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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Nadeem Badshah (now); Lucy Campbell, Jane Clinton and Helen Sullivan (earlier)

Afghanistan live news: New terror attack ‘highly likely in next 24-36 hours’, says Biden

A marine escorts a young woman at an evacuation control checkpoint at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, 26 August 2021.
A marine escorts a young woman at an evacuation control checkpoint at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Thursday. Photograph: Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/AP

We’ve launched a new blog at the link below – head there for the latest:

A summary of today's developments

  • Two decades of engagement in Afghanistan by British troops has come to an end as the final members of UK military and diplomatic personnel left Kabul airport on Saturday night, ending the largest evacuation mission since the second world war. Operation Pitting – where more than 1,000 troops, diplomats, and officials were dispatched to Afghanistan to rescue UK nationals and Afghan allies after the seizure of the country’s capital by the Taliban – airlifted more than 15,000 people to safety across just over a fortnight.
  • US president Joe Biden says a new terrorist attack in Afghanistan is “highly likely in the next 24-36 hours”.
  • Musa Papal has been named by his family as a British victim of the Kabul airport suicide bombing. Papal, 60, left his home in North London in May to visit family in Kandahar and was killed in the airport blast. Another Briton killed in the Kabul attack was Mohammad Niazi, a 29-year-old taxi driver who died along with his wife and two of their children after he went to Afghanistan to rescue them, Sky News reports.
  • The Pentagon said the US has helped a total of 117,000 people evacuate from Afghanistan, including 6,800 in the past 24 hours.
  • France and Britain will submit a resolution to an emergency United Nations meeting due Monday on Afghanistan proposing a safe zone in Kabul to protect people trying to leave the country, French president Emmanuel Macron said.
  • The families of Afghan interpreters who have fled the Taliban to the UK will be offered free English courses as part of a comprehensive package to help them settle in their new home.
  • Thousands of emails to the Foreign Office from MPs and charities detailing urgent cases of Afghans trying to escape from Kabul have not been read, including cases flagged by government ministers, the Observer has been told.
  • The US conducted a drone strike against an Islamic State target in Afghanistan on Saturday. US Central Command said the US conducted a drone strike against the IS member in Nangahar believed to be involved in planning attacks against the US in Kabul. The strike killed one individual, and spokesman Navy Captain William Urban said they knew of no civilian casualties.
  • The US Embassy in Kabul warned that US citizens at the airport gates “should leave immediately”. The embassy also warned, citing security threats, that citizens should avoid traveling to the airport because of security threats.

A former Royal Marine who founded an animal shelter in Kabul left an expletive-laden message for a government aide as he sought to place his staff and pets on a flight out of Afghanistan, according to reports.

The Times newspaper said it had obtained a leaked audio recording of Paul “Pen” Farthing berating Peter Quentin, a special adviser to the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, who he accused of “blocking” efforts to arrange a flight.

Farthing’s campaign to get workers and animals from the Nowzad shelter out of Afghanistan has caused controversy in recent days, after receiving a huge amount of public support.

Although visas were granted for his 24 staff and their dependents, Farthing refused to leave without his pets and aimed to get 200 dogs and cats out of the country.

The government last night unveiled “operation warm welcome” for the thousands of arriving Afghans, but campaigners immediately expressed concerns about the accommodation many will be offered.

As a new position – a minister for Afghan resettlement – was announced, doctors also warned that healthcare provision would have to be improved if, as expected, many of the arrivals are housed in hotels for at least the first few months.

The government also said it would be taking up the many offers of support that have flooded in from charities, businesses and members of the public. Critics warned that ministers must avoid relying on the goodwill of the British people to deliver vital support to the new arrivals.

For many of the Afghans, their first taste of the UK will be of life in a hotel. Frantic attempts are being made to find accommodation, but the influx has exposed the country’s lack of suitable housing stock.

France and Britain will submit a resolution to an emergency United Nations meeting due Monday on Afghanistan proposing a safe zone in Kabul to protect people trying to leave the country, French president Emmanuel Macron said.

“Our resolution proposal aims to define a safe zone in Kabul, under UN control, which would allow humanitarian operations to continue,” Macron told French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres is convening a meeting on Afghanistan with the UN envoys for Britain, France, the United States, China and Russia - the Security Council’s permanent, veto-wielding members.

Macron said on Saturday that France was holding preliminary discussions with the Taliban about the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and the possible evacuation of more people from the country.

Updated

The families of Afghan interpreters who have fled the Taliban to the UK will be offered free English courses as part of a comprehensive package to help them settle in their new home.

More than 8,000 Afghans and their families have been evacuated from Kabul airport since August 13th under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy scheme.

And a new programme dubbed Operation Warm Welcome, overseen by Victoria Atkins who will become Afghan resettlement minister, aims to deliver all the refugees need to help them integrate into British society, PA reports.

Updated

Boris Johnson has told members of the Armed Forces, veterans, and loved ones of those who died serving in the military it was not down to “chance or good fortune” that the UK had been safe from attacks launched from Afghanistan for 20 years.

In an open letter, the prime minister said he had been “lost in admiration for the heroic efforts of everyone” involved in Operation Pitting, the evacuation efforts to remove UK nationals and Afghan allies from Kabul airport.

Writing as the operation came to an end, with the last military and diplomatic personnel leaving Kabul on Saturday, Johnson said: “There has been nothing like it in speed and scale, certainly in my lifetime.”

Johnson added he recognised the downfall of Afghanistan to the Taliban after 20 years would have been difficult to comprehend.

“Over the last two decades, many thousands of you dedicated years of your lives to service in Afghanistan, often in the most arduous conditions.

“In particular, I realise that this will be an especially difficult time for the friends and loved ones of the 457 service personnel who laid down their lives.”

Updated

Thousands of emails to the Foreign Office from MPs and charities detailing urgent cases of Afghans trying to escape from Kabul have not been read, including cases flagged by government ministers, the Observer has been told.

The UK’s Afghanistan evacuation concluded on Saturday night with the departure of Britain’s final military and diplomatic personnel, bringing a sudden end to the 20-year deployment. More than 15,000 people have been brought out of the country in the last fortnight, in what ministers described as the largest UK military evacuation since the second world war.

However, amid accusations of government incompetence over elements of the evacuation effort, the Observer has seen evidence that an official email address used to collate potential Afghan cases from MPs and others regularly contained 5,000 unread emails throughout the week.

In many cases, emails detailing the cases of Afghans who fear for their families’ lives appear to have been unopened for days. An email from the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, sent on Monday was still unread on Thursday. There also appeared to be unread messages from the offices of Victoria Atkins, the newly appointed minister for Afghan resettlement, the home secretary, Priti Patel, and the Tory chair of the defence select committee, Tobias Ellwood.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “I pay tribute to the brave men and women of our armed forces who have done so much to provide the opportunity of a new life to so many.

Our diplomatic staff and military personnel should be proud of the heroic work they have done and we owe them a great debt of gratitude.

“It is now for the government to urgently set out a plan for those left behind.”

Remaining British troops leave Kabul on final UK military flight

Two decades of engagement in Afghanistan by British troops has come to an end as the final members of UK military and diplomatic personnel left Kabul airport on Saturday night, ending the largest evacuation mission since the second world war.

Operation Pitting – where more than 1,000 troops, diplomats, and officials were dispatched to Afghanistan to rescue UK nationals and Afghan allies after the seizure of the country’s capital by the Taliban – airlifted more than 15,000 people to safety across just over a fortnight.

Prime minister Boris Johnson said now was “a moment to reflect on everything we have sacrificed and everything we have achieved in the last two decades”.

Updated

The prime minister has also thanked those involved in the operation to evacuate Britons and selected Afghans from Afghanistan.

Joe Biden warned on Saturday that another terrorist attack in Kabul was highly likely in the next 24 to 36 hours.

The US president also said the US drone strike which killed two Islamic State targets in retaliation for the deaths of 13 US service members and as many as 170 civilians on Thursday would not be the last such action.
Earlier, Pentagon spokesmen said 6,800 people had been flown from Afghanistan in the last 24 hours, bringing the total of US citizens and Afghan allies evacuated in one of the biggest airlifts in history to more than 117,000. The Pentagon also named the US service members killed by a suicide bomber and gunmen at the airport in Kabul on Thursday. Eleven were US marines, one was a soldier and one a sailor. Many were only babies when the US invaded Afghanistan in late 2001.

Hundreds of Afghans have marched to the US Embassy in Athens, making a plea to the international community for peace and holding banners reading “Afghanistan is bleeding” and “Hands off our land”.

