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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Ben Doherty (now); Nadeem Badshah Caroline Davies ,Damien Gayle ,Helen Sullivan (earlier)

Afghan vice-president says he is caretaker president – as it happened

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks at at his first news conference in Kabul.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks at his first news conference in Kabul. Photograph: Rahmat Gul/AP

You can follow our live coverage here. Thank you for reading

We are going to close this liveblog now (we will open up a new one imminently). Please continue to follow our rolling coverage there. Many thanks for your comments and correspondence.

A summary of recent developments:

  • The US Air Force has said it is investigating the circumstances surrounding human remains that were found in the wheel well of one of its C-17s that flew out of Kabul amid the chaos of the Taliban takeover of the Afghan capital
  • Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a press conference in Kabul it would seek no “revenge” against those who had opposed them. “The Islamic Emirate - after the freedom of this nation - is not going to revenge anybody, we do not have any grudges against anybody. We have pardoned anyone, all those who have fought against us.”
  • The UN human rights council is to hold a special session next week on the situation in Afghanistan to address “serious human rights concerns” after the Taliban takeover, a United Nations statement said. The Geneva forum will convene on 24 August at the request of Pakistan and nearly 90 other countries supporting the move, it said.
  • The Afghan vice-president, Amrullah Saleh, said on Twitter on Tuesday he is in Afghanistan and is the “legitimate caretaker president”. Former president Ashraf Ghani fled the country amid the Taliban advance and his whereabouts remain unknown.
  • Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of the Nato military alliance, has blamed the swift collapse of Afghanistan’s armed forces on a failure of leadership in the country. “The Afghan leadership failed to stand up… this failure of Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today.”
  • US president Joe Biden and British prime minister Boris Johnson discussed Afghanistan on Tuesday and announced a virtual summit of the G7 leaders on the crisis, the White House said. “They agreed to hold a virtual G7 leaders’ meeting next week to discuss a common strategy and approach,” the White House said in a statement.

Reports an Australian evacuation mission is underway in Kabul. From the national broadcaster.

More detail on the situation at Kabul airport.

US Central Command’s General Frank McKenzie has issued a statement saying the airfield has been secured and warning the Taliban they would be met with “overwhelming force” should they interfere with evacuation missions.

US military air traffic controllers and ground handlers are rapidly scaling up operations to ensure the smooth flow of military reinforcements to the airport and the evacuation of US and partner civilians in coordination with our State Department colleagues.

Currently, the airfield is secure and now open to civilian air traffic operating under visual flight rules.

In meetings with Taliban senior leaders in Doha on Sunday, I cautioned them against interference in our evacuation, and made it clear to them that any attack would be met with overwhelming force in the defence of our forces.

French and Afghan nationals line up to board a French military transport plane at the Kabul airport
French and Afghan nationals line up to board a French military transport plane at the Kabul airport Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Members of the Hazara community in Australia have said the capture of the Afghan capital by the Taliban has re-traumatised them and left many terrified for their families still in Kabul.

It comes as parts of the capital Kabul, and in particular the airport, descended into chaos as residents desperate to get out of the country scrambled to find an escape.

Good morning/afternoon/evening, wherever these words might find you. Ben Doherty here in Sydney (it’s morning here) helming this rolling coverage for the next few hours. My thanks to my colleagues for their comprehensive coverage thus far.

The exodus from Kabul continues. Aryana Sayeed, one of Afghanistan’s biggest music stars, has taken an evacuation flight out of the capital.

“I am alive and well and, after a couple of unforgettable nights, have reached Doha,” she posted online.

“I hope and pray, as a result of the recent changes, at the very least my beautiful people will be able to start living a peaceful life without the fear of suicide bombers and explosions.”

UK home secretary Priti Patel has called on other nations to help take in Afghan refugees, according to an article in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Britain on Tuesday announced plans to welcome up to 5,000 Afghans fleeing the Taliban during the first year of a new resettlement programme that will prioritise women, girls and religious and other minorities.

“The UK is also doing all it can to encourage other countries to help. Not only do we want to lead by example, we cannot do this alone,” Patel wrote.

Updated

Mr Hottak is being supported in his campaign by Afghanistan veteran Major Andrew Fox, who served three tours in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2010 with the Royal Welsh and later the Parachute regiment.

Major Fox, 42, said any promises from the Taliban not to take revenge against those that had helped the British and Americans as “pure lies”.

“They are monsters and they are simply trying to get the west on side with their takeover,” he said. “What they are saying doesn’t match anything at all that I am hearing about on the ground and people messaging me from Afghanistan.”

Updated

An Afghan interpreter has pleaded with the UK government to help the families “who offered their sons when your sons needed help” in the fight against terror.

The 35-year-old man and his brother started helping British forces when he was just 17 before emigrating to the UK in 2011.

Although he is now a British citizen, his brother and parents remain trapped in Kabul as the Taliban move to complete their lightning-quick takeover of the country.

The interpreter, who gave his name only as Mr Hottak to protect his family’s identity, is planning a protest outside Parliament on Wednesday to demand the UK offer asylum to all interpreters and their families.

He told the PA news agency: “That nation (Afghanistan) had lost all hope when it was under the Taliban regime, they were only alive, they weren’t living.

“But the international community came, they gave them hope, they gave them dreams, they started living with humanity, and then suddenly you pull out the rug from under their feet and leave them alone like that.

“To the audience here in the UK please, support these interpreters and their families, their parents, their siblings, those who have offered their sons when your sons needed help.

“We supported you in that war against terror, many of us carry mental and physical scars.”

Updated

20,000 Afghans to be given refuge in UK

Some 20,000 Afghans are to be welcomed to the UK in coming years as the government unveiled the details of a scheme to provide sanctuary for those most at risk of persecution by the Taliban.

Boris Johnson has promised that up to 5,000 Afghans can find refuge in the UK this year, with up to 20,000 in the longer term.

The prime minister, who will address MPs on Wednesday on the crisis in Afghanistan, said: “We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years.

“Many of them, particularly women, are now in urgent need of our help. I am proud that the UK has been able to put in place this route to help them and their families live safely in the UK.”

However, opposition parties have said the plans do not go far enough and are too vague to make a difference.

Updated

Boris Johnson has stressed to US president Joe Biden the importance of preserving the gains made in Afghanistan, Downing Street said.

A No 10 spokesperson said Johnson had spoken to Biden and said in a statement: “The leaders welcomed US and UK cooperation in recent days to help evacuate our nationals, current and former staff, and others from Afghanistan. They resolved to continue working closely together on this in the days and weeks ahead to allow as many people as possible to leave the country.

The prime minister and president Biden agreed on the need for the global community to come together to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. The prime minister outlined UK plans including increased humanitarian aid to the region and resettlement of refugees.

“The prime minister stressed the importance of not losing the gains made in Afghanistan over the last 20 years, of protecting ourselves against any emerging threat from terrorism and of continuing to support the people of Afghanistan.

“The prime minister and president looked forward to discussing this issue further at a virtual meeting of G7 leaders in the coming days.”

Updated

US president Joe Biden’s approval rating dropped by seven percentage points and hit its lowest level so far as the US-backed Afghan government collapsed over the weekend in an upheaval that sent thousands of civilians and Afghan military advisers fleeing for their safety, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The national opinion poll, conducted on Monday, found that 46% of American adults approved of Biden’s performance in office, the lowest recorded in weekly polls that started when he took office in January. It is also down from the 53% who felt the same way in a similar Reuters/Ipsos poll that ran on Friday.

Updated

Canada will resume military flights into Afghanistan now that the airport in Kabul has been secured, CBC News reported.

The US Air Force said it is investigating the circumstances surrounding human remains that were found in the wheel well of one of its C-17s that flew out of Kabul amid the chaos of the Taliban takeover of the Afghan capital, Reuters reports.
Images circulated on social media earlier this week of Afghans desperate to leave Kabul rushing toward a C-17 and clinging to its side.

A separate video showed what appeared to be two people falling from a military plane as it flew out of Kabul.
“Faced with a rapidly deteriorating security situation around the aircraft, the C-17 crew decided to depart the airfield as quickly as possible,” the statement said. It added that the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigation was reviewing information about the aircraft and the “loss of civilian lives – to include video documentation and the source of social media posts”.

Updated

John Bolton, former national security adviser to Donald Trump and the US ambassador to the UN under George W Bush, said the Taliban was “not making a very convincing case” that they would stick to human rights pledges.

Bolton told Channel 4 News: “I think right now the Taliban have their smiley faces on because they’ve had good western public relations advice and they won’t get back to slitting throats until everybody’s out of Hamid Karzai International Airport.

“I don’t trust them any more today than we did 20 years ago and I understand what they’re saying, I understand what some of their apologists in the west are saying, the only proof we’ll have is in the experience after they take control. But if you look for where the best evidence is, it’s in the minds of the Afghan people and, as far as I can see, from a distance, they’re terrified.”

Updated

American citizens still in Afghanistan are encouraged to “shelter in place until and unless you receive a communication from the US Embassy,” state department spokesperson Ned Price said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that there are about 11,000 “self-identified” US citizens remaining in Afghanistan, who still need to be evacuated.

But Pentagon press secretary John Kirby had previously put that number somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000, demonstrating the interagency confusion within the Biden administration as Kabul evacuation efforts continue, a Politico editor noted.

US state department spokesperson Ned Price said the US had completed a draw down of embassy personnel from the Afghan capital of Kabul and those diplomatic personnel remaining were assisting the evacuation of American citizens and Afghan allies.
Former US ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass was also heading to Kabul on Tuesday to help with the evacuation, Price said, Reuters reports.

Updated

The US president, Joe Biden, has not spoken with any of his fellow world leaders since Kabul fell to the Taliban, the White House said.
“He has not yet spoken with any other world leaders,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. “Myself, Secretary (Antony) Blinken, several other senior members of the team have been engaged on a regular basis with foreign counterparts and we intend to do so in the coming days,” he added. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that the administration’s focus was currently on the tense evacuation process for thousands of Americans and Afghan allies from Kabul, AFP reports.

Updated

The UN human rights council is to hold a special session next week on the situation in Afghanistan to address “serious human rights concerns” after the Taliban takeover, a United Nations statement said.

The Geneva forum is set to convene on 24 August at the request of Pakistan and nearly 90 other countries supporting the move, it said.

Convening a special session requires support from one-third of the council’s 47 member states.

Backers so far include members Britain and France - but not China or Russia - while the United States was not among supporting countries with observer status, a provisional UN list showed, Reuters reports.

Updated

On 1 October 2001, three weeks after the 9/11 attacks and six days before the bombing of Afghanistan began, there was a small protest march in Washington.

The marchers wore badges saying “Don’t Turn Tragedy into War” and “Our Grief Is Not a Cry for War”, and argued that war was not the inevitable response to the terrorist outrage.

