interior minister says negotiations have taken place to ensure a peaceful transition of power.
A Taliban statement says fighters had been ordered to remain on the edges of the capital.
“We assure the people in Afghanistan – there will be no revenge on anyone,” a Taliban spokesman told the BBC.
Russia is planning to convene an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.
It says it will not be closing its embassy, because it has been provided with security assurances by the Taliban.
It is almost 20 years since the Taliban were ousted by a US-led military coalition.
Bagram airfield and prison, about 40km (25 miles) north of the city centre, are in Taliban hands, the militants say.
Once the largest American military facility in Afghanistan, the complex was evacuated by the US military in the dead of night on 2 July.
President Joe Biden has defended his decision to speed up the US withdrawal, saying he could not justify an “endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict”.
The US now is evacuating staff from its Kabul embassy – with people seen boarding military planes at the airport, where 5,000 US troops have been deployed to help with the operation.
Earlier on Sunday, militants took control of Jalalabad, a key eastern city, without a fight.
This means the Taliban have secured the roads connecting the country with Pakistan.
–BBC