“We are tired of war, we are tired of violence, we are tired of seeing dead bodies. We all came here together, we want peace from the world, we want to end this war,” said Omey Naziam, 24, who joined the peaceful protest in the Greek capital.

Other protesters shouted “Stop killing Afghans” and “We want justice”, Reuters reports.

Updated

When the email arrived last Tuesday, Faaiz Ghulam and his young family were euphoric. Approved for evacuation, they were instructed to head straight to the west gate of Kabul’s Baron Hotel. There, British officials would process their case. Next step, the UK.

Yet Ghulam, his wife and their two children – an 18-month-old daughter and three-year-old son – are today in hiding in Kabul, terrified for their lives. Their first attempt to reach the hotel ended at a Taliban checkpoint. A second was abandoned over safety concerns as Ghulam and his wife carried their children through febrile crowds outside the airport.

On Thursday, the family were just 10 metres from the suicide bomber who detonated explosives that killed up to 170 people. “We are traumatised. We escaped by walking on dead people,” Ghulam told the Observer.

Biden: new terror attack in Afghanistan "highly likely in next 24-36 hours"

US president Joe Biden says a new terrorist attack in Afghanistan is ‘highly likely in the next 24-36 hours’.

In a statement, the president said: “This morning, I met with my national security team in Washington and my commanders in the field. We discussed the strike that US forces took last night against the terrorist group ISIS-K in Afghanistan. I said we would go after the group responsible for the attack on our troops and innocent civilians in Kabul, and we have.

This strike was not the last. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay. Whenever anyone seeks to harm the United States or attack our troops, we will respond. That will never be in doubt.”

He added: “The situation on the ground continues to be extremely dangerous, and the threat of terrorist attacks on the airport remains high. Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours.”

Updated

By Wednesday morning the last US troops will have left Kabul and the day will break on a country entirely controlled by the Taliban, the last shadow of American threat banished.

It is still uncertain what this second iteration of the caliphate will look like, but with foreigners finally gone, the shape of the new Afghanistan will come into sharper focus.

The Taliban have made clear they want to avoid a repeat of their 1990s rule when they presided over an international pariah state, mismanaged the economy and increased repression as discontent spread. What is less clear is whether they can achieve that, or how they will attempt it.

The Taliban has sealed off Kabul’s airport to the majority of people looking to be evacuated to prevent large crowds from gathering.
It comes after a spokesman from the group told Reuters it would have the airport under complete control “very soon”.

Updated

Here is more on the earlier post that Afghanistan athletes Zakia Khudadadi and Hossain Rasouli will take part in the Tokyo Paralympics after being evacuated from Kabul.

The Taliban said it would announce a new government for Afghanistan in the coming week and expected the economic turbulence and sharp currency falls that followed their takeover of the city two weeks ago to subside quickly.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the movement’s main spokesman, made the comments to Reuters as the US military continued to wind down its mission to evacuate American citizens and vulnerable Afghans and withdraw troops from Kabul airport ahead of the 31 August deadline set by president Joe Biden.

Mujahid said officials had already been appointed to run key institutions including the ministries of public health and education and the central bank.

United Nations officials have warned that Afghanistan faces a humanitarian catastrophe, with large parts of the country suffering from extreme drought conditions.

Mujahid said: “The fall of Afghani against foreign currency is temporary and it is because of the situation that suddenly changed, it will come back to normal once the government system starts functioning.”

Updated

Taliban fighters patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Taliban fighters patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photograph: Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi/AP

British prime minister Boris Johnson and German chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the situation in Afghanistan on Saturday and agreed on the need for international aid and a common approach by the G7 to the future government of Afghanistan.

“The prime minister and chancellor resolved to work, alongside the rest of the G7, to put in place the roadmap on dealing with any new Afghan government discussed at last week’s leaders’ meeting,” Johnson’s office said in a statement.

“The prime minister stressed that any recognition and engagement with the Taliban must be conditional on them allowing safe passage for those who want to leave the country and respecting human rights,” the British statement added.

Merkel also spoke to Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte.

Her office said Merkel, Johnson and Rutte were all agreed that organising the departure of nationals, local support staff and Afghans in need of protection was still a top priority, Reuters reports.

Updated

An Afghan refugee fleeing to the UK gave birth to a baby girl at 30,000 feet while on an evacuation flight.

Soman Noori, 26, was travelling on an evacuation flight from Dubai to Birmingham having previously left Kabul, when she went into labour in airspace over Kuwait, Turkish Airlines said.

There was no doctor on board the flight, forcing the Turkish Airlines cabin crew to deliver the baby girl, who has been named Havva by her mother and father, 30-year-old husband Taj Moh Hammat.

Turkish Airlines said both mother and baby were healthy and although the flight had landed in Kuwait as a precaution, it then carried on its route to Birmingham and landed at 11.45am, PA reports.

Updated

One of the Britons killed in the Kabul attack was Mohammad Niazi, a 29-year-old taxi driver who died along with his wife and two of their children after he went to Afghanistan to rescue them, Sky News reports.

Updated

France’s president Emmanuel Macron said it was holding preliminary discussions with the Taliban about the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and the possible evacuation of more people from the country.

Macron, who spoke in Baghdad where he was attending a summit with several Middle Eastern leaders, said France was also discussing with Qatar how it might re-establish a pathway for Afghan evacuations, though nothing was yet certain, Reuters reports.

“We have begun having discussions, which are very fragile and preliminary, with the Taliban on the issue of humanitarian operations and the ability to protect and repatriate Afghans who are at risk,” Macron told a news conference.

Updated

The Taliban spokesman added that Kabul airport would be under the group’s complete control “very soon”.

“It is a bit too early to decide whether we will need Turkey or Qatar’s help to operate Kabul airport,” he said.

Updated

On the US drone strike that killed two Isis targets, a Taliban spokesman told Reuters “the Americans should have informed us before conducting the airstrike”.

“It was a clear attack on Afghan territory, two people were killed, two women and a child were wounded,” they said.

The strike was in response to the terrorist attack at Kabul airport earlier this week.

Updated

The Taliban has deployed extra forces and almost sealed off Kabul airport following the carnage that erupted after a suicide bomber detonated explosives into the crowd, killing 169 Afghan civilians and 13 US soldiers.

New layers of checkpoints staffed by Taliban fighters blocked all routes to the airport on Saturday, where thousands continued to gather in an attempt to board one of the few evacuation flights still leaving Afghanistan.

On Saturday, the UK ended its evacuation mission. More than 10,000 Afghan nations were evacuated by the British but the head of the UK armed forces, Gen Sir Nick Carter, acknowledged that they had “not been able to get everybody out” and said the decision to end evacuations was “heartbreaking”.

With president Biden reiterating that US troops would adhere to the 31 August deadline for complete withdrawal, despite thousands of Afghans eligible for evacuation and with valid US visas likely to be left behind, the airport remained a scene of terror and chaos even as the evacuations began to wind down.

Second Briton killed in Kabul airport bombing named

Musa Papal has been named by his family as the second British victim of the Kabul airport suicide bombing.

Papal, 60, left his home in North London in May to visit family in Kandahar and was killed in the airport blast.

Papal’s grandson, an Afghan national, is still missing after the attack, Sky News reported.

Two Afghan athletes arrived in Tokyo on Saturday to compete in the 2020 Paralympics after one of them made a video appeal for help to leave Kabul so she could take part in the Games.
Zakia Khudadadi, a Taekwondo athlete, and track athlete Hossain Rasouli were evacuated from the Afghan capital a week ago and landed in Tokyo on a flight from Paris, the International Paralympic Committee said. Both were tested for Covid-19 before being taken to the athletes’ village, Reuters reports.

Khudadadi, Afghanistan’s first female athlete at the Paralympic Games since Athens 2004, is due to compete in the women’s Taekwondo event on September 2.

Rasouli will participate in the heats of the men’s 400 metres the following day.

US has helped evacuate 117,000 from Afghanistan

The Pentagon said the US has helped a total of 117,000 people evacuate from Afghanistan, including 6,800 in the past 24 hours.

Maj Gen Taylor also insisted the US remains in control of the airport in Kabul despite the Taliban suggesting otherwise.

He said: “We’re going to continue to run the airport until the end … to make sure that we can execute our operations.”

Updated

Kirby also confirmed that the US had begun the withdrawal of troops from Kabul airport but would not confirm numbers.