The protest fell on the deafest of ears in the wake of the atrocities committed by al-Qaida. The headline on the New York Times report on the march was “Marchers Oppose Waging War Against Terrorists”.

Twenty years on, in the wake of a stunning defeat for the US and its allies and the return of the Taliban to power, the questions the marchers were asking are being asked again – this time in a spirit of resignation and despair.

A veteran trapped in Afghanistan has said western governments who gave young people in the country hope have now “abandoned them to the wolves”.
Former Royal Marine Commando and founder of the Nowzad animal charity, Paul Farthing, tried to organise his wife’s escape via Kabul airport on Tuesday, but said she became “crushed” in the uncontrolled crowd. He has urged the British government to help his staff, their dependants and the animals leave Afghanistan under a campaign called Operation Ark, which aims to fundraise £200,000. The veteran said he will not leave the country without the 71 refugees, PA reports. Farthing said he has “never been as worried and frightened about the future as I am now with what is happening in Afghanistan”. He added: “Our western governments gave the young generations of Afghanistan hope for the future, and in one swift stroke of a White House pen they abandoned them to the wolves.

“Everyone who cares for compassionate caring people now needs to step up and let their voices be heard. They have no future if you do not.”

Updated

It had just started raining at the White House on Monday when a group of reporters, the Guardian included, were summoned and led past a Secret Service agent, along a red carpet in a windowless corridor, up a staircase and into the elegantly appointed East Room.

It was hardly the first Joe Biden speech on this spot but it was probably the most important. The president had flown back from Camp David to address the catastrophe unfolding in Afghanistan after his decision to withdraw US forces.

What followed over 19 minutes was a robust defence of the strategic reasons America was ending its longest war – but rather less detail on how the departure was executed.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the Taliban have told the US it will provide safe passage for civilians to reach the airport in Afghanistan.

Sullivan also told a White House news briefing the United States believes the Kabul evacuation can go until 31 August and it is talking to the Taliban about the exact timeline and how it will play out, Reuters reports.

Updated

Afghan women and girls who have won freedoms they could not have dreamed of under the last Taliban rule that ended 20 years ago are desperate not to lose them now the Islamist militant movement is back in power, Reuters reports.

Some women have already been ordered from their jobs during the chaos of Taliban advances across the country in recent days. Others are fearful that whatever the militants say, the reality may be different.

“Times have changed,” said Khadija, who runs a religious school for girls in Afghanistan.

“The Taliban are aware they can’t silence us, and if they shut down the internet the world will know in less than five minutes. They will have to accept who we are and what we have become.”
Afghan girls’ education activist Pashtana Durrani, 23, was wary of Taliban promises.

They have to walk the talk. Right now they’re not doing that,” she said, referring to assurances that girls would be allowed to attend schools.

“If they limit the curriculum, I am going to upload more books to (an) online library. If they limit the internet ... I will send books to homes. If they limit teachers I will start an underground school, so I have an answer for their solutions.”

Updated

On Tuesday an unprecedented discussion took place on an Afghanistan television channel: a female presenter interviewed a Taliban spokesperson about the group’s plans for the country, days after insurgents seized control of the capital, Kabul.

Beheshta Arghand’s discussion with the spokesperson Mawlawi Abdulhaq Hemad is being claimed by the rolling news channel Tola News as the first time an Afghan woman has conducted an interview with a senior Taliban official inside the country’s borders.

“We said to them, look, a female is going to interview you,” said Saad Mohseni, the founder of Tolo News. “And they said fine. They could have easily have said screw you – they run the country, they can do whatever they want.”

Tolo News briefly sent its female reporters home on Sunday owing to fears for their safety. But two days later many have returned to work and are out reporting on the streets.

Updated

Refugee charities have urged the UK’s government to set targets on the number of people it aims to settle in Britain who have fled from Afghanistan.

The prime minister, Boris Johnson, is expected to unveil a new scheme for incoming Afghans who are fleeing the nation after the Taliban launched a takeover.

A No 10 spokesperson described it as a “bespoke” scheme, but further details are yet to be released, PA Media reports.

It has been reported that it will be based on the Syrian Vulnerable People’s Resettlement Scheme, a programme that was set up in 2014 with an aim to help give new lives to people who fled Syria after the outbreak of war.

Beth Gardiner-Smith, chief executive of Safe Passage International, said the government’s intentions “must be backed by clear, ambitious numerical targets”.

Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, said:

We should not forget that there are thousands of Afghan asylum seekers already in the UK who are unable to build a life because they are still waiting for their asylum claim decided upon.

We are therefore calling on the prime minister to recognise the plight of Afghans already here and grant them asylum and not to differentiate between those who arrived by boat, lorry or other ‘irregular’ means.

Updated

Afghanistan must be prevented from slipping “back to a hotbed for international terrorism”, Keir Starmer said.

Speaking after attending a meeting with national security adviser, Sir Stephen Lovegrove, the Labour leader said the priority in the response to the collapse of Kabul into the hands of the Taliban must be preventing the resurgence of terrorism and ensuring that the rights of women and girls are protected.

Asked whether he feared terrorists could set up in Afghanistan again following the Taliban takeover, Starmer told broadcasters: “Yes, I am concerned about that terrorist risk and my concern generally is that Afghanistan could become a place where international terrorism emanates again.”

He said when parliament is recalled on Wednesday to discuss the crisis, he would be pushing Boris Johnson over his plan for refugees.

Updated

Alphabet Inc’s YouTube said it bans accounts that are believed to be owned and operated by the Taliban, Reuters reports.
Separately, the Financial Times reported that Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service has shut down a complaints helpline set up by the Taliban after it took control of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Updated

Boris Johnson has joined with other international leaders to warn the Taliban its legitimacy to govern Afghanistan will depend on its commitment to human rights, as the militants claimed animosities with foreign powers were over, PA Media reports.
In a telephone call with Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, Johnson said the recognition of a future Taliban government in Afghanistan would “be subject to them upholding internationally-agreed standards on human rights and inclusivity”, a Downing Street spokesperson said.

Updated

Afghan women, holding placards, gather to demand the protection of Afghan women’s rights in front of the Presidential Palace in Kabul.
Afghan women, holding placards, gather to demand the protection of Afghan women’s rights in front of the Presidential Palace in Kabul. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The main challenge in evacuating French citizens and Afghan staff who worked for French authorities is the difficulty of reaching Kabul airport, the French defence minister, Florence Parly, said on Tuesday.

Parly spoke as a first flight with 40 evacuees - French, Afghan and other nationals - landed at a Paris airport, Reuters reports.
“The situation at Kabul airport remains very chaotic and access to the airport is extremely difficult,” Parly told reporters.
She said that France relies on the United States army to provide security for Kabul airport and that further evacuation flights would depend on getting landing slots.

Updated

You can read the Guardian’s full report on the Taliban press conference here:

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid gestures as he arrives at the press conference in Kabul.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid (L) gestures as he arrives to hold the first press conference in Kabul on August 17, 2021

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid (L) gestures as he arrives to hold the first press conference in Kabul on August 17, 2021 Photograph: Hoshang Hashimi/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

People fleeing Taliban rule in Afghanistan are due to arrive imminently in Manchester where they will be temporarily housed in hotels, the city council leader has said.

Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester city council, said Afghan nationals were “on their way” and that their planes would be landing “any moment”.

Some of the arrivals are expected to be housed at two airport hotels in Manchester although details are yet to be confirmed by Manchester city council.

Leese said: “We’re certainly not going to turn our back on those people. What we are certainly going to do is make the case that if we are really a caring country we need to make sure we put the proper resources and systems in to support these people very, very quickly [and] get them out of hotels and get them into homes... We’ll continue to make that case for proper support.”

Updated

More from the Taliban’s first press conference. Interpreters and contractors who supported allied efforts will be pardoned.

According to a translation by Al Jazeera, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, said:

I would like to reassure all the compatriots, whether they were translators, whether they had military activities or whether they have been civilians, all of them have been pardoned.

Nobody is going to be treated with revenge.

The youths who have talents, who have grown up here - we do not want them to leave. These are our assets, we would like them to stay here to serve.

We would like to assure you that no one is going to knock on their door to inspect them or to ask them or interrogate them as to who they have been working for or interpreting for.

I would like to assure you that no harm is going to come, they are going to be safe.

Any Taliban soldiers who have carried out house-to-house inspections are “abusers” and will be “chased and investigated”, Mujahid said.

Updated

The Russian ambassador to Afghanistan said he had a “constructive” and “positive” meeting with Taliban representatives in Kabul to discuss security for the Russian diplomatic mission, AP reports.

Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov told Russian state TV on Tuesday that the meeting was “dedicated exclusively to the security of the embassy” and involved “senior Taliban representatives in the city who were accepting the surrender of the remnants of the self-disbanded Afghan national security forces”.

“The meeting was positive and constructive,” Zhirnov said. “The Taliban representatives said the Taliban has the friendliest ... approach to Russia. They confirmed guarantees of security for the embassy.”

Russia designated the Taliban a terrorist organisation in 2003, but has since hosted several rounds of talks in Afghanistan, most recently in March, that involved the group.

Moscow, which fought a 10-year war in Afghanistan that ended with the Soviet troops’ withdrawal in 1989, has made a diplomatic comeback as a mediator, reaching out to feuding Afghan factions as it has jockeyed with the US for influence in the country, AP reports.

Updated

The Taliban are committed to a “free and independent media”, Mujahid said.

However, he said he had “requests” for the media including that “nothing should be against Islamic values when it comes to the activities of the media, therefore Islamic values should be taken into account when it comes to the activities of the media”.
He said the media “should not work against national values, against national unity”.

He said: “When it comes to ethnic differences, religious differences and hostilities, they should not be actually promoted by the media, they should work ... for the unity of the nation to have peaceful, brotherly living together.”

Updated

On women’s rights, Mujahid said the issue was “very important”. He told journalists in Kabul:

The Islamic Emirate is committed to the rights of women within the framework of sharia.

Our sisters ... have the same rights, will be able to benefit from their rights. They can have activities in different sectors and different areas on the basis of our rules and regulations, educational, health and other areas.

They are going to be working with us, shoulder to shoulder with us, and the international community - if they have concerns - we would like to assure them that there is not going to be any discrimination against women, but of course within the frameworks that we have.

Updated

Mujahid claimed the group had planned to stop at the gates to Kabul but said that because the previous administration was “so incompetent”, they had moved into the city to “ensure security”.
He said the security of foreign embassies was of “crucial importance” and that residents of Kabul should “be assured that your security is guaranteed”, PA reports. He added: “I would like to assure the international community including the United States that nobody will be harmed in Afghanistan, I would like to assure our neighbours, regional countries, we are not going to allow our territory to be used against anybody, any country in the world.”
Mujahid said the Taliban should be “treated accordingly” by the international community.
“We do not want to have any problem with the international community,” he said. “We have the right to act on the basis of our religious principles and rules and regulations, this is the right of Afghans.”

