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Summary
Here are the key developments today.
- 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.
- 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.
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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 chaos, 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”. Biden later confirmed that they were taking control of the airport and air traffic control.
- Hundreds of Afghan troops landed in neighbouring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan over the weekend. Fleeing from the Taliban in dozens of military aircraft, they landed at airports just the other side of the border.
- The UK is sending another 200 troops to help with evacuations, taking the total military presence to 900 after another 600 began deploying over the weekend.
- 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”.
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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 chaotic scenes at Kabul airport to “Saigon 2.0”, referencing evacuations as the North Vietnamese army captured the southern capital and ended the Vietnam War.
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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.
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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
JUST IN: "The Crew made the decision to go" — Inside RCH 871, which saved 640 from the Taliban ... from @TaraCopp and me https://t.co/r4YvGqJZ4b pic.twitter.com/CI1mAmqjHT
— Marcus Weisgerber (@MarcusReports) August 16, 2021
A US military transport aircraft evacuated 640 Afghans during today’s scramble at Kabul airport, reports the military-focused news site Defense One.
A photo shared with the website showed the 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.
Boris Johnson to announce new resettlement scheme
British prime minister Boris Johnson will announce a “new and bespoke” resettlement scheme for “the Afghans most in need”.
Downing Street did not specify what would be required to qualify for the scheme but said details were still being worked on and would include women and girls.
No 10 also said Johnson is calling for a virtual meeting of G7 leaders to coordinate the international response.
“The UK team in Afghanistan is working around the clock in incredibly difficult circumstances to help British nationals and as many others as we can get to safety as soon as possible.
“At the same time, we are bringing together the international community to prevent a humanitarian crisis emerging in Afghanistan – it’s in everyone’s interest not to let Afghanistan fail.
“That means providing whatever support we can to the Afghan people who have worked so hard to make the country a better place over the last twenty years and who are now in need of our help.”
Afghan president Ashraf Ghani destroyed the opportunity for a two-week ceasefire when he fled Afghanistan, Bloomberg reports.
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.
Updated
Biden approached his speech with a clear message – that the US is finished in Afghanistan.
He said the US should never have hoped to achieve anything more than the removal of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida’s influence, and that it made a mistake in trying to achieve more.
But he also repeatedly laid blame on Afghans, both the leaders and the military, especially for the rapid takeover in the week since he last spoke. He was scathing about the performance of Afghan troops, saying the military’s surrenders were a reason to not expect American troops to continue fighting.
Updated
Biden returned to his argument that America’s mission was to prevent terrorism and degrade al-Qaida’s abilities, which succeeded, while attempts to nation-build failed.
He closed by saying he will not pass the war on to a fifth president.
“It’s the right decision for our people, the right one for our brave service members, the right one for America,” he concluded.
Updated
Thousands of Afghans crowded around the planes at Kabul airport today, desperate to catch a flight out of the country, and the scene was captured from above.
Civilian flights were cancelled but satellite imagery shared by Maxar Technologies showed the tarmac dotted with people hoping to get their chance as foreign missions and militaries evacuated their own people.
The gridlocked roads outside were also caught as people drove then and found ways into the chaotic airport, which US troops have taken control of.
Updated
Biden said American troops are trying to secure the airfield and are taking over air traffic control.
He said they will continue to support the evacuation of civilian personnel of allies. He said they have supported the move of 2,000 Afghans and are working to move more Afghans eligible for Special Immigrant Visas.
He claimed part of the reason they did not move Afghans earlier was that some were not ready to go and that the Afghan leaders wanted to prevent a mass exodus.
“The response will be swift and forceful” if the Taliban tries to interfere in the US evacuation, he said. “Once we have completed this mission, we will conclude our military withdrawal.”
Updated
Biden accused former president Ashraf Ghani of refusing advice on seeking a diplomatic settlement with the Taliban and failing to fight the movement and root out corruption.
“How many more generations of America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghanistan’s civil war?” he said.
Updated
Biden criticised Afghanistan’s political leaders and military, saying American soldiers should not be asked to fight while an Afghan military funded by the US could not.
I stand behind my decision ... I always promised the American people that I would be straight with you. The truth is this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated, so what happened, Afghanistan’s political leaders gave up and fled the country, the Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without even trying to fight.
“There is no chance one more year, five more years or 20 more years of American boots on the ground would make any difference.
“It is wrong to ask American troops when Afghanistan’s would not.”
Updated
"Our mission was never nation building," says Joe Biden
US president Joe Biden has begun speaking on Afghanistan and has opened by saying the US has achieved its goal - to stop al-Qaida, not to establish democracy.
“We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals, get those who attacked us on 11 September 2001 and make sure al-Qaida could not use Afghan as a base to attack us again. We did that,” he said.
“We never gave up the hunt for Osama bin Laden and we got him.
“Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to be nation building, it was never meant to be creating a unified, central democracy.”
Updated
The US president Joe Biden is due to speak on Afghanistan soon for the first time in a week so ahead of that, here’s my colleague David Smith’s reporting on how the botched withdrawal has turned into Biden’s biggest crisis.
Joe Biden was facing the biggest crisis of his presidency on Monday after the stunning fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban caught his administration flat-footed and raised fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Recriminations were under way in Washington over the chaotic retreat from Kabul, which one Biden opponent described as “the embarrassment of a superpower laid low”.
Bowing to pressure, officials said the president would leave his country retreat, Camp David, to address the nation from the White House on Monday afternoon.
The Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, ending two decades of a failed experiment to import western-style liberal democracy. Diplomatic staff were flown to safety but thousands of Afghans who worked with US forces were stranded and at risk of deadly reprisals.