Updated

The Pentaton press secretary, John Kirby, said “nothing has changed about this timeline for us” despite a “serious threat” remaining at the airport in Kabul.

Asked about claims that US military personnel shot Afghans in the crowd outside Kabul airport during the terrorist attack, Kirby said: “We can’t confirm that and we certainly are not in a position to deny it either.”

Updated

Taylor said the threat at Kabul airport remains “real and significant” following the terror attack that killed 13 US military personnel.

The names of those killed will be released “shortly”.

Updated

Taylor said of the people that have been assisted to leave Afghanistan, the vast majority are Afghans and 5,400 are US citizens.

Taylor added that 6,800 people have left Afghanistan on US flights in the last 24 hours.

An additional 1,400 people at Kabul airport have been screened for flights today, he said.

Updated

Maj Gen Taylor said the airstrike that took place following a suicide bombing at Kabul airport killed two high-profile Isis targets.
He said one other was wounded, but there are no reported civilian casualties.

Updated

The Pentagon press conference is under way, with press secretary John Kirby and Major Gen William Taylor providing the updates.
The Pentagon said two high-profile Isis targets were killed and one was wounded during US strikes on Friday.

Updated

The US drone strike in Afghanistan targeted a mid-level “planner” from the Islamic State’s local affiliate who was travelling in a car with one other person near the eastern city of Jalalabad, US official sources said on Saturday.

The strike came two days after Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside Kabul airport, as western forces running the airlift braced for more attacks.

The US president, Joe Biden, has vowed to hunt down those responsible, striking in a place and time of his choosing.

The drone strike is likely to be in part aimed at reassuring a shaken US public that its government’s counter-terrorist capabilities in Afghanistan remain intact despite the chaotic withdrawal.

There is no indication that the target of the drone was involved in Thursday’s blast, which killed around 180 people, including 13 US marines.

The attack focused attention on ISKP, which had previously been seen as only a minor actor in Afghanistan and one of the weaker IS affiliates around the world.

Full story here:

Paul “Pen” Farthing, who founded an animal shelter in Kabul, has made it through the airport’s security and is awaiting a flight out of Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

The former Royal Marine and his supporters had been campaigning to get his staff from the Nowzad charity shelter as well as their families, 140 dogs and 60 cats evacuated from the country in a plan he named Operation Ark.

In a tweet posted on Friday evening, the MoD said:

The MoD did not mention the situation regarding Nowzad staff and their families.

Farthing’s campaign, which received huge public support, has come in for criticism. The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, complained it was distracting those focusing on evacuating the most vulnerable.

Speaking to LBC on Friday, Wallace said:

I think it has taken up too much time of my senior commanders dealing with this issue when they should be focused on dealing with the humanitarian crisis.

Wallace also used a series of tweets to hit out at criticism from Farthing’s supporters and condemned “bullying, falsehoods and threatening behaviour” towards MoD staff.

When asked about the tweets, he told LBC:

I had to listen sometimes to calls of abuse to my advisers, to my officials, based mainly on falsehoods, that somebody, somewhere had blocked a flight. No one blocked a flight.

Fundamentally, as we have seen on the media, there are desperate, desperate people, and I was not prepared to push those people out of the way for that.

When people’s time is right, they were called forward, and that’s the right thing to do. But I hope he comes back; he was advised to come back. His wife came back last Friday, so I hope he does as well.

Civilian evacuations from Afghanistan to the UK ended on Saturday.

A former British soldier who helped dozens of people leave Kabul after the Taliban’s invasion is stranded in Afghanistan after the Foreign Office bungled the paperwork necessary to evacuate him, the Telegraph (paywall) reports.

Ben Slater, a former bodyguard to ambassadors including Mark Sedwill, runs an NGO in Afghanistan and said he felt “let down” by the UK government after he worked with the British military to get westerners on evacuation flights, but cannot get on one himself.

Few flights are left of the UK’s evacuation effort, and on Saturday, as the last UK military evacuation flights left Kabul airport, Slater told the Telegraph he had given up hope of being rescued by Britain.

I’ve given up on UK evac. Thus far I’ve helped 67 do the impossible and could not help my own people yet. But I will get them to the airport. Me leaving them behind in my eyes is murder. I can’t live with that.

The final dedicated flight for Afghan civilian evacuees to the UK has left Kabul, the Ministry of Defence confirmed.

Further flights leaving from the airport would be able to carry evacuees but would also be transporting UK diplomatic staff and military personnel as the operation winds down.

Slater said he was still exploring other options for escape from Kabul for himself and 50 of his staff, who are Afghan women eligible for the UK’s special cases refugee programme. He has contacted Sir Richard Branson in the hope he can help.

If the women are left in Kabul, he fears they will face retribution from the new Taliban regime.

There are now fewer than 4,000 US troops at Kabul airport, a US official has told Reuters.

An Afghan man who arrived in the UK at the age of 14 after fleeing persecution has been “left in limbo” because of a Home Office policy blocking decisions on all asylum claims from Afghanistan.

The 26-year-old has launched a legal challenge against the policy.

The block on making decisions on Afghan protection claims for those currently in the UK was discovered when the man’s lawyer applied to upgrade his immigration status from the humanitarian protection he has at the moment, to refugee status.

The lawyer, Jamie Bell at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, received a letter from a Home Office official stating: “Due to events in Afghanistan at present we have a block on all Afghan cases pending a policy update.”

According to newly published Home Office data there were 3,213 Afghans waiting for a decision on their claims at the end of June.

The man, who has a diagnosis of PTSD, severe depression and dissociative identity disorder, told the Guardian he was devastated by the news of the block on a decision on his and other Afghans’ cases.

I couldn’t believe it when my solicitor told me about this. I have been here almost half my life and consider the UK to be my home country. It’s an insulting thing to do to Afghans like me who want to be safe. It makes me feel there is no safety for human beings.

The Home Office has also asked judges in the immigration tribunal to stop hearing Afghan protection claims.

Bell said:

The clients who are being affected by this are those who have suffered for years and are suffering even more now. My client has been left in limbo.

The legal challenge – a pre-action protocol – has given Priti Patel, the home secretary, until 2 September to respond and argues that the block on making decisions on Afghan cases is unlawful because it is unpublished and unannounced and would expose the home secretary to “public condemnation” if it became known about.

The full story is here:

Updated

Internally displaced Afghan families in a temporary shelter at a park in Kabul.
Internally displaced Afghan families in a temporary shelter at a park in Kabul. Photograph: EPA

Wazhma left everything behind to escape Taliban rule after the extremist group took control of Afghanistan, aspiring for a life “free of threats” in the US.

In a facility in the UAE, temporarily hosting Afghan evacuees heading to other countries, the 21-year-old medical student struggled to overcome the terror she experienced during the last days at home.

“My husband worked for the US embassy. [The Taliban] would have killed us if we stayed,” Wazhma told AFP, just hours before she was due to board a US-bound flight.

I only took the clothes on me. Nothing more.

She was among tens of thousands of evacuees who fled the capital, Kabul, after the Taliban swept in and deployed on the streets in mid-August.

Wazhma, her husband, brother-in-law and baby nephew spent “the longest three days” of their lives on the road, moving in secret until they reached the gates of Kabul airport, where US personnel were waiting for them.

“The situation was very bad. Thank God, we are safe,” she said, holding her baby nephew tightly in her arms. When asked whether she will ever go back, she said:

Never, only if the Taliban go away. I’m happy I left. The only thing I am worried about now is my mother, father, sister and brother.

Another evacuee, Naim, a father-of-five who worked as a translator for the US army, immediately went into hiding when the Taliban seized the capital on 15 August.

He and his family managed to escape to the airport, where they spent three nights until a US aircraft flew them to the United Arab Emirates.

“We were afraid that they would kill us,” the 34-year-old told AFP as he sat next to his wife, three daughters and two sons.

I took my kids’ clothes only and our IDs. We lost everything, the carpets, the couches, the baby clothes. All gone. I just want my kids to have a good life.

Other mask-clad Afghan men, women and children were gathered in the facility in Abu Dhabi, waiting nervously before heading to the airport to board a flight to the US.

A young girl patiently waited her turn for a medical check-up, swaying her legs back and forth as she played with a stuffed bear.

Dozens of others poured in, queueing at the entrance of the facility, waiting to be checked in by Emirati employees.

Gulf nations - including the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar - which host US and other western forces, have been instrumental in evacuation efforts, offering Afghans critical passage to new lives in third countries.