Updated

Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman, addressing the Taliban’s first press conference in Kabul today.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks at at his first news conference in Kabul.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks at at his first news conference in Kabul. Photograph: Rahmat Gul/AP

Updated

Taliban seek no revenge, says spokesman

Mujahid told the press conference: “Freedom and independence-seeking is a legitimate right of every nation.”
PA reports he said: “The Islamic Emirate - after the freedom of this nation - is not going to revenge anybody, we do not have any grudges against anybody.

“We know that we have been undergoing very challenging periods and crises, a lot of mistakes were made that were in the advantage of the occupiers.

“We want to make sure that Afghanistan is not the field of conflict, the battlefield of conflict, any more.”

He added: “We have pardoned anyone, all those who have fought against us. We don’t want to repeat any conflict, any war, again, and we want to do away with the factors for conflict.

“Therefore, the Islamic Emirate does not have any kind of hostility or animosity with anyone, animosities have come to an end, and we would like to live peacefully. We don’t want any internal enemies and any external enemies.”

Updated

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, appearing before cameras for the first time, said the group pledged to secure Afghanistan and sought no revenge and that “everyone is forgiven”.

Updated

The Taliban are holding news conference in Kabul. It is the first time they have addressed the nation since taking control of the country.

Updated

Taliban checks at Kabul airport are making it more difficult to evacuate Afghans who worked for western forces, the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said on Tuesday as international forces scrambled to get people out of the country, AFP reports.

“The situation is much more dangerous (for Afghans) because there is no promise of being let through at the Taliban checkpoints,” AFP reported Maas saying ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

He added that German and US forces were working to grant them safe access to the airport, which was mobbed by thousands of panicked people trying to escape on Monday after the Taliban seized control of the country.

According to a government report seen by AFP on Tuesday, the situation has calmed down since the Taliban set up security posts around the airport.

This is making it easier for international forces to evacuate their nationals but “the closure of the airport to Afghan nationals is making it more difficult to evacuate former Afghan local staff”, the document said.

Speaking in Berlin on Tuesday, theGerman chancellor, Angela Merkel, said the big question over the next few days would be “above all, how many can reach the airport in Kabul”.

Berlin estimates that 2,500 local employees who worked with German troops or at the embassy, as well as their family members, need to be evacuated from the country.

Another 2,000 Afghans, such as human rights activists or employees of non-governmental organisations, also need to be brought out of the country. The number swells to 10,000 if their family members are included.

Updated

Afghan vice-president Amrullah Saleh says he is caretaker president

The Afghan vice-president, Amrullah Saleh, said on Twitter on Tuesday he is in Afghanistan and is the “legitimate caretaker president”.
Saleh had said after a security meeting chaired by the then president, Ashraf Ghani, last week that he was proud of the armed forces and the government would do all it could to strengthen resistance to the Taliban. President Ghani earlier left the country amid the Taliban advance and his whereabouts remain unknown.

Updated

US, UK and other western forces have helped to secure Kabul’s international airport, allowing the RAF to begin mass airlifts out of the Afghan capital, the commander of Britain’s evacuation effort has said, Dan Sabbagh, the Guardian’s defence and security editor, reports.

V-Adm Ben Key, the commander of joint operations, said there was now “considerably greater stability” on the ground, ending the “distressing scenes” of Monday when some desperate Afghans clung to military aircraft as they took off.

The plan was to “create capacity” for “around 1,000 outward passengers every day,” he added, in the hope of evacuating an estimated 3,000 Britons and dual nationals still the country, plus a further 3,000 Afghans eligible for resettlement in the UK.

But the British commander acknowledged that the Taliban could close the airport at any time, and said: “We may well find that the security situation on the ground may make it untenable to continue to evacuate other people.”

Read the full report here:

Joe Biden has authorised up to $500m from an emergency fund to meet “unexpected urgent” refugee needs stemming from the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, including for Afghan special immigration visa applicants, the White House said.

The US is preparing to begin evacuating thousands of Afghan SIV applicants who risk retaliation from Taliban militants who have taken over the country, because they worked for the US government.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have shared their heartbreak over the state of the “exceptionally fragile” world, saying they have been left speechless by the situation in Afghanistan.

Harry, who fought in the country on two frontline tours with the army, and Meghan also expressed their distress about the earthquake in Haiti and said they were “scared” amid the new Covid variants and continuing global health crisis.

The couple, who quit royal duties for a life in California, urged global leaders to speed up humanitarian talks and asked people to support charities trying to help those in need. In a joint statement on their Archewell website, the couple wrote:

To start, we encourage you to join us in supporting a number of organisations doing critical work. We also urge those in positions of global influence to rapidly advance the humanitarian dialogues that are expected to take place this fall at multilateral gatherings such as the UN general assembly and the G20 leaders’ summit.

As an international community, it is the decisions we make now - to alleviate suffering among those we know and those we may never meet - that will prove our humanity.

Updated

Hi, I’m Caroline Davies, taking over the blog for the next few hours. You can get in touch on caroline.davies@theguardian.com.

Updated

'Afghan leaders failed to stand up,' says Nato chief

Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of the Nato military alliance, has blamed the swift collapse of Afghanistan’s armed forces on a failure of leadership in the country.

Stoltenberg was on Tuesday chairing a meeting of Nato envoys to discuss the security implications of the Taliban’s rapid - and apparently unexpected - takeover of Afghanistan. Nato had been occupying the country since 2003, but wound up combat operations in 2014 to focus on training Afghan forces. Those forces melted away in the face of the Taliban advance in the past few weeks.

“The Afghan leadership failed to stand up,” he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press, adding: “This failure of Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today.”

Referring to the way that the Afghan armed forces withered in the face of the Taliban offensive, Stoltenberg said that “was a surprise, the speed of the collapse and how quickly that happened”.

Updated

Senior British politicians have called on the government to repudiate Joe Biden’s comments on Afghanistan, saying the UK should have the courage to criticise the manner of the US withdrawal, writes my colleague Jessica Elgot.

A defiant US president insisted on Monday night that he stood squarely behind his decision to pull forces out of Afghanistan rapidly. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces. That’s why we’re still there. We were clear-eyed about the risk.”

Biden said the chaotic scenes in Kabul of Afghans clinging to planes as they took off showed why withdrawal had been necessary. “We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future,” he said.

The remarks drew anger and regret from a number of senior Conservatives, including Theresa May’s former chief of staff, Gavin Barwell.

Updated

An Irish teacher still stuck in Kabul has spoken of her fear that all the investment in education of children in recent years will “be for nothing”, writes Lisa O’Carroll for the Guardian from Ireland.

Aoife McManus told Irish broadcaster RTE that she was safe and hoped to be on a flight within the next 24 to 48 hours.

“There is a sense of panic and fear all over the city. It’s the fear of the worst expectations.”

Describing the scenes at her work compound which they were forced to leave on Sunday she told RTE: “We were all crying. Everybody was crying because of the expectations of what things are going to be like.

“All the work we’ve put into education, that it might all be for nothing.”

During her interview she described looking out her window and seeing a pickup truck carrying Taliban fighters armed with an AK47. “They are very calm, they’re just in traffic.”

She said women were not wearing burkas and wore “just the normal hijab”.

Updated

The Taliban’s most senior leader met Qatar’s foreign minister before leaving the Middle East kingdom for Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar met Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Tuesday, the US-based news agency said.

According to a statement seen by AP, the two “reviewed the latest security and political developments in Afghanistan, stressing the need for the protection of civilians, intensifying necessary efforts to achieve national reconciliation, working for a comprehensive political settlement and a peaceful transfer of power.”

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Qatar’s foreign minister, right, meeting with the Taliban’s political office chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Doha.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Qatar’s foreign minister, right, meeting the Taliban’s political office chief, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Doha. Photograph: Qatari ministry of foreign affairs/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

A British charity which supports lone child refugees has called on the government to resettle at least 20,000 Afghans in the next two years as well as prioritising relatives and close family of British Citizens and residents, writes Lisa O’Carroll, a Guardian reporter.

Beth Gardiner-Smith, CEO of Safe Passage International, said it was being contacted “by many desperate families living in Britain with loved ones trapped in Afghanistan”.

The charity, which has worked for years with refugees in camps in Calais, Greece and elsewhere, has also asked the government to expand relocation efforts and through any future resettlement scheme.

“Without an ambitious commitment from the government now, we will see many more children risking their lives attempting to reach safety and family in the UK in the coming weeks and months,” Gardiner-Smith said.

Updated

Russia has hailed the Taliban’s initial assurances of their intentions since taking control of Afghanistan as a “positive signal” and said it supports “inclusive” political dialogue in the country.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, was quoted by AFP as saying:

I consider it a positive signal that the Taliban in Kabul are declaring and in practice showing their readiness to respect the opinion of others. In particular, they said that they are ready to discuss a government in which not only they but other Afghan representatives will also participate.

Lavrov told a meeting in Kaliningrad that Moscow wanted the formation of Kabul’s new government to be an inclusive process. “We support the beginning of an inclusive national dialogue with the participation of all of Afghanistan’s political, ethnic and religious groups,” he said in comments carried by the state-run Rossiya 24 television channel after the meeting.

Russia has in recent years reached out to the Taliban and hosted its representatives in Moscow several times, most recently last month. The Kremlin on Monday said it would decide on recognising the new Taliban government based on how responsibly the new authorities govern. Its ambassador to Afghanistan, Dmitry Zhirnov, was due to meet the Taliban on Tuesday.

Updated

Royal Navy vice-admiral Sir Ben Key said British armed forces “can’t afford to pause” as they work with US troops to help get about 6,000 people out of Afghanistan via Kabul. Key told Sky News:

The demand placed upon us is in the order of 6,000, both Arap (Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy) and entitled personnel.

Those numbers are changing all the time as we understand the scale of the ask – people are coming forward making themselves known through the FCDO consular services or into us under the Arap programme.

How long have we got to do it? We don’t really know, so every day we are working as hard as we can to bring as many forward into this pipeline as we possibly can.

Clearly there is a dynamic political situation running across the city.

We make no assumptions about that other than we really can’t afford to pause and wait.

Updated

Emmanuel Macron has been accused of pandering to the far right after he said France should have a robust plan to “anticipate and protect itself from a wave of migrants” from Afghanistan, our correspondent Kim Willsher in Paris reports.

In a televised address, the French president said Europe must help those most threatened by the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and that “dealing with those fleeing the Taliban would need an organised and fair international effort”. “Europe alone cannot assume the consequences of the current situation,” he said.

