Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani left capital Kabul on Sunday with four cars and a helicopter full of cash, news agency Reuters reported. It quoted Russian news agency RIA to report that Ghani had to leave some money behind as it would not all "fit in". "Four cars were full of money, they tried to stuff another part of the money into a helicopter, but not all of it fit. And some of the money was left lying on the tarmac," Nikita Ishchenko, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Kabul, was quoted as saying by RIA. Ghani's current whereabouts are unknown. Reports claim that he is in Oman after Tajikistan denied the aircraft carrying him the permission to land. Reports also said that Ghani is headed to the United States.
In a lengthy Facebook post just before leaving Afghanistan, Ghani had said on Sunday that he is doing so to avoid bloodshed. Taliban entered Afghanistan's capital city Kabul on Sunday, completing the takeover which began at a stunning pace in the wake of the withdrawal of US and Nato forces. Photos from Kabul showed Taliban leaders in the presidential palace, from where the Ghazi government once carried out day-to-day affairs. President Vladimir Putin's special representative on Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said earlier it was unclear how much money the fleeing government would leave behind. "I hope the government that has fled did not take all the money from the state budget. It will be the bedrock of the budget if something is left," Kabulov told Moscow's Ekho Moskvy radio station. The Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday, completing the takeover of the country two decades after they were ousted by the US forces. The country's Western-trained security forces collapsed in the face of the Taliban offensive.