The UAE said on Thursday that it had helped evacuate 28,000 people from Afghanistan, adding it was hosting 8,500 evacuees on a temporary basis until they head to the US within days.

About 109,000 people have been flown out of the country since 14 August, the day before the Taliban swept to power, according to the US government.

Some countries - including France, Britain and Spain - announced an end to their airlifts on Friday, following other nations such as Canada and Australia earlier in the week.

The United Nations said it was bracing for a “worst-case scenario” of up to half a million more refugees from Afghanistan by the end of 2021.

Updated

If you’re just joining us, the final UK evacuation flight purely for Afghan nationals has left Kabul airport, ending an often chaotic process in which around 14,000 people were airlifted out of the country by British forces in less than two weeks.

Here is my colleague Peter Walker’s story:

The British Red Cross has said it has been overwhelmed by the kindness shown by the public, who have raised over £1m for its Afghanistan Crisis appeal.

The charity’s staff and volunteers have been welcoming Afghan families arriving at UK airports, providing emotional support and giving out essential items like food, warm clothing, blankets, shoes and hygiene kits, including soap, nappies and toothbrushes.

Mike Murphy, a British Red Cross emergency responder at Heathrow, said:

People have come from a chaotic area on very long-haul flights, often in cramped conditions with little opportunity to clean and be comfortable. It’s the little things like toothpaste and a toothbrush, a pair of slippers so they can change the shoes that they’ve been wearing for the last 56 hours. They’re quite confused and very tired.

Emergency response officer Henry Moggridge, said:

There was one family with three tiny children who had no shoes, so we measured their feet and went and got them shoes.

Because the needs of the people change from day to day, it’s difficult to ask for physical donations like clothes or shoes, so having money is so valuable.

You can donate to the British Red Cross Afghanistan Crisis appeal here.

Updated

Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, discussed the situation in Afghanistan on Saturday and agreed on the need for international aid and a common approach by the G7 to the future government of Afghanistan, Reuters reports.

Johnson’s office said in a statement:

The prime minister and chancellor resolved to work, alongside the rest of the G7, to put in place the roadmap on dealing with any new Afghan government discussed at last week’s leaders’ meeting.

The prime minister stressed that any recognition and engagement with the Taliban must be conditional on them allowing safe passage for those who want to leave the country and respecting human rights.

Updated

Final dedicated civilian flight to UK has left Kabul

The final UK evacuation flight purely for Afghan nationals under Operation Pitting has left Kabul airport, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

Any further flights which will now leave Kabul under the UK’s evacuation operation will have UK diplomatic and military personnel on board.

PA understands any further flights would be able to transport those still needing evacuation, but would now also include personnel travelling back to the UK.

Sky News is also reporting, citing defence sources, that remaining flights over the weekend are set to bring home British troops as well as small numbers of Afghan evacuees who have permission to fly.

Updated

The British ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, has said it is “time to close this phase” of the evacuation operation from Kabul airport.

In a video posted on Twitter, Bristow - who has remained in Afghanistan processing refugees - said:

The team here have been working until the very last moment to evacuate British nationals, Afghans and others at risk.

Since the 13th of August, we’ve brought nearly 15,000 people to safety, and about 1,000 military, diplomatic, civilian personnel have worked on Operation Pitting in Kabul, many, many more elsewhere.

Thursday’s terrorist attack was a reminder of the difficult and dangerous conditions in which Operation Pitting has been done. And sadly I attended here yesterday the ceremony to pay our respects to the 13 US soldiers who died.

It’s time to close this phase of the operation now, but we haven’t forgotten the people who still need to leave. We’ll continue to do everything we can to help them. Nor have we forgotten the brave, decent people of Afghanistan. They deserve to live in peace and security.

The Taliban has deployed extra forces around Kabul’s airport today to prevent large crowds from gathering, AP reports.

New layers of checkpoints have appeared on roads leading to the airport with some manned by uniformed Taliban fighters with Humvees.

Areas, where large crowds gathered over the past two weeks in the hope of fleeing the country following the Taliban takeover, were now largely empty.

The news that the British evacuation has ended today has alarmed those still trying to get British nationals on planes out of Kabul.

Lyn Brown, MP for West Ham, working on one of these cases told the Guardian:

The primary school-aged daughter of one of my constituents has been waiting on buses for two days now and is continually turned away because while her passport is waiting for her within the airport, she doesn’t have it with her.

Last time, names of those on the bus were checked against a list and supposedly her name wasn’t on it despite all our efforts.

I am at my wits’ end desperately trying every avenue to help but nothing is working.

An FCDO spokesperson said: “Our staff worked tirelessly to facilitate the swift evacuation of British nationals, Afghan staff and others at risk. The scale of the evacuation effort was huge and we have helped over 15,000 people leave Afghanistan since the evacuation began. We continue to put pressure on the Taliban to allow safe passage out of Afghanistan for those who want to leave.”

Updated

Hundreds of Afghans have protested outside a bank in Kabul as others form long lines at cash machines, reports AP.

The protesters at New Kabul Bank included many civil servants demanding their salaries, which they said had not been paid for the past three to six months.

They said even though banks reopened three days ago no one has been able to withdraw cash.

ATM machines are still operating, but withdrawals are limited to around $200 (£145) every 24 hours, contributing to the formation of long lines.

People march in protest near the Central Kabul Bank, in Kabul, Afghanistan.
People march in protest near the Central Kabul Bank, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photograph: Video obtained by Reuters/Reuters

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has warned of the threat of Islamic State group jihadists, reports AFP.

He is at a summit in Iraq attended by key regional leaders.

Macron said: “We all know that we must not lower our guard, because Daesh (IS) remains a threat, and I know that the fight against these terrorist groups is a priority of your government,” Macron said, after a meeting with the Iraqi prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhemi.

Kadhemi responded that Iraq and France “are key partners in the war against terrorism.”

Updated

A Royal Air Force plane carrying soldiers landed at the RAF Brize Norton airbase, Oxfordshire, on Saturday morning. The troops are part of a contingent of 1,000 that have been based in Kabul to help run the airlift.

A British Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft, carrying members of the British armed forces of the 16 Air Assault Brigade, arrives at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire.
A British Royal Air Force Voyager aircraft, carrying members of the British armed forces of the 16 Air Assault Brigade, arrives at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AFP/Getty Images
A crew member opens the door of an RAF Voyager aircraft carrying members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade.
A crew member opens the door of an RAF Voyager aircraft carrying. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AFP/Getty Images
A member of the armed forces walks to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton.
A member of the armed forces gets off the plane. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AFP/Getty Images
Members of the armed forces walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft, as the troops return from assisting with the evacuation of people from Kabul airport.
Members of the armed forces walk to the air terminal. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Civilian evacuations from Afghanistan will finish today, the head of the UK armed forces, Gen Sir Nick Carter, has said.

With very few civilian flights remaining, Carter said it was heartbreaking that the evacuation had failed to get everybody out.

Here is my colleague Alex Mistlin’s story:

This is from the BBC’s Secunder Kermani

The United Nations has issued an urgent appeal for aid for 7 million Afghan farmers in the war-ravaged nation facing the threat of severe drought, AFP reports.

Covid-19 has further squeezed agricultural workers in the country, which is now controlled by the Taliban after they toppled the US-backed government this month.

The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said the farmers worst affected by a drought in the country are among 14 million people - or one in three Afghans - who are “acutely food insecure and need urgent humanitarian assistance”.

“Urgent agricultural support now is key to counter the impact of the drought and a worsening situation in Afghanistan’s vast rural areas in the weeks and months ahead,” the FAO director, Qu Dongyu, said in a statement.

Afghanistan is facing its second severe drought in three years and the UN said this week it could run out of its staple wheat flour from October.

“If we fail to assist the people most affected by the acute drought, large numbers will be forced to abandon their farms and be displaced in certain areas,” Qu added. “This threatens to further deepen food insecurity and poses yet another threat to the stability of Afghanistan.”

The organisation said it was facing a funding shortfall of $18m (€15m) to support its drought response plan in Afghanistan.

It is hoping to help 250,000 families, or around 1.5 million people, for the upcoming winter wheat season. But the funding shortfall means only 110,000 families can be supported.

The appeal comes as humanitarian organisations fear the Taliban’s arrival could hamper access for aid deliveries and personnel.

The UN warned earlier this week that low supplies of food aid were threatening to plunge Afghanistan into a humanitarian disaster.

Updated

Mursal Rasa Jamili, a 23-year-old final-year university student, English teacher and journalist in Kabul, was evacuated to the UK with her two sisters. In this diary, she explains what happened during her last days in Afghanistan.

One extract reads:

As we were on the plane, I started talking with families around me. One person said: “I wanted my children to grow up with our own traditions but I could not let them die. So I had to take them out.”

The UK is safe and I love it but I am far from my motherland. I really wish we were lucky enough to have a safe and secure country, where we could stay and work to improve it.

British troops will end their evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan on Saturday and many hundreds of Afghans entitled to resettlement in Britain are likely to be left behind, the armed forces chief, Gen Nick Carter, said.

The defence minister, Ben Wallace, said on Friday that the country was entering the final hours of its evacuation and would process only people who were already inside Kabul airport.

Carter told the BBC:

We have some civilian flights to take out, but it is very few now. We’re reaching the end of the evacuation, which will take place during the course of today. And then it will be necessary to bring our troops out on the remaining aircraft.

The Ministry of Defence said late on Friday that it had evacuated more than 14,500 Afghan and British nationals in the two weeks since the Taliban took control of the country.

Wallace said on Friday that he estimated between 800 and 1,100 Afghans who had worked with Britain and were eligible to leave the country would not make it through, and Carter estimated the total would be in the “high hundreds”.

However, it isn’t clear just how many British passport holders remain stranded in Afghanistan or how many eligible people are still waiting for evacuation, my colleague Amelia Gentleman has reported over the last few days.

It is highly likely the MoD figure significantly underestimates the total number left vulnerable to the new regime, as it only refers to people eligible to leave under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap), including their families. So the picture for UK nationals and for Afghans eligible to leave in other ways, of which there are estimated to be thousands, remains unclear.

Many Afghans unable to leave judged it was too dangerous to travel to Kabul airport, Carter went on.

People like me ... we are forever receiving messages and texts from our Afghan friends that are very distressing. We’re living this in the most painful way.

Updated

The UK’s Afghan war is ending, but questions about its failures need answers, writes HuffPost’s Paul Waugh in last night’s edition of The Waugh Zone.

Here are some key extracts, making the case for an independent public inquiry into UK policy on Afghanistan since 2001.

In many ways, [Boris] Johnson’s hands have of course been tied by his heavy reliance on the Americans. Joe Biden’s refusal to shift his political commitment to the August 31 withdrawal deadline has driven events, though the US president’s failure to keep allies like the UK in the loop has left a bitter taste for many of them.

But while Biden’s boast at the G7 summit in Cornwall – “America is back” – rings hollow, Johnson’s own “Global Britain” mantra has been brutally exposed too. The prime minister’s bigger failure this week was not in shifting Biden’s deadline, it was the woeful lack of concrete pledges on issues like overseas aid. We still have no detailed ‘road map’ for G7 policy on Afghanistan.

Johnson had explicitly said before the virtual meeting that he wanted other nations to “match the UK’s commitments” on development. Yet afterwards, there were no such specifics, only vague ambitions. One reason was perhaps that the UK had forfeited any hope of global leadership on aid when it decided to actually slash funds to Afghanistan last year, only to this summer realise it would have to restore them.

Although Dominic Raab has stressed he began contingency plans in April, he’s had to admit he was caught out by the speed of the Taliban takeover. Raab is in for a very difficult session next week before the foreign affairs committee, not least as he admitted “with hindsight” he should have come home earlier from his Greek holiday after Kabul fell. Unlike defence secretary Ben Wallace, who is seen by MPs on all sides to have been accessible and acting cross-party, Raab is viewed as distant and defensive.

MPs are also increasingly furious with the Home Office for failing to set up its own briefings for them on how to deal with constituents and relatives desperate to get out of Afghanistan. Stella Creasy tells me: “Ministers tell the press the evacuation has ended, but can’t even be bothered to speak to those dealing with these distraught people to help them advise on what next.”

The lack of UK engagement is also upsetting the Pakistan government too, other MPs say. When ministers talk about ‘phase 2’ of the evacuation going through land borders, they really mean Pakistan, yet the country has been given no real clue to the hard cash support needed or details of categorisations of national status and employee status needed for evacuation.

Again, Johnson holds a wider responsibility too. Insiders say Pakistan’s Imran Khan called off a planned visit to the UK this July in part because he felt the PM had no concrete agreement lined up on issues like Afghan refugees.

The huge cost in both money and lives, British and Afghan, deserves a full “lessons learned” account. As we pull up the drawbridge in Kabul airport, today’s British casualties only add to that moral imperative.

Updated

Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs select committee, has said he is disappointed the evacuation efforts from Afghanistan by the British armed forces are coming to an end.

The former army officer told BBC Breakfast he was continuing to work to get people out of the country.

I’m extremely sad about this and I very much hope that it might go beyond the August deadline but we found out a few days ago that it wasn’t, so I was expecting it. It still leaves me extremely sad that so many of my friends have been left behind.

What I am working on, and you’ll understand I’m afraid that I’m not going to give you complete details about this, we’re looking at different networks to get people into second countries, and then connecting them to high commissions and ambassadors of the United Kingdom, to get them to the UK safely.

Tugendhat said people should “forget” about getting to Kabul and attempting to fly from the airport, due to the numerous dangerous checkpoints that have been installed along the motorways.

Forget about getting to Kabul. You know there’s 10 checkpoints between them on the motorway, let alone down the motorway, all the way to Kabul. You can absolutely forget about trying to get to the airport because every one of those checkpoints has a danger point where Taliban or indeed affiliated groups, drug dealers or just simply bandits could murder, and certainly have, been murdering various people.

On Wednesday, with chances of being airlifted out of the country dwindling, the British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, advised Afghans seeking to flee to Britain to try to get to the border, and the Foreign Office warned people not to travel to the airport amid the deteriorating security situation.

Updated

The former senior military commander, General Sir Richard Barrons, has warned the affiliate of Islamic State in Afghanistan, ISKP, is a threat to the UK.

He said it was likely Britain will have to co-operate with the Taliban in the future in light of the rise of the splinter cell, as a result of a lack of presence on the ground in Afghanistan.

Speaking about the number of casualties in Afghanistan, he told Times Radio:

What it does do is illustrate that Isis-K is a risk to the United Kingdom, here at home, and to our interests abroad. We’re going to find common cause with the US, and indeed I think the Taliban, in bearing down on this terrible organisation for as long as it takes to neuter them.

He added:

Before we arrived at this current catastrophic outcome, we had a diplomatic presence, we had a relationship with the Afghan intelligence organisations and we were able to work with some of the very good but now completely dissolved elements of the Afghan security architecture.

We also had the benefit of the sort of drone eyes-in-the-sky that the US provides. And now, all we have left is recourse to this over the horizon, drones support.

So what this actually means is we’re going to end up co-operating, not just with the US, but with the Taliban in the future, in order to deal with Isis-K.

In a separate interview with Times Radio, Barrons said it was going to be a “slow process” but the UK also must co-operate with the Taliban to try and get the rest of the people out of Afghanistan.

What we need to recognise is we are where we are and it is in our own strong, national interest to find a way to get those 1,100 or so people we have a commitment to, who are still stuck in Afghanistan, out and to co-operate with the Taliban in order to stop terrorism coming to the UK.

We are going to have to be pragmatic, I think this will be quite a slow process, it will be conditional but it is necessary.

He added the “risks” to the evacuation efforts are the “same as they have always been” but added the risk will close “quite quickly” due to the evacuation entering its final stages.

UK to end evacuation from Afghanistan on Saturday

British troops will end their evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan on Saturday, the armed forces chief, Gen Nick Carter, said.

“We’re reaching the end of the evacuation, which will take place during the course of today. And then it will be necessary to bring our troops out on the remaining aircraft,” he told the BBC.

“We haven’t been able to bring everyone out, and that has been heart-breaking. And there have been some very challenging judgments that have had to be made on the ground.

Carter said there were still some civilian evacuation flights coming from Kabul to the UK, but “very few now”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the final stages of the evacuation were “going according to plan”.

We’re reaching the end of the evacuation, which will take place during the course of today, and then of course it’ll be necessary to bring our troops out on the remaining aircraft. It’s gone as well as it could do in the circumstances.

Updated

The shadow defence secretary, John Healey, has said he expected all remaining British troops to be out of Afghanistan within 24 hours.

Speaking to Sky News, the Labour MP said the operation had been “very dangerous and desperate” as he praised the troops, but added:

This is the brutal truth, despite getting more than 14,000 people out, there are probably 1,000 Afghans who have worked with us over two decades in Afghanistan, helped our troops, our aid workers, our diplomats, that we promised to protect, but we’re leaving behind.