The statement, which came hours after desperate Afghans trying to flee the country were filmed clinging to the wheels of a plane and falling to the ground, led to criticism the president was pandering to far-right voters in preparation for next year’s presidential election, in which he is expected to seek a second term in office.

Read the full report here:

A top US defence official said plans were being made to temporarily house thousands of Afghans at three US military installations, AP reports.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday that up to 22,000 Afghans and their families could be housed at the installations. Kirby did not identify more specific locations.

Thousands of Afghans who assisted the US as interpreters and in other roles have been desperate to leave Afghanistan since before the government fell to the Taliban over the weekend, in the shadow of a 31 August deadline for the withdrawal of US forces.
Kirby told ABC’s Good Morning America that the US defence and state departments were working together to evacuate as many Americans and Afghans as quickly as possible.

Kirby said several thousand US service members now arriving in Afghanistan would be there for the next couple of weeks to help with the evacuation.

Updated

Hundreds gather outside the international airport in Kabul on Tuesday.

Hundreds of people gather outside the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan
Hundreds of people gather outside the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan Photograph: AP

Updated

Richard Engel, NBC’s chief foreign correspondent, has just posted a video on social media of women in Kabul protesting for their rights.

Updated

Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini said the gains Afghan women have made over the past 20 years are “up in the air”.

Hosseini, who wrote The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “while the last 20 years have certainly been challenging and beset by missteps and tragedies, it is also true that there has been progress in Afghanistan”.

The “significant improvements and achievements” have included women serving in the Afghan parliament, becoming police chiefs and being part of the workforce, and millions of girls who had returned to school. He said: “Now all of that is up in the air and whether any of those gains will last remains to be seen.”

Hosseini, who was born in Kabul before moving to the US in 1980, said US president Joe Biden failed to show “empathy” for the Afghan people during a speech in which he said he stood “squarely” behind the US exit.

Hosseini told the programme that Biden did not give “a statement of empathy with the millions of Afghans whom the Americans have been calling partners now for 20 years, who are left behind and have to fend for themselves and face the very unenviable reality of having to live under a regime that proved to be extremely brutal when they were in charge in the 1990s”.

Hosseini is also a goodwill ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the founder of the Khaled Hosseini Foundation which provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

Updated

Germany has stopped development aid for Afghanistan for now, the minister responsible said on Tuesday. AFP reports: “State cooperation on development is suspended for the time being,” the development minister, Gerd Müller, said in an interview with the Rheinische Post newspaper. “We are working at pace to evacuate from Afghanistan those local development officials and NGO workers who want to leave.”

The German government had agreed to send €430m to Afghanistan a year, making it one of the biggest donors to the country. This money was intended to support the training of local police forces and strengthen the justice system, as well as furthering the rights of women and fighting corruption.

Speaking last week, the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, said the country was not “viable” without the support of international aid, AFP reports. “We will not send another cent to this country if the Taliban take complete control, introduce sharia law and turn it into a caliphate,” Maas said.

Updated

China has accused the US of leaving “an awful mess of unrest, division and broken families” in Afghanistan, as Beijing indicated it was ready to cooperate with the Taliban on development following the US withdrawal.

Speaking at a regular press briefing, Hua Chunying, spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, also lambasted Washington’s record of foreign interventions, saying: “America’s strength and role is destruction, not construction.”

Beijing fears Afghanistan, with which it shares a rugged 47-mile border, could become a staging point for Uyghur separatists in the sensitive border region of Xinjiang. A top-level Taliban delegation met with Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, in Tianjin last month, promising that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militants. In exchange, China offered economic support and investment for Afghanistan’s reconstruction.

Hua on Monday said China was ready to continue “friendly and cooperative” relations with Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, as she urged it to both “make a clean break with international forces” and “prevent Afghanistan from becoming a gathering place for terrorists and extremists again”.

The UN has urged the Taliban to keep its “promises,” including pledges to grant an amnesty to former government workers, show inclusiveness for women and allow girls to remain in school.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva on Tuesday, Rupert Colville, the UN human rights spokesman, said:

The Taliban have made a number of statements that on the surface are reassuring. But their actions speak deeper than words, and it’s very early now it’s very fluid.

He said the Taliban’s promises “need to be honoured”, adding:

Understandably, given their past history, these declarations have been greeted with some skepticism. Nevertheless, the promises have been made, and whether or not they are honoured or broken will be closely scrutinised.

A Taliban spokesman has given an interview with a female newsreader on the private Afghan broadcaster Tolo, in what some are saying is an indication of a slightly milder attitude towards women.

Under Afghanistan’s previous Taliban regime, 1996-2001, women were rarely allowed outside the home. But earlier Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, suggested under a new Taliban administration, women could even serve in government.

“The Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims,” Samangani said. “They should be in the government structure according to Shariah law.”

Meanwhile, in Kanul women in hijabs staged a brief demonstration, holding signs demanding the Taliban not “eliminate women” from public life.

UNHCR calls for halt on forced returns to Afghanistan

The UN refugee agency has called for the suspension of forced returns of Afghan nationals, including those whose claims for asylum have been rejected, until the political situation in the country has stabilised.

In a new position paper, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it was concerned about the risk of human rights abuses in the country, particularly against women and girls, and against Afghans who had worked with occupying forece, NGOs and the previous Afghan government.

It calls for countries to give civilians fleeing Afghanistan access to their territories, and to respect their right not to be returned to where they will be at risk of persecution.

Afghans who had already claimed asylum abroad and been refused may need to be reconsidered in light of the new circumstances in Afghanistan, the paper says.

It adds: “A moratorium on forced returns to Afghanistan would need to stay in place until the situation in the country has stabilised, pending an assessment of when the changed situation in the country would permit return in safety and dignity.

“The bar on forcible return serves as a minimum standard and needs to remain in place until such time as the security, rule of law, and human rights situation in Afghanistan has significantly improved to permit a safe and dignified return of those determined not to be in need of international protection.”

Ah, it turns out that the Taliban workout video posted earlier was not filmed in the Afghan presidential palace gym, as earlier reported.

Here is an update from Sune Engel Rasmussen, the Wall Street Journal correspondent who posted the tweets I had embedded in the blog.

Britain will increase humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, “probably by 10%”, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said.

The aid budget would be reconfigured for development and humanitarian purposes in Afghanistan and the Taliban would not get any of the money previously earmarked for security, Raab said.

“I don’t think we will condition the humanitarian relief we provide to ordinary Afghans on what the Taliban does,” he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

Updated

The first German military plane to land in Kabul since the Taliban takeover only managed to evacuate seven people, after “chaotic” conditions on the ground made it too dangerous for many to get to the airport, writes Philip Oltermann, the Guardian’s Berlin bureau chief.

“We have a very chaotic, dangerous and complex situation at the airport,” the German defence minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, told broadcaster ARD.

“We had very little time, so we only took on board people who were on site.”

A spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said: “Due to the chaotic situation at the airport and the regular exchange of fire at the access point yesterday, further German citizens and people to be evacuated could not be given access to the airport without the protection of the Bundeswehr [German army].

“The retrieval of people located in the civilian part of the airport was not made possible by partners responsible for security at the airport.”

According to Germany’s Bild newspaper, the seven individuals evacuated included five German citizens (two of them dual nationals), one Dutch and one Afghan local hire.

The German government’s original plan had been to get as many as 145 individuals on the plane, German media reported on Tuesday. But a 9pm curfew in Kabul as well as the increased presence of Taliban fighters around the airport had prevented the embassy from getting people near the airfield in time.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday briefed parliamentarians that US and Turkish troops only had control over an “island” in the military part of the airport, the news magazine Spiegel reported, while the Taliban were controlling access to the site.

Updated

Associated Press has more on continuing discussions in Kabul between the Taliban and Afghanistan’s remaining political leadership.

Talks to expand a future Afghan government beyond only Taliban members are continuing in Kabul.

Officials close to the discussions on Tuesday are hoping for “some good news” within a day or two. They spoke on condition of anonymity because until now no one wanted details of negotiations released to the media.

Senior Taliban leader Amir Khan Muttaqi has already held several rounds of talks with Kabul’s political leadership, including Abdullah Abdullah, who once headed the country’s negotiating council, and the former president Hamid Karzai.

At least one round of the talks went through the night. Discussion appeared to focus on how a Taliban-dominated government would respond to rights gained over the last 20 years.

The announcements of general amnesty and urging women to return to work appeared to indicate progress may have been made.

Muttaqi, a former higher education minister when the Taliban last ruled, began making contacts with Afghan political leaders even before President Ashraf Ghani secretly slipped away from the presidential palace at the weekend.

Ghani’s departure left a devastating vacuum that Taliban who were surrounding the city strode in to fill.

Muttaqi had reached out to US-allied warlords prior to Kabul’s collapse, seemingly starting the process of greater inclusivity in their government.

The talks under way are aimed at bringing other non-Taliban leaders into the government, which Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen earlier said would be an “inclusive Afghan government”.

Shaheen earlier told AP a government would be announced after negotiations were completed.

Updated

It was impossible to predict the Taliban would retake Afghanistan so swiftly after the withdrawal of international troops, Dominic Raab has said, arguing: “No one saw this coming.”

Speaking to the media following his return from holiday, after chaotic and deadly scenes at Kabul airport on Sunday, the UK foreign secretary said US and British troops had stabilised the airport, allowing evacuations to resume.

If you want more details on the UK government’s response this morning to events in Afghanistan, Peter Walker, of the Guardian politics team, has the story.

In the UK, ministers are expected to announce plans for a new settlement scheme for Afghan nationals following the Taliban takeover of the country. Similar to a scheme put in place for Syrians in 2014 amid the country’s civil war, this would be in addition to existing structures to assist some Afghan nationals.

Our political correspondent, Peter Walker, has looked at how it may work.

Updated

Turkey’s Anadolu agency has the latest on the Turkish foreign ministry’s position on the new political situation in Afghanistan.

Halt forced returns to Afghanistan, migration agency says

States should halt forced returns of undocumented migrants to Afghanistan, the International Organization for Migration has said, as it announced it was pausing its reintegration programme for returnees to the country.

In a statement published on Tuesday, the agency, which has 174 member states, said its operations had been hampered by instability and recent security developments in Kabul, which had made movement in and out of the country more difficult.

Nearly 400,000 Afghans have been displaced since the beginning of the year as a result of ongoing violence, IOM said; more than 5 million others are already internally displaced and reliant on humanitarian aid. Programmes to support those displaced people would continue as far as possible.

The statement, published on the IOM website, added:

Considering the prevailing insecurity across the country, the Organization’s Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) programme, as well as post arrival reintegration assistance to returnees, have been put on hold for now.

IOM also commends the decisions by several States to halt forced returns to Afghanistan and calls for wider adoption of this moratorium.

Ensuring the safety of civilians is paramount and should be a priority for all concerned. IOM urges all parties to continue efforts to maintain dialogue and works towards a peaceful resolution of the situation, prioritising the welfare of the Afghan people.

We echo the call by United Nations secretary-general António Guterres for an immediate end to violence and the protection of the rights of civilians.

Updated

It seems the Twitter account from which I earlier posted videos of Taliban fighters enjoying funfair rides, apparently in Kabul, has been deleted. Mediavenir, a French news publication, also has them on its Twitter feed.

Earlier videos were circulating that appeared to show Taliban mujahideen fighters enjoying the rides at a Kabul funfair. Now, in the latest surreal scenes from the Afghan capital, militants have found their way into the presidential palace gym. It looks like they could do with a few tips on working out.

Updated

Germany has admitted that its first military plane to land in Kabul since the Taliban took control of the city only managed to evacuate seven people.

It was a slow start to plans by Germany, which had the second-largest military contingent in Afghanistan after the US, to airlift thousands of German-Afghan dual nationals as well as rights activists, lawyers and people who worked with foreign forces.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the defence minister, said the A400M transport plane undertook a “breakneck landing” on Monday evening. She said the main aim of the flight was to bring in German soldiers to secure the evacuation.

“We have a very chaotic, dangerous and complex situation at the airport,” she told broadcaster ARD. “We had very little time, so we only took on board people who were on site.”

Only seven made as the plane had to leave quickly and other Germans could not get into the airport without protection from German soldiers, a foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Kramp-Karrenbauer hoped the airport could be kept open for several days so as many people as possible could be evacuated. “Those are not only German citizens, they are also local staff, at-risk people. We will also support other countries,” she said.

“No one” saw the situation in Afghanistan coming and the UK “would have taken action if we had”, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said.

Raab told Sky News on Tuesday morning: “The truth is, across the world, people were caught by surprise. I haven’t spoken to an international interlocutor, including countries in the region over the last week, who hasn’t been surprised.”

He added: “We saw a very swift change in the dynamics. And of course this has been part and parcel of the withdrawal of western troops, but it has also been the way and the approach of the Taliban and of course it’s been a test for the Afghan security forces. All of those factors have been very fluid. But no one saw this coming. Of course we would have taken action if we had.”

Asked if the UK should have seen this coming, he said: “I think it is easy to say that with the benefit of hindsight, but the truth is you are always measuring a very fluid constellation matrix, if you like of risk factors, and that is the reality.”

Women should be in government, says Taliban official

More details are coming in on the “general amnesty” announced earlier by the Taliban, with the militant group calling for women to resume any official roles under their new government, according to an Associated Press wire report.

Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, said: “The Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims ... They should be in [the] government structure according to Shariah law.”

He added: “The structure of government is not fully clear, but based on experience, there should be a fully Islamic leadership and all sides should join.”

Talks appeared to be continuing between the Taliban and several Afghan government officials, including the former president, Hamid Karzai, and Abdullah Abdullah, who once headed the country’s negotiating council. The whereabouts of the latest president, Ashraf Ghani, remain unknown; he fled the country as the Taliban advanced on Kabul.

An official with direct knowledge of the talks told AP that Amir Khan Muttaqi, a senior Taliban leader, had arrived in Kabul from Qatar. A former higher education minister during the Taliban’s last rule, Muttaqi had begun making contact with Afghan political leaders even before Ghani fled.

The senior reporter for Reuters in Kabul has tweeted two videos that appear to show members of the Taliban enjoying fairground rides.

Afghans queue at the Chaman border-crossing point in Pakistan, to return to their country.
Afghans queue at the Chaman border-crossing point in Pakistan, to return to their country. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Afghans who wish to leave their country must be allowed to do so, a joint statement by the international community has demanded.

The statement, published Monday, does not mention the Taliban by name, but is apparently addressed to the leaders of the militant group that now controls Afghanistan. It says:

Given the deteriorating security situation, we support, are working to secure, and call on all parties to respect and facilitate, the safe and orderly departure of foreign nationals and Afghans who wish to leave the country. Those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan bear responsibility - and accountability - for the protection of human life and property, and for the immediate restoration of security and civil order.

Afghans and international citizens who wish to depart must be allowed to do so; roads, airports and border crossing must remain open, and calm must be maintained.

The Afghan people deserve to live in safety, security and dignity. We in the international community stand ready to assist them.

Signatories include: Albania, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kosovo, Latvia, Liberia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta , Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Montenegro, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, North Macedonia, Norway, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Republic of Cyprus, Romania, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Togo, Tonga, Uganda, United Kingdom, Ukraine, and Yemen.

The UK will need to support tens of thousands of refugees from Afghanistan, says Stephen Kinnock, Labour’s shadow foreign office minister, as the debate swirls on how to handle the expected entries.

Addressing plans for a resettlement scheme for vulnerable Afghans, Kinnock told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “it needs to be a bold and ambitious and generous offer”.

Asked if 20,000 people would be about right, he said:

We need to see an offer that is also backed up with the capacity to process it.

As you pointed out, the situation on the ground there is so difficult at the moment that we have got to ensure that we don’t open up an offer that we can’t actually deliver on. So we need to see the detail of the plan from the Government, but it is absolutely right that we make an ambitious and bold offer.

Asked if that means tens of thousands of people rather than a few thousand, he said:

I would have thought so, yes, yes - we, of course, need to see the detail, but I think this needs to be a significant offer.

Updated

Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, has told Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, that an “inclusive political settlement was the best way forward” for resolving the Afghanistan’s political impasse.

Blinken and Qureshi spoke by phone on Monday to discuss the way forward for Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press. Qureshi was reported as saying that Pakistan would remain closely engaged with the U.S. and other international partners in promoting efforts in support of a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.

This is Damien Gayle taking the reins of the live blog from London.

Updated

Afghanistan’s flag is still flying at the Taliban-occupied presidential palace, according to AP.

The Afghan flag remains on the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, 17 August 2021.
The Afghan flag remains on the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, 17 August 2021. Photograph: Rahmat Gul/AP

“The Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan has laid bare the magnitude of western hubris,” writes the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee.

Here ends the west’s grotesque delusion that it could use its military might to turn Afghanistan into a stable democracy, a shining path of moderate Islam. In the shadow of New York’s burning twin towers, I was one swept along on that “something must be done” tide, that drumbeat for a war to stop terror and liberate oppressed people. We have learned a bitter lesson.

Read the full piece here:

Updated

Here is our full story on the developments of the last while:

Flights have resumed from Kabul airport after being paused for hours due to large crowds, as senior Taliban leader Amir Khan Muttaqi is believed to be in the Afghan capital holding talks with the city’s political leadership aimed at building a government.

Scenes of desperation emerged from the airport in Kabul a day earlier after the fall of the capital to Taliban control. Crowds flooded the runway, some clinging on to moving planes, hoping to flee the country and escape a return to Taliban rule. That prompted US forces, which control the airport, to halt flights.

Military flights evacuating diplomats and civilians from Afghanistan started taking off again on Tuesday morning, a western security official at Kabul airport said, with the tarmac now clear of crowds.

As evacuation efforts resumed in Kabul, George W Bush – who started the war in 2001 – released a statement expressing his “deep sadness” over the unfolding crisis.

“Laura and I have been watching the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan with deep sadness. Our hearts are heavy for both the Afghan people who have suffered so much and for the Americans and Nato allies who have sacrificed so much,” he wrote.

The Taliban statement says, “A general amnesty has been declared for all ... so you should start your routine life with full confidence”, AFP reports.

The AFP is reporting that the Taliban have released a statement saying “general amnesty” will be granted for government officials and have urged people to return to work.

The Guardian has not seen the statement – it is unclear from the very brief AFP report whether the return to work was directed at government officials or everyone in Kabul.

We’ll have more information as soon as it is available.

India is evacuating its ambassador and embassy staff from Kabul:

On Monday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on the security council to “use all tools at its disposal to suppress the global terrorist threat in Afghanistan” and guarantee that basic human rights will be respected:

As chaotic scenes unfolded more than 4,000 miles away in Kabul, veterans of the 20-year conflict and families who lost loved ones on the battlefield have been asking the stark question: “Was it worth it?”

“There is a generation of Afghans who have been given a taste of what freedom is like, so you never know, but it feels pretty bleak at the moment,” said Andrew Fox, a former major in the Parachute Regiment who served on three tours of Afghanistan and who has spoken openly about the impact of PTSD on his own health.

“But as one of my friends said to me: it’s like the defining feature of our adult lives has turned out to be pointless. I think that’s where we all were … this week.

“On patrols we’d see the little girls and boys running around playing with their kites and they would talk to us and take a few sweets. They’re probably 16 or 17 now and the thought of those lovely little kids growing up to be adults who only knew a degree of freedom and suddenly being thrown back into oppression is heartbreaking.”

Watching images of the Taliban entering the Afghan capital after meeting little or no resistance, other veterans such as Ben McBean feel anger at how everything he and others had believed they were fighting for has been undone in a matter of weeks:

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has spoken directly to veterans of the Afghanistan war after the Taliban took back power. “I know today is a day of sadness and reflection for our Afghanistan veterans”, Morrison said. “It’s a time of deep and uncomfortable questioning, and that is only right”.

Morrison spoke a day after the Taliban seized control after government forces crumbled across the country. Forty-one Australian personnel were killed in Afghanistan. “It’s a sobering day for everyone and particularly those who have given so much over the past 20 years and most notably those 41 who were lost”. Morrison also urged veterans to reach out for support over the coming weeks:

Updated

Summary

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

  • Kabul airport has reopened and flights are taking off. – US general. The airport reopened at 19.35 GMT Monday, said Major General Hank Taylor, a logistics specialist on the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. Military flights evacuating diplomats and civilians started taking off on Tuesday morning, a Western security official at Kabul airport told Reuters.
  • Taliban patrolling Kabul. Taliban fighters have taken over checkpoints across Kabul, and militants with rifles slung over their shoulders walked through the streets of the Green Zone, the heavily fortified district that houses most embassies and international organisations.
  • US will recognise Taliban government depending on their actions. State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters that the US would only recognise a Taliban government in Afghanistan if it respects the rights of women and shuns extremist movements such as Al-Qaeda.
  • George W Bush has released a statement saying, “Laura and I have been watching the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan with deep sadness” and that their “hearts are heavy for both the Afghan people who have suffered so much and for the Americans and NATO allies who have sacrificed so much.”
  • US President Joe Biden said the US achieved its goals in Afghanistan. Biden said the US had succeeded in weakening al-Qaida and that its goal was not “nation-building” or to help establish democracy in Afghanistan. He also blamed former president Ashraf Ghani for fleeing the country and criticised the collapse of the Afghan military. Later, Biden tweeted that, “American troops cannot — and should not — be fighting and dying in a war that Afghan forces are by and large not willing to fight and die in themselves.”
  • Turkey is building a wall along its border with Iran to stop the influx of refugees, mainly from Afghanistan.
  • US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ross Wilson has sought to dispel rumours that he and other embassy staff have already fled the country. He tweeted “Contrary to false reports, @USEmbassyKabul staff & I remain in #Kabul working hard to help 1000s of US citizens and vulnerable Afghans & continuing engagement here. Our commitment to the Afghan people endures.”
  • Senior Taliban leader Amir Khan Muttaqi is said to be in the Afghan capital negotiating with Kabul’s political leadership, including Abdullah Abdullah, who once headed the country’s negotiating council, and former President Hamid Karzai.
  • An Afghan military plane crashed in Uzbekistan over the weekend, but Uzbek authorities on Monday issued conflicting reports on the cause.
  • There are reports that Afghan president Ashraf Ghani destroyed the opportunity for a two-week ceasefire when he fled Afghanistan. The agreement had been brokered by government and Taliban negotiators and depended on Ghani resigning from his position and the opening of talks on a transitional government.
  • French president Emmanuel Macron said the EU will launch an initiative to thwart the arrivals of Afghan refugees. In a speech laden with comments about security and terrorism, Macron said they would be attempting to stop the expected increased arrivals and would take down smuggling rings.
  • There were desperate scenes at Kabul airport as thousands attempt to flee following the Taliban takeover. Video footage appears to show Afghans falling to their deaths from a plane after takeoff. Other footage appears to show people clinging to moving US aircraft.
  • Unconfirmed reports are of up to seven people killed at the airport amid the panic, according to witnesses.
  • A US official confirmed to Reuters that American forces at the airport were “forced to fire into the air to prevent Afghans running on to tarmac to board military flights”. The official said that military flights from Kabul are “only meant to ferry diplomats, foreign staff, and local embassy staff”.
  • British prime minister Boris Johnson will launch a scheme to resettle Afghans “most in need”, according to Downing Street. There have been repeated calls for western countries to evacuate Afghans who fear Taliban rule, especially those who worked with foreign governments and other sensitive areas, like journalism.
  • UK defence secretary Ben Wallace has admitted “some people will not get back” as Britain tries to evacuate Afghan allies from Kabul, along with its own citizens, with British forces aiming to repatriate more than 1,000 people a day.
  • Taliban spokesman: “The war is over in Afghanistan” The spokesman for the Taliban’s political office told Al-Jazeera Mubasher TV that the war is over in Afghanistan and that the type of rule and the form of regime will be clear soon.
  • A Taliban leader said on Monday that it was too soon to say how the insurgent group will take over governance. “We want all foreign forces to leave before we start restructuring governance,” the leader told Reuters by phone. He also said that Taliban fighters in Kabul had been warned not to scare civilians and to allow them to resume normal activities.
  • Russian ambassador to Afghanistan, Dmitry Zhirnov, will meet a Taliban representative on Tuesday to discuss security for the diplomatic mission. Russia will evacuate some of its embassy staff in Kabul “in order not to create too big a presence”, the Kremlin envoy to Afghanistan said on Monday.

If you see news we may have missed, get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

The US’s hasty departure from Afghanistan has provided much material for China’s propaganda agencies to discredit Washington’s foreign policy. But Beijing is also treading a careful line in navigating an increasingly uncertain security situation in one of its most volatile neighbours.

On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, said that while Beijing will “continue developing good-neighbourly, friendly and cooperative relations with Afghanistan”, it also urges the Taliban to “ensure that all kinds of terrorism and crimes can be curbed so that the Afghan people can stay away from war and rebuild their homeland”.

China sees the issue of Afghanistan as a quagmire, where great powers often find themselves entrapped historically – from Britain to the Soviet Union, and now the US. Chinese state media calls Afghanistan a “graveyard of empires”. In other words, Beijing does not want to be mired in “the Great Game” in the centre of the Eurasian continent:

Last time the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan – in 1996 – there was never any question of what form of government they would install and who would rule the country. They were filling a vacuum, and Mullah Mohammed Omar, the reclusive cleric who had led the movement since its beginnings two years earlier, took charge.

Then, Kabul was a shattered husk, with a tiny hungry, scared population, almost no economic activity, no telephones and public transport provided by ancient Russian-made cars or 1970s buses once driven from Germany. The Taliban could impose whatever they wanted.

But circumstances are different today. Since the Taliban were ousted by a US-led military coalition after the 9/11 attacks of 2001, Afghanistan’s capital has been transformed into a bustling, crowded, traffic-choked metropolis of 5 million. The rest of the country has changed immensely too. The task facing the new de facto head of state is vastly more challenging and complex.

But who will this ruler be? The most likely candidate is the current supreme leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, a 60-year-old Islamic legal scholar who took over when his predecessor, Akhtar Mansour, was killed in a US drone strike near the Afghan-Pakistan border in 2016.

US ambassador still in Kabul 'working hard to help 1000s of US citizens and vulnerable Afghans'

US Ambassador to Kabul Ross Wilson has sought to dispel rumours that he and other embassy staff have already fled the country. We reported in the blog yesterday that AFP had confirmed Wilson was still at Kabul airport.

He said moments ago in a tweet that, “Contrary to false reports, @USEmbassyKabul staff & I remain in #Kabul working hard to help 1000s of US citizens and vulnerable Afghans & continuing engagement here. Our commitment to the Afghan people endures.”

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has conceded what many critics had long feared – that Australia won’t be able to rescue everyone who helped them.

In a press conference moments ago, Morrison said:

“I know the overriding concern of the veterans I have spoken to has been for us to protect those who worked alongside us in Afghanistan. That worked alongside you. 1,800 have already been brought to Australia, 430 just since April of this year, and more will come.

I want you to know that we will continue to do everything we can for those who have with us, as we have to this day. But I want to talk openly to veterans [and say] that despite our best efforts, I know that support won’t reach all that it should. On the ground events have overtaken many efforts. We wish it were different.”

Turkey building wall 'to stop influx of refugees from Afghanistan'

Turkey is building a wall along its border with Iran to stop the influx of refugees, mainly from Afghanistan, AFP reports.

Here is a video of the wall:

The London Review of Books also has a story about this:

To impede the refugees who are crossing in rising numbers, Turkey is building a concrete wall along its border with Iran. Since the start of the year, some 27,000 asylum seekers, not all of them from Afghanistan, have entered Turkey’s eastern provinces.

Senior Taliban leader in Kabul for negotiations – report

Senior Taliban leader Amir Khan Muttaqi is said to be in the Afghan capital negotiating with Kabul’s political leadership, including Abdullah Abdullah, who once headed the country’s negotiating council, and former President Hamid Karzai.

That is according to an official familiar with the talks and who spoke to the AP condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Muttaqi was a higher education minister when the Taliban last ruled and he began making contacts with Afghan political leaders even before Afghan President Ashraf Ghani secretly slipped away from the Presidential Palace on the weekend, leaving a devastating vacuum that Taliban who were surrounding the city strode in to fill.

The official says the talks underway in the Afghan capital are aimed at bringing other non-Taliban leaders into the government that Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen has said will be an “inclusive Afghan government.”

There is little indication about the substance of the talks, but Shaheen earlier told The Associated Press that a government will be announced after negotiations with non-Taliban leaders are completed.

Afghans familiar with the talks say some rounds have gone late into the night and have been underway since soon after Ghani’s departure.

The US embassy in Kabul is asking Americans not to come to the airport unless they have been told to do so:

The Australian defence minister, Peter Dutton, has described the situation at Kabul airport as “terrible, terrible scenes” and indicated Australia will proceed with a military evacuation only when circumstances permit.

In a range of media interviews today, Dutton said Australia was working with the US on the restoration of order at the airport “before we’re able to land any of our assets there”. He told Sky News Australia: “We won’t be landing aircraft into the airport until it’s safe to do so.”

The comments follow the Australian government’s announcement yesterday that it was sending about 250 defence force personnel to the region for a potential evacuation mission.

Dutton told the Nine Network he had authorised the Australian Defence Force to make plans and to pre-deploy equipment as well as troops last week.

“And obviously we’ve got a base close by, which is safe and secure in the UAE. That’s where we’ll stage from. But we’ll work with the Americans and others, including the Turks etc to make a very difficult, tragic situation as best as it can be.”

Flights taking off from Kabul

Military flights evacuating diplomats and civilians from Afghanistan started taking off on Tuesday morning, a Western security official at Kabul airport told Reuters.

It is currently just after 7.30am in Kabul.

The airport runway and tarmac are now clear of crowds, the official said.

US forces, which are in charge at the airport, had halted the evacuation flights because of the panic and desperation of people trying to get out of the country.

This is just devastating:

George W Bush 'watching events unfold with deep sadness'

George W Bush has released a statement about the war he started 20 years ago.

“Laura and I have been watching the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan with deep sadness. Our hearts are heavy for both the Afghan people who have suffered so much and for the Americans and NATO allies who have sacrificed so much,” he wrote.

He adds that he is “confident that the evacuation efforts will be effective because they are being carried out by the remarkable men and women of the United States Armed Forces, diplomatic corps, and intelligence community,” before addressing them directly.

“We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and will always honour your contributions,” he says.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai said she was deeply concerned about the situation in Afghanistan, particularly the safety of women and girls, and called on Monday for world leaders to take urgent action.

Yousafzai said US president Joe Biden “has a lot to do” and must “take a bold step” to protect the Afghan people, adding she had been trying to reach out to several global leaders.

“This is actually an urgent humanitarian crisis right now that we need to provide our help and support,” Yousafzai told BBC Newsnight.

Pakistani activist and Nobel Peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai
Pakistani activist and Nobel Peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai Photograph: Miguel Schincariol/AFP/Getty Images

Yousafzai, 23, survived being shot in the head by a Pakistani Taliban gunman in 2012, after she was targeted for her campaign against its efforts to deny women education.

She had become known as an 11-year-old, writing a blog under a pen name for the BBC about living under the rule of the Pakistani Taliban.

“I am deeply concerned about the situation in Afghanistan right now, especially about the safety of women and girls there,” Yousafzai told Newsnight.

“I had the opportunity to talk to a few activists in Afghanistan, including women’s rights activists, and they are sharing their concern that they are not sure what their life is going to be like.”

Yousafzai said she had sent a letter to Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan asking him to admit Afghan refugees and ensure that all refugee children “have access to education, have access to safety and protection, that their futures are not lost.”

Yousafzai moved to England after she was shot, where she received medical treatment and last year graduated from Oxford University with a philosophy, politics and economics degree.

Updated

The AP has this report on the sombre mood at the Pentagon on Monday:

US military personnel watched the events in Kabul helplessly on Monday, privately criticising the slow pace of Joe Biden’s administration in evacuating US-allied Afghans who fear Taliban retribution.

Some criticised the state department, which has sole authority to grant visas to former interpreters and other US military support staff and their families, for waiting more than two months to begin the process for Afghans in fear of their lives.

“We warned them for months, for months” that the situation was urgent, said one military official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“I am not angry, I am frustrated,” another officer remarked. “The process could have been handled so differently.”

Biden decided in mid-April that all US troops must be out of Afghanistan by 11 September, though he later moved that date up to 21 August.

The state department however waited months to set up an ad hoc structure to get US allies to safety.

Another Pentagon official interviewed by AFP said that diplomats had tried to speed up the visa process – but the process was too long and complicated under the circumstances.

The Biden administration assumed that the US embassy in Kabul would remain open and that the Afghan government would retain control of the country for months after the US withdrawal, he said.

Updated

More now on that extraordinary image that appears to show hundreds of Afghans packed into a US military cargo plane, in a desperate attempt to flee Kabul after the fall of the capital to the Taliban.

The picture obtained by US defence and security news site Defense One is believed to show 640 people crammed into a C-17 Globemaster III, among the highest number of people ever carried in such an aircraft.

Evacuees in the interior of a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft departing Kabul.
Evacuees in the interior of a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft departing Kabul. Photograph: Courtesy Of Defense One/Reuters

US defence officials reportedly said the passengers – among them women and children – on the flight were safely evacuated from Kabul to Qatar on Sunday:

This morning’s episode of Today in Focus is dedicated to how the Taliban managed to take Afghanistan back so quickly:

The Australian government is poised to announce a moratorium on removals of Afghan nationals back to Afghanistan when their visas expire.

The government is set to announce that no Afghan visa holder will be asked to return to Afghanistan while the situation in the country remains so dangerous.

The move is in line with comments by the foreign minister, Marise Payne, on the Australia’s national broadcaster this morning that “all the Afghan citizens who are currently in Australia on a temporary visa will be supported by the Australian government and no Afghan visa holder will be asked to return to Afghanistan at this stage”.

Guardian Australia understands the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, will announce the details later today. The moratorium on removals will be tied to the conditions on the ground in Afghanistan. The government is not expected to grant blanket permanent visas or citizenship to those currently holding temporary visas.

As we reported on Saturday, human rights and refugee groups have been calling on the government to give greater assurance to Afghan nationals, noting that the government had told Myanmar nationals they would be able to stay after the February military coup there.

Here are some photos of the events on Monday in Kabul:

A US soldier (C) point his gun at an Afghan passenger at the Kabul airport in Kabul on 16 August 16, 2021.
A US soldier (C) point his gun at an Afghan passenger at the Kabul airport in Kabul on 16 August 16, 2021. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
A handout satellite image made available by Maxar Technologies shows a traffic jam outside Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan, 16 August 2021.
A handout satellite image made available by Maxar Technologies shows a traffic jam outside Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan, 16 August 2021. Photograph: Maxar Technologies Handout/EPA
Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the Kabul airport in Kabul on 16 August 2021 hoping to get a flight out of the country.
Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the Kabul airport in Kabul on 16 August 2021 hoping to get a flight out of the country. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
British citizens and dual nationals residing in Afghanistan being relocated to the UK, as part of Operation Pitting, the UK Armed Forces are enabling the relocation of personnel and others from Afghanistan.
British citizens and dual nationals residing in Afghanistan being relocated to the UK, as part of Operation Pitting, the UK Armed Forces are enabling the relocation of personnel and others from Afghanistan. Photograph: LPhot Ben Shread/MOD Crown copyright/PA
Taliban fighters stand guard along a roadside near the Zanbaq Square in Kabul on 16 August 2021.
Taliban fighters stand guard along a roadside near the Zanbaq Square in Kabul on 16 August 2021. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Here is how papers around the world are covering this story:

The Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan poses a new challenge for big US tech companies on handling content created by a group considered to be terrorists by some world governments, Reuters reports.

Social media giant Facebook confirmed on Monday that it designates the Taliban a terrorist group and bans it and content supporting it from its platforms.

But Taliban members have reportedly continued to use Facebook’s end-to-end encrypted messaging service WhatsApp to communicate directly with Afghanis despite the company prohibiting it under rules against dangerous organisations.

A Facebook Inc spokesperson said the company was closely monitoring the situation in the country and that WhatsApp would take action on any accounts found to be linked with sanctioned organizations in Afghanistan, which could include account removal.
On Twitter Inc, Taliban spokesmen with hundreds of thousands of followers have tweeted updates during the country’s takeover.

Asked about the Taliban’s use of the platform, the company pointed to its policies against violent organizations and hateful conduct but did not answer Reuters questions about how it makes its classifications. Twitter’s rules say it does not allow groups who promote terrorism or violence against civilians.

Analysis from the Associated Press on why the Afghan security forces were unable to hold the Taliban off once the US had withdrawn:

Built and trained at a two-decade cost of US$83bn, Afghan security forces collapsed so quickly and completely — in some cases without a shot fired — that the ultimate beneficiary of the American investment turned out to be the Taliban. They grabbed not only political power but also US-supplied firepower — guns, ammunition, helicopters and more.

The Taliban captured an array of modern military equipment when they overran Afghan forces who failed to defend district centres. Bigger gains followed, including combat aircraft, when the Taliban rolled up provincial capitals and military bases with stunning speed, topped by capturing the biggest prize, Kabul, over the weekend.

A US defence official on Monday confirmed the Taliban’s sudden accumulation of U.S.-supplied Afghan equipment is enormous. The official was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and so spoke on condition of anonymity. The reversal is an embarrassing consequence of misjudging the viability of Afghan government forces — by the US military as well as intelligence agencies — which in some cases chose to surrender their vehicles and weapons rather than fight.

The US failure to produce a sustainable Afghan army and police force, and the reasons for their collapse, will be studied for years by military analysts. The basic dimensions, however, are clear and are not unlike what happened in Iraq. The forces turned out to be hollow, equipped with superior arms but largely missing the crucial ingredient of combat motivation.

‘Money can’t buy will. You cannot purchase leadership,’ John Kirby, chief spokesman for Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, said Monday.

This is a worthwhile report from the ground in Kabul – outside the airport.

Biden has also addressed terrorism fears, saying on Twitter, “Today the terrorist threat has metastasized beyond Afghanistan. We conduct effective counterterrorism missions against terrorist groups in multiple countries where we don’t have a permanent military presence. If necessary, we will do the same in Afghanistan.”

Biden: objective of current mission is to 'get our people and allies to safety'

US president Joe Biden said a moment ago on Twitter that the current mission has a single objective: “Get our people and our allies to safety as quickly as possible”, after which the military withdrawal will be completed, ending “America’s longest war”.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has issued a statement calling for the US to “do more to ensure the safety of Afghan journalists as the county falls under the control of the Taliban, including facilitating safe passage out of the country and providing emergency visas, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.”

The committee’s executive director, Joel Simon, says:

The United States has a special responsibility to Afghan journalists who created a thriving and vibrant information space and covered events in their country for international media... The Biden administration can and should do all within its power to protect press freedom and stand up for the rights of the vulnerable Afghan reporters, photographers, and media workers.”

The CPJ’s call comes as the Washington Post reports that journalists working with them, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal “have been unable to board a flight out of the country”.

The three papers published a a joint statement sent to US President Joe Biden, calling on his administration to guarantee safe passage for journalists and other media workers.

Earlier, Australia’s shadow foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, called on the Australian government to use unallocated humanitarian visa places to bring Afghan activists and women in danger to Australia.

Wong called for “pathways for existing temporary protection visa holders to remain in Australia”.

She noted that the foreign minister Marise Payne has said they won’t be asked to return to Afghanistan “at this stage”, but Wong said it was time to “dispense with the fiction people are likely to be able to return” - ie to let them stay in Australia permanently.

Australia working to evacuate 'several hundred more' locally engaged staff

Australia’s foreign minister, Marise Payne, has confirmed that Australia is still working to evacuate “several hundred more” locally engaged staff, Australian citizens, permanent residents and their families from Afghanistan.

Some 1,300 have been brought to Australia since 2013 including 400 since April - but the Australian government has been criticised for being too slow to help the rest.

Payne said Australia is working with the US, which is trying to secure Kabul’s airport, and the first Australian Defence Force flight is en route. But, asked if everyone will make it out, Payne replied that it is an “extraordinarily difficult situation” due to “security issues and the lack of arrangements on the ground”.

Regarding the 4,200 Afghans in Australia on temporary visas and 53 in immigration detention, Payne told ABC’s AM:

“All the Afghans in Australia on temporary visas will be supported by the Australian government and no Afghan visa-holder will be asked to return to Afghanistan at this stage. And that is something we’ve discussed as a government.”

US will recognise Taliban government 'depending on their actions'

The United States said Monday that it would only recognise a Taliban government in Afghanistan if it respects the rights of women and shuns extremist movements such as Al-Qaeda, AFP reports.

“Ultimately when it comes to our posture towards any future government in Afghanistan, it will depend upon the actions of that government. It will depend upon the actions of the Taliban,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters when asked about recognition.

“A future Afghan government that upholds the basic rights of its people, that doesn’t harbour terrorists and that protects the basic rights of its people including the basic fundamental rights of half of its population - its women and girls - that is a government that we would be able to work with.”

He said that the US negotiator on Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, remained in the Taliban’s diplomatic base of Qatar where US officials have been in talks with the insurgents.

“I would say that some of those discussions have been constructive,” Price said.

“But again, when it comes to the Taliban, we are going to look for their actions rather than listen to their words,” he said.

Afghan military plane crashed in Uzbekistan, cause unclear

An Afghan military plane crashed in Uzbekistan over the weekend, but Uzbek authorities on Monday issued conflicting reports on the cause, the Associated Press reports.

Uzbekistan’s defence ministry initially said it was studying videos and reports of the crash, then confirmed that the plane did crash, without elaborating.

Later Monday, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported that it was told by the Uzbek defence ministry that Uzbekistan’s air defence system had downed the plane and “averted an attempt by an Afghan military plane to illegally cross Uzbekistan’s air border.” Two pilots, the agency said, were hospitalised in serious condition.

Within hours, the Prosecutor General’s office in Uzbekistan issued a statement saying that an Afghan military plane had collided with an Uzbek plane that was scrambled to escort it to the airport at Termez, a city in Surkhandarya.

The office later retracted that statement, which also alleged that 22 warplanes and 24 military helicopters from Afghanistan carrying 585 servicemen “illegally crossed” into Uzbek airspace over the weekend and were forced by Uzbek authorities to land at Termez.

The Prosecutor General’s office later apologised for a “hasty” statement on the messaging app Telegram and said it was not based “verified data from the relevant authorities.”

Full story here.

On Biden’s speech earlier and the apparent lack of planning for evacuations:

Biden criticises Afghan forces

US President Joe Biden has said on Twitter, criticising the Afghan army – which the Guardian’s Patrick Wintour has described as “ nominally well-equipped, but dependent on Nato support, poorly led and riddled with corruption” – that, “American troops cannot — and should not — be fighting and dying in a war that Afghan forces are by and large not willing to fight and die in themselves.”

“It also raises the question of why the Biden administration ever thought it was safe to leave Afghan forces on their own after decades of dependence on the US for key skills, including air cover, logistics, maintenance, and training support for ANDSF ground vehicles and aircraft; security; base support; and transportation services,” Wintour writes of a report in to corruption within the Afghan army.

You can read more about this here:

Updated

Taliban patrol Kabul

Taliban fighters have taken over checkpoints across Kabul, and militants with rifles slung over their shoulders walked through the streets of the Green Zone, the heavily fortified district that houses most embassies and international organisations, AFP reports.

The Taliban sought to reassure the international community that Afghans should not fear them, with co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar saying the militants needed to show that they could “serve our nation and ensure security”.

China was the first major nation to flag support for the Taliban, stating it was ready for “friendly relations”. Both Russia and Iran also made diplomatic overtures.

The State Department said any US ties with a Taliban government would depend on their respect of human rights and rejection of extremism.

Biden issued a stern warning to the insurgents, saying any threats to US interests would be met with a “devastating” military response.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Monday with Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi about the situation in Afghanistan, the US State Department said in a statement.

Blinken also held a call on Monday about Afghanistan with Indian Foreign Minister Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the department said.

Pakistan’s ambassador at the United Nations says US President Joe Biden’s endorsement of the previous American administrations’ decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan was “a logical conclusion to this conflict.”

Via AP:

Munir Akram told reporters at UN headquarters in New York on Monday that the international community must now work together “to ensure an inclusive political settlement for a long-term peace, security and development of Afghanistan.” He said Pakistan’s stance “that the conflict in Afghanistan never had a military solution” has been confirmed.

The envoy said the best time to end the conflict through negotiations probably was when US and NATO troops were at a maximum military strength in Afghanistan. Akram added that “therefore, endorsement by the Biden administration of the previous US administrations’ decision of troop withdrawal was indeed a logical conclusion to this conflict.”

You may have seen the photo of the US military transport aircraft evacuating 640 Afghans during yesterday’s panic at Kabul airport.

The picture shows hundreds of people crowded in on floor of the cargo plane. The plane’s crew decided to take off despite not planning to carry such a large number of people.

The number of people onboard is believed to be the most ever flown in the C-17 military cargo plane, military news website Defense One reports.

Inside a US military cargo plane taking off from Kabul.
Inside a US military cargo plane taking off from Kabul. Photograph: Ian Bremmer/Twitter

The crew had not intended to take so many people, but “panicked Afghans who had been cleared to evacuate pulled themselves onto the C-17’s half-open ramp, a video posted late Sunday showed,” and the crew decided to take off anyway. At the time they believed they were carrying 800 people.

You can listen to a recording of the audio reaction to the pilot estimating how many people were on board below:

Biden defends withdrawal

Here is a summary of Biden’s comments earlier this evening in Washington.

The US president broke days of silence Monday on the chaotic American pullout from Afghanistan, doubling down on his decision as he fired scorching criticism at the country’s former Western-backed leadership for failing to resist the Taliban.

“I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces,” he said in a televised address from the White House.

As images of desperation beamed in from Kabul, where American soldiers were trying to mount an evacuation from the airport while Taliban fighters flooded the city, Biden said: “The buck stops with me.”

Brushing off criticism that the evacuation is a debacle, Biden said the priority is to stop a war that had expanded far beyond its initially modest goals of punishing the Taliban for links to Al-Qaeda after 9/11.

“The mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to be nation-building,” he said, vowing that despite the departure of US troops anti-terrorism operations would continue.

Biden said “thousands” of US citizens and Afghans who had worked with American forces are to be evacuated over the coming days. He threatened a “devastating” military response if the Taliban launch attacks in the meantime.

Underlining his insistence that he is on the right course, Biden was due to leave the White House soon after the speech to return to his weekend retreat at Camp David. He had just flown in from Camp David hours earlier to give the speech after coming under pressure to address the nation.

Updated

Afghan president destroyed opportunity for ceasefire by fleeing – report

In case you missed this earlier: Afghan president Ashraf Ghani destroyed the opportunity for a two-week ceasefire when he fled Afghanistan, Bloomberg is reporting.

The agreement had been brokered by government and Taliban negotiators and depended on Ghani resigning from his position and the opening of talks on a transitional government.

According to the report, his departure, which he said was to prevent a bloodbath, surprised his own negotiators and aides, as well as the Americans.

Kabul airport has reopened – US general

Kabul’s airport reopened early Tuesday Afghanistan time after being closed for hours by US forces following a breakdown in security on the tarmac that interrupted evacuation operations, a US general said.

The airport reopened at 19.35 GMT Monday, said Major General Hank Taylor, a logistics specialist on the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Taylor said the United States was “in charge of air traffic control” for military and commercial flights. He added that there were currently about 2,500 US troops in Kabul to help organise the evacuation Americans and Afghans who worked for them as translators and in other jobs.

By the end of Monday, US time, he said there could be 3,000 to 3,500 on the ground.

“Our focus right now is to maintain security at HKIA, to continue to expedite flight operations while safeguarding Americans and Afghan civilians,” he said.

The airport was shut down Monday after crowds of civilians surged onto the runways, the Pentagon said.

Seven people died in the desperate rush for flights out of the country. Two were killed when they fell from a US military plane that they had tried to cling to as it took off from Kabul. Others appear to have died in the crush on the tarmac.

Biden: 'I know my decision will be criticized'

US president Joe Biden has tweeted following his appearance earlier, during which he defended his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Biden reiterated this message, saying “I know my decision on Afghanistan will be criticized. But I would rather take all that criticism than pass this responsibility on to yet another president. It’s the right one for our people, for the brave servicemembers who risk their lives serving our nation, and for America.”

Summary

Hi, I’m Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest from Afghanistan as Kabul airport is reopened after being closed by US forces following what a US general described as a breakdown in security on the tarmac.

The heartbreaking scenes at Kabul airport yesterday included people climbing up the outside of passenger stairs to aircraft and running alongside planes that were trying to take off.

Seven people died. Two were killed when they fell from a US military plane that they had tried to cling to as it took off from Kabul. Others appear to have died in the crush on the tarmac.

We’ll have more on this shortly and analysis of Joe Biden’s address defending his administration’s decision to withdraw.

If you see news we may have missed, get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

In the meantime, here are the key recent developments:

  • US President Joe Biden said the US achieved its goals in Afghanistan. Speaking on Afghanistan for the first time in a week, Biden said the US had succeeded in weakening al-Qaida and that its goal was not to help establish democracy in Afghanistan. He also blamed former president Ashraf Ghani for fleeing the country and criticised the collapse of the Afghan military.
  • There are reports that Afghan president Ashraf Ghani destroyed the opportunity for a two-week ceasefire when he fled Afghanistan. The agreement had been brokered by government and Taliban negotiators and depended on Ghani resigning from his position and the opening of talks on a transitional government.According to the report, his departure, which he said was to prevent a bloodbath, surprised his own negotiators and aides, as well as the Americans.
  • French president Emmanuel Macron said the EU will launch an initiative to thwart the arrivals of Afghan refugees. In a speech laden with comments about security and terrorism, Macron said they would be attempting to stop the expected increased arrivals and would take down smuggling rings.
  • There were desperate scenes at Kabul airport as thousands attempt to flee following the Taliban takeover. Video footage appears to show Afghans falling to their deaths from a plane after takeoff. Other footage appears to show people clinging to moving US aircraft. Some aircraft did however manage to take off with hundreds aboard.
  • Unconfirmed reports are of up to seven people killed at the airport amid the panic, according to witnesses.
  • A US official confirmed to Reuters that American forces at the airport were “forced to fire into the air to prevent Afghans running on to tarmac to board military flights”. The official said that military flights from Kabul are “only meant to ferry diplomats, foreign staff, and local embassy staff”.
  • British prime minister Boris Johnson will launch a scheme to resettle Afghans “most in need”, according to Downing Street. There have been repeated calls for western countries to evacuate Afghans who fear Taliban rule, especially those who worked with foreign governments and other sensitive areas, like journalism.
  • UK defence secretary Ben Wallace has admitted “some people will not get back” as Britain tries to evacuate Afghan allies from Kabul, along with its own citizens, with British forces aiming to repatriate more than 1,000 people a day.
  • Taliban spokesman: “The war is over in Afghanistan” The spokesman for the Taliban’s political office told Al-Jazeera Mubasher TV that the war is over in Afghanistan and that the type of rule and the form of regime will be clear soon.
  • Senior Taliban official: “Too early to say how we will take over governance.” A Taliban leader said on Monday that it was too soon to say how the insurgent group will take over governance in Afghanistan, Reuters reports. “We want all foreign forces to leave before we start restructuring governance,” the leader told Reuters by phone. He did not want to be named. He also said that Taliban fighters in Kabul had been warned not to scare civilians and to allow them to resume normal activities.
  • Russian ambassador to Afghanistan, Dmitry Zhirnov, will meet a Taliban representative on Tuesday to discuss security for the diplomatic mission. Russia will evacuate some of its embassy staff in Kabul “in order not to create too big a presence”, the Kremlin envoy to Afghanistan said on Monday. Zamir Kabulov told the Ekho Moskvy radio station that some of roughly 100 Russian embassy staff “will be placed on leave or evacuated in some other fashion just in order not to create too big a presence”.
  • Ben Wallace appeared to hold back tears as he spoke about the effort to repatriate Britons and process visas for Afghan interpreters and other staff. About 4,000 British nationals and eligible Afghans are thought to be in the capital in need of rescue.
  • Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood has compared scenes at Kabul airport to “Saigon 2.0”, referencing evacuations as the North Vietnamese army captured the southern capital and ended the Vietnam War.
  • European Union foreign ministers will hold emergency talks on Tuesday to discuss the crisis. The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in a tweet on Monday that he decided to convene the extraordinary video conference so the ministers can make “a first assessment” of developments.
  • Families of British soldiers who died on previous tours of Afghanistan have criticised the British and US governments’ handling of the withdrawal as the Taliban start to seize control.

Updated

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