The United States and the United Kingdom have announced their plans to evacuate staff from their embassies in Afghanistan amidst the Taliban advance in the country.
Over the past week, the government has effectively lost control of most of north, south and west Afghanistan, and are now trying to retain their hold on the capital and a number of dwindling cities.
The Pentagon says they will be deploying 3,000 US troops within the next 24-48 hours, and the UK also says that they will send 600 of its own troops.
Both countries assure the troops are purely there to protect and evacuate nationals, not attack the Taliban.