And I know those troops in particular will feel our failure on this as a country is a betrayal of many of those who risked their own lives to work alongside us.

And I think what’s important now is that we may be giving up the airport, but we cannot give up on the Afghan people or fighting to try and protect the gains that they and our troops and our diplomats and aid workers have worked so hard over two decades to gain in Afghanistan.

Updated

Italy’s final evacuation flight of refugees from Afghanistan has landed at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport, the Associated Press reports.

The Italian Air Force C-130J with 58 Afghan citizens onboard arrived Saturday morning, some 17 hours after it departed from the Kabul airport and after a planned stopover. Also onboard were Italy’s consul and a Nato diplomat who had coordinated evacuations at the Kabul airport.

The Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said Italy was prepared to work with the United Nations and with countries bordering Afghanistan on what he described as the “more difficult phase”.

He said that consisted of efforts to evacuate other Afghan citizens who worked with Italy’s military during its 20-year presence in Afghanistan but weren’t able to get into Kabul airport in time for the evacuation flights. He didn’t say how many still were eligible for evacuation to Italy.

Rescuing those citizens “would give them the same possibility” of starting a new life outside their homeland, Di Maio said in a brief statement at Rome’s airport.

He said the 4,890 Afghans evacuated by Italy’s air force in 87 flights was the highest number of any European Union nation.

Italy’s remaining soldiers left on a separate flight from Kabul on Friday night. That air force flight went to Kuwait and the troops are due back in Italy early next week.

Updated

That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. My colleague Lucy Campbell will take you through developments for the next few hours.

Summary

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

  • The US conducted a drone strike against an Islamic State target in Afghanistan on Saturday. US Central Command said the US conducted a drone strike against the IS member in Nangahar believed to be involved in planning attacks against the US in Kabul. The strike killed one individual, and spokesman Navy Captain William Urban said they knew of no civilian casualties.
  • The US Embassy in Kabul warned that US citizens at the airport gates “should leave immediately”. The embassy also warned, citing security threats, that citizens should avoid traveling to the airport because of security threats.
  • Evacuations continuing at “very fast pace” – report. An unnamed western official told Reuters that the evacuation of civilians from Kabul airport was continuing at a “very fast pace” and that “swift passage” would be provided to “every foreigner to leave Afghanistan in the next 48 hours”.
  • Joe Biden’s national security team has warned that US troops remain under threat of another terrorist attack, just 24 hours after the devastating suicide bomb at Kabul airport killed 13 US service members and more than 90 Afghans.
  • The UK’s ability to process any more evacuations from Afghanistan is now “extremely reduced”, the Ministry of Defence warned, as the focus turned to getting diplomats and service personnel out of the country.
  • France will maintain contacts with Taliban officials in Afghanistanto ensure that at-risk people can leave the country now that the French evacuation operation is over, the country’s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said.
  • Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, denied claims that the Taliban had taken over parts of Kabul airport. “I saw that report. It’s false,” he said.
  • The Taliban has made clear it wants US diplomatic presence to remain in Afghanistan, according to the US State Department.
  • The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has confirmed US Marine David Lee Espinoza was among those killed in yesterday’s bombing.
  • The last German troops returned to the northern air base of Wunstorf on Friday, after evacuating more than 5,300 people from 45 nations out of Kabul airport over the past 11 days.
  • A US Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who posted a video demanding accountability from military leaders over the evacuation of Afghanistan has been relieved of his duties and will leave US service. Stuart Scheller posted his video to Facebook and LinkedIn on Thursday.
  • Two British nationals and the child of a British national were among those killed, the UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said. Two more British nationals were injured.
  • There was one suicide bomber attack and not two, as previously stated, the Pentagon clarified.
  • A “credible” terror threat remains as the airlift continues, the Pentagon said. A spokesperson said: “We still believe there are credible threats, in fact I’d say specific credible threats, and we want to make sure we’re prepared for those.”
  • Up to half a million Afghans could flee the crisis in their homeland,the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said, appealing to all neighbouring countries to keep their borders open for those seeking safety.
  • An “unprecedented” number of people are travelling from Afghanistan to Pakistan through the official border crossing after the airport suicide attack has driven more to try to flee the country.
  • Anxious crowds of Afghans still hoping to join the western evacuation airlift from Kabul crowded airport gates less than a day after the bombing as flights resumed with fresh urgency.

Councils across the UK have said they are happy to provide accommodation for people fleeing Afghanistan but say they do not have sufficient housing stock to welcome all the new arrivals.

Steve Cowan, the leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council in west London, which has accepted many refugees in resettlement schemes over the years, said councils that volunteered to support the new arrivals should not be expected to do so to the detriment of residents on council home waiting lists. Instead the government should offer a comprehensive scheme that works across various departments to meet all their housing and other needs:

If you’re just joining us, the US has conducted a drone strike against an Islamic State target in Afghanistan on Saturday, as the airlift of those desperate to flee moved into its fraught final stages with fresh terror attack warnings and encroaching Taliban forces primed to take over the Kabul airport.

US troops overseeing the evacuation have been forced into closer security cooperation with the Taliban to prevent any repeat of a suicide bombing that killed scores of civilians crowded around one of the airport’s main access gates, and 13 American troops.

The attack was claimed by a regional chapter of the Islamic State – known as Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) – and the Pentagon announced it had carried out a drone attack on a “planner” from the jihadist group in eastern Afghanistan.

“Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties,” the US military said in a statement.

US Central Command said the airstrike took place in Nangarhar province, east of Kabul and bordering Pakistan. It did not say whether the target was connected with the airport attack:

Updated

Where is the Taliban’s supreme leader?

The Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has shepherded the Taliban as its chief since 2016, when snatched from relative obscurity to oversee a movement in crisis, AFP reports.

After taking the insurgency’s reins, the cleric was tasked with the mammoth challenge of unifying a jihadist movement that briefly fractured during a bitter power struggle.

Apart from a single photograph released by the Taliban, the leader has never made a public appearance and his whereabouts remain largely unknown.

Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada poses for a portrait.
Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada poses for a portrait. Photograph: Afghan Islamic Press/AP

And since taking control of Kabul in mid-August, the group has remained tight-lipped about Akhundzada’s movements.

“You will see him soon, God willing,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters this week when asked about Akhundzada’s whereabouts.

The ongoing silence comes as the heads of various Taliban factions have openly preached in Kabul’s mosques, met with opposition figures, and even chatted with Afghan cricket officials in recent days.

Updated

By Wednesday night, US intelligence agencies were near certain that an attack was imminent outside Kabul airport, Reuters reports, triggering a State Department warning to American citizens to leave the area immediately.

Just over 12 hours later, a suicide bomber walked through the large crowds to a gate manned by US troops and detonated explosives, killing at least 13 US service members and 79 Afghans.

Among the most pressing questions as the US military launches its investigation into the attack are: How did the bomber make it through Taliban checkpoints? Why were US troops in such a concentrated space when they knew an attack was imminent?

“It was a failure somewhere,” Gen Frank McKenzie, the head of US Central Command, told reporters hours after the attack, which was claimed by Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP).

But at some point, McKenzie added, troops had no choice but to come in contact with people trying to board evacuation flights, screen them, pat them down for weapons, and ensure they did not make it into the airport if they posed a threat.

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the conditions for the attack were set months in advance.

They told Reuters that weeks before the evacuation from Kabul airport began following the Taliban’s takeover of the capital, the military had been seeking approval to get at-risk Afghans out of the country.

But the slow tempo of processing and inability to secure housing for the evacuees in third countries slowed down the pace of departures, according to the officials, at one point halting all flights from Kabul for six hours.

That meant troops were on the frontlines at the airport gates in the face of chaos outside.

“This didn’t need to happen,” a US military official told Reuters. “They didn’t need to die.”

Updated

You may have seen some media outlets, mainly in the US, reporting that the death toll from the IS attack on Kabul airport has risen to 170.

These reports cite local health officials.

For now, the Guardian understands that the death toll stands at 90, but is likely to rise.

The Jordanian foreign ministry said the first group of Afghan citizens flown to Jordan earlier this week have left the Arab kingdom for the United States.

The ministry said 800 Afghan citizens departed at dawn on Friday and that their passage through Jordan was according to a pre-arranged agreement the kingdom made with the US. The agreement stipulates that Jordan would have a maximum of 2,500 Afghans pass through its territory on their way to the US.

The ministry said the arrival and departure of this first group of Afghans was completed in under a week and that Afghans could continue to transit through Jordan to the US until the end of August.

It added that Afghan citizens that pass through Jordan for this “short transit period” have no status as refugees in the kingdom.

Updated

Writing in the New Yorker before the drone strike, Robin Wright argued that “US retaliation for the Kabul bombing won’t stop Isis or end terrorism”:

The United States may indeed manage to kill more Isis-K fighters and destroy some of their modest arsenal. But the central flaw in US strategy is the belief that military force can eradicate extremist groups or radical ideologies.

...

Isis-K may pay a physical price for its brazen attack, but it scored political and psychological points among Sunni Muslim extremists and wannabe militants that will make it more popular in the world of jihadism. It could even come out ahead of where it was, experts warn.

...

The ability of Isis-K to carry out one of the most successful attacks against the American military in years will give it new credibility. The bombing at Kabul airport puts it in a different position than it was even a month ago, [Seth Jones, a former adviser to US Special Operations forces in Afghanistan] noted: “How ironic that the withdrawal of US forces has significantly increased the terrorism challenge – at the very time the US said it had solved the terrorism problem.” And a few missiles or drone strikes, or even another strike by the mother of all bombs, won’t change much anytime soon.

Updated

More on the future of Kabul’s airport, which is important for western countries who want to be able to get their citizens out of Afghanistan, as well as thousands of Afghan allies who cannot be evacuated in the US-led airlift before 31 August.

Up until now, Nato has played a key role, AFP reports:

The alliance’s civilian personnel have taken care of air traffic control, fuel supplies and communications, while military contingents from Turkey, the United States, Britain and Azerbaijan were in charge of security.

After the first talks on Friday between Turkish officials and the Taliban in Kabul, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, revealed the Taliban now want to oversee security at the airport, while offering Ankara the option of running its logistics.

“We will make a decision once calm prevails,” Erdoğan said, adding that the suicide attack on Thursday at the gates of the airport showed how complex the mission was.

Beyond Turkey, the discussions on the future of the airport have included Qatar and private operators, while the US has said it is acting as a facilitator.

Who will run Kabul airport after US forces leave?

The future of Kabul airport is subject of intense negotiations, AFP reports.

Starting on 1 September Hamid Karzai International Airport will be under the control of the Taliban, who already on Friday claimed to have moved into certain areas of the military side of the facility.

“We are departing by 31 August. Upon that date, we are delivering – we’re essentially giving the airport back to the Afghan people,” the State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Friday, cutting off speculation about the possibility of it falling into international hands.

“Running an airport is not an uncomplicated piece of business,” Price said. “I think that it is probably unreasonable to expect that there will be normal airport operations on 1 September.”

The idea that the airport could be temporarily closed was raised on Wednesday by his boss, the secretary of state, Antony Blinken. He said there had been “very active efforts” by countries in the region to see whether they could help keep it open “or, as necessary, reopening it if it closes for some period of time”.

Blinken insisted that the fate of the airport was important to the Taliban, who did not want to find themselves once again heading a pariah regime, as they did from 1996 to 2001.

The Islamists are especially hoping to see humanitarian aid quickly flow into the country.

The Taliban will shut down Afghanistan’s media and are fooling the west by promising to let journalists operate freely, an award-winning Afghan photographer has warned after fleeing Kabul over threats by the group.

AFP: Massoud Hossaini, who scooped a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 while working for Agence France-Presse and is now freelance, said Afghanistan’s new rulers were already restricting female journalists in particular.

The 39-year-old’s dire warning on the future of the media in Afghanistan comes as he recovers from a dramatic escape from Kabul on the last commercial flight the day the Taliban took power.

Massoud Hossaini.
Massoud Hossaini. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

“It is going to be really, really bad. They are trying to kill the media but they are doing it slowly,” Hossaini, who is currently staying in the Netherlands, told AFP on Friday.

“When Taliban capture someone, first of all they capture someone and then kill them, and this is now happening to media in general.”

After the fall of Kabul, Taliban officials stressed that the media, including women, could continue to operate freely and would not be harassed.

The Taliban even held a formal press conference where the group’s spokesman took questions.

Updated

More than 5,000 people remain inside Kabul airport awaiting evacuation, Reuters reports, with thousands more crowded outside the gates.

Evacuations continuing at 'very fast pace'

An unnamed western official has told Reuters that the evacuation of civilians from Kabul airport is continuing at a “very fast pace” and that “swift passage” will be provided to “every foreigner to leave Afghanistan in the next 48 hours” – or by 30 August.

It is currently nearing 8am in Afghanistan on the morning of Saturday 28 August.

We reported yesterday that western forces are aiming to complete evacuations ahead of the 31 August deadline.

Updated

UK’s ability to process evacuations ‘extremely reduced’

In case you missed this earlier: the UK’s ability to process any more evacuations from Afghanistan is now “extremely reduced”, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has warned, as the focus turned to getting diplomats and service personnel out of the country.

The MoD said 14,543 people had now been extracted from Kabul since 13 August, a mix of Afghan and British nationals.

Some 8,000 of those were Afghans and their families under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme, which applies to those who helped the UK and are at risk of persecution by the Taliban.

But Operation Pitting – the name for the evacuation effort – is drawing to a close.

Already the Baron Hotel facility, which was being used to process those leaving the country by British officials, has closed.

The MoD said this would allow a focus on evacuating the British nationals and others who have already been processed and are at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

But the ministry said “the UK’s ability to process further cases is now extremely reduced and additional numbers will be limited”, and no one else would now be called forward.

Evacuating all those already processed will now free up space on military aircraft to bring diplomats and military personnel home, PA reports.

Updated

Drone strike was against IS member planning future attacks – report

The drone strike carried out by the US on Saturday was against an Islamic State militant planning future attacks, Reuters reports, citing an anonymous US official.

A reaper drone, which took off from the Middle East, struck the militant while he was in a car with an Islamic State associate, the official said. Both are believed to have been killed, the official added.

The Guardian has not confirmed this independently.

Updated

Here is our full story on the airstrike:

The Washington Post has looked at the security challenges at Kabul’s airport.

The Post reports that:

At a typical well-defended military installation, security centers on what officials call “defence in depth”, something that appeared to be impossible to establish at the airport, said Sam Lerman, an Air Force security forces veteran whose unit protected Bagram air base in Afghanistan in 2011 and 2012.

...

“The main thing is you need standoff distance and redundant layers of security, and you need trusted people at every layer,” Lerman said. “That last part is a must-have.”

At Kabul airport – a commercial and civilian airfield in the center of a metropolis of more than 4 million people – the US military did not appear to have many of those options in place, after abruptly launching into a chaotic mission precipitated by the rapid disintegration of the Afghan government and its security forces.

Nearly 6,000 US troops flooded back into Kabul to secure the airfield, putting American troops at airport gates up close with surging crowds who had initially been screened by the Taliban. At times, Taliban fighters and US troops were often just a few feet apart.

...

Brian Castner, a former explosive ordnance disposal officer and Iraq War veteran, said that the “wicked nature of the problem” for the US troops included potential Afghan evacuees arriving at the gates with bags.

“You can’t just say, ‘No bags’. There are going to be bags,” said Castner, who was a civilian employee in Kabul when the government fell and subsequently evacuated. “You’re going to have this constant threat possibility that any one of those bags could be not somebody’s worldly possessions, but a bomb instead.”

Updated

The New York Times has put together an account of how Thursday’s suicide bomber attack took place.

The paper reports that:

At 5:48pm., the bomber, wearing a 25-pound explosive vest under clothing, walked up to the group of Americans who were frisking people hoping to enter the complex. He waited, officials said, until just before he was about to be searched by the American troops. And then he detonated the bomb, which was unusually large for a suicide vest, killing himself and igniting an attack that would leave dozens of people dead, including 13 American service members.

...

Just after the bomb went off, Defense Department officials said, fighters nearby began firing weapons. The officials said that some of the Americans and Afghans at Abbey Gate might have been hit by that gunfire. There was so much confusion in the aftermath of the explosion that the military initially reported that a second suicide bombing had taken place at nearby Baron Hotel. That turned out to be false, according to Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, the Joint Staff deputy director for regional operations.

The strike was launched from outside of Afghanistan, AFP reports.

What is Islamic State Khorasan Province?

Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) is Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan.

ISKP was founded just under six years ago after representatives of IS made their way to south-western Pakistan to meet disaffected Taliban commanders and other extremists who felt marginalised within the jihadist movement in the region.

Charlie Winter, a senior research fellow at London University’s International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), told the Guardian: “The trajectory of ISKP has been one of resurgence after a tough time in 2019 and the first half of 2020 … but they went silent suddenly since the Taliban takeover and a possible reason for that was the group were gearing up for a new campaign.”

In Afghanistan the Taliban have opposed the expansion of ISKP, as have al-Qaida, the Afghan government’s forces and the US.

But in recent months, attacks linked to ISKP have intensified and have been aimed at a wider range of targets than previously: Shia Muslims, journalists and foreigners, as well as civilian infrastructure and military personnel.

But some say the group remains seriously degraded and that the number of attacks is not necessarily the best metric to judge its strength, the Guardian’s Jason Burke reports.

You can read more about ISKP and what their attack on Kabul’s airport might mean for the organisation and Afghanistan here:

Updated

Here is the full statement by US Central Command spokesperson Captain Bill Urban about the deadly drone strike carried out by the US against an Islamic State Khorasan Province member:

US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner. The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties.

Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) is Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan.

Updated

The drone strike was approved by Biden, Reuters reports.

More on the strike: it wasn’t clear if that individual was involved specifically in the Thursday suicide blast outside the gates of the Kabul airport, where crowds of Afghans were desperately trying to get in as part of the ongoing evacuation from the country after the Taliban’s rapid takeover.

The airstrike fulfilled a vow President Joe Biden made to the nation on Thursday when he said the perpetrators of the attack would not be able to hide. “We will hunt you down and make you pay,” he said. Pentagon leaders told reporters on Friday that they were prepared for whatever retaliatory action the president ordered.

“We have options there right now,” said Maj Gen Hank Taylor of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.

Updated

US carries out drone strike against Islamic State member

The United States military has carried out a drone attack on an Islamic State member in Afghanistan, the Associated Press reports.

US Central Command said the US conducted a drone strike against the IS member in Nangahar believed to be involved in planning attacks against the US in Kabul. The strike killed one individual, and spokesman Navy Captain William Urban said they knew of no civilian casualties.

Updated

Reuters and AFP report that the US military has carried out a drone attack against an Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) planner in eastern Afghanistan.

According to a statement by the Pentagon, “initial indications show” the planner was killed in the attack.

The Guardian has not been able to verify this independently – this is breaking news and we should have more information shortly.

Updated

In less sad news, the Albanian government on Saturday said 154 Afghans evacuated from their country fearing the Taliban arrived on two charter flights.

A government spokesman confirmed the arrivals, organised by a US nonprofit organisation, without giving more details.

The Afghans were taken from Tirana’s international airport to a student housing area to stay for a couple of weeks before moving to hotels in other cities.

A first group of 121 Afghans, which came a day earlier, has been housed at a tourist resort not far from the capital Tirana.

The Afghans are first taken to military tents for Covid tests, medical and psychological assistance and processing of their identification data.

The government has said that as many as 4,000 Afghans may stay at least a year in Albania while proceeding with applications for special visas for final settlement in the US.

Updated

The New York Times’ Sharif Hassan reports that a friend of his, journalist Alireza Ahmadi, is among the victims of the airport attack.

Here is Biden speaking earlier on Friday about the next few days being the most dangerous of the evacuation so far:

Earlier on Friday, the US president Joe Biden’s national security team told the president that another terror attack is “likely” in Kabul, and that “maximum force protection” measures are being taken at the airport in the Afghan capital.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, did not go into detail on the assessment Biden received from his team one day after a suicide bomber killed 13 US service members and scores of Afghans outside the airport.

Psaki says the next few days of the mission to evacuate Americans and vulnerable Afghans fleeing Taliban rule “will be the most dangerous period to date.”

Biden has said that he intends to complete the evacuation by his Tuesday deadline.

Updated

The statement posted to the US embassy in Afghanistan website reads:

Because of security threats at the Kabul airport, we continue to advise US citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates.

US citizens who are at the Abbey gate, East gate, North gate or the New Ministry of Interior gate now should leave immediately.

Actions to take:

  • Be aware of your surroundings at all times, especially in large crowds.
  • Follow the instructions of local authorities including movement restrictions related to curfews.
  • Have a contingency plan for emergencies and review the traveler’s checklist.
  • Monitor local media for breaking events and adjust your plans based on new information.
  • Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency.
  • Follow the Department of State on Facebook and Twitter.

Updated

US embassy in Kabul warns citizens at airport gates to 'leave immediately'

US citizens who are at the Abbey gate, East gate, North gate or the new Ministry of Interior gate now “should leave immediately”, the embassy in Kabul has warned.

The embassy also said citizens should avoid traveling to the airport because of security threats.

This is just breaking on Reuters, we hope to have more information shortly.

Updated

US on alert for further attacks

US forces helping evacuate Afghans desperate to flee Taliban rule were on alert for more attacks on Friday.

The White House said the next few days of an ongoing US evacuation operation that the Pentagon said has taken about 111,000 people out of Afghanistan in the past two weeks are likely to be the most dangerous.

The Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, said the United States believes there are still “specific, credible” threats against the airport after the bombing at one of its gates.

“We certainly are prepared and would expect future attempts,” Kirby told reporters in Washington. “We’re monitoring these threats, very, very specifically, virtually in real time.”

US and allied forces are racing to complete evacuations of their citizens and vulnerable Afghans and to withdraw from Afghanistan by a 31 August deadline set by the president, Joe Biden, after two decades of American military presence there.

About 4,200 people were evacuated from Kabul during a 12-hour period on Friday, the White House said.

Earlier in the day US officials said a total of approximately 5,100 Americans had been evacuated, with about 500 more waiting to leave.

While thousands have been evacuated, they are far outnumbered by those who could not get out.

Updated

In case you missed this earlier: a US Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who posted a video demanding accountability from military leaders over the evacuation of Afghanistan has been relieved of his duties and will leave US service, the Marines and the officer involved said on Friday.

Stuart Scheller posted his video to Facebook and LinkedIn on Thursday, the day 13 US service members, 11 of them Marines, and reportedly as many as 170 Afghans, were killed in a suicide bomb attack at the airport in Kabul.

“I have been fighting for 17 years,” said Scheller, then commander of the advanced infantry training battalion. “I am willing to throw it all away to say to my senior leaders: ‘I demand accountability.’”

Full story below:

Summary

Hi, my name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you developments from Afghanistan as they happen.

As always, if you see news you think we should know, you can get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

  • Joe Biden’s national security team has warned that US troops remain under threat of another terrorist attack, just 24 hours after the devastating suicide bomb at Kabul airport killed 13 US service members and more than 90 Afghans.
  • The UK’s ability to process any more evacuations from Afghanistan is now “extremely reduced”, the Ministry of Defence warned, as the focus turned to getting diplomats and service personnel out of the country.
  • France will maintain contacts with Taliban officials in Afghanistan to ensure that at-risk people can leave the country now that the French evacuation operation is over, the country’s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said.
  • Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, denied claims that the Taliban had taken over parts of Kabul airport. “I saw that report. It’s false,” he said.
  • The Taliban has made clear it wants US diplomatic presence to remain in Afghanistan, according to the US State Department.
  • The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has confirmed US Marine David Lee Espinoza was among those killed in yesterday’s bombing.
  • The last German troops returned to the northern air base of Wunstorf on Friday, after evacuating more than 5,300 people from 45 nations out of Kabul airport over the past 11 days.
  • A US Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who posted a video demanding accountability from military leaders over the evacuation of Afghanistan has been relieved of his duties and will leave US service. Stuart Scheller posted his video to Facebook and LinkedIn on Thursday.
  • Two British nationals and the child of a British national were among those killed, the UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said. Two more British nationals were injured.
  • There was one suicide bomber attack and not two, as previously stated, the Pentagon clarified.
  • A “credible” terror threat remains as the airlift continues, the Pentagon said. A spokesperson said: “We still believe there are credible threats, in fact I’d say specific credible threats, and we want to make sure we’re prepared for those.”
  • Up to half a million Afghans could flee the crisis in their homeland, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said, appealing to all neighbouring countries to keep their borders open for those seeking safety.
  • An “unprecedented” number of people are travelling from Afghanistan to Pakistan through the official border crossing after the airport suicide attack has driven more to try to flee the country.
  • Anxious crowds of Afghans still hoping to join the western evacuation airlift from Kabul crowded airport gates less than a day after the bombing as flights resumed with fresh urgency.

Updated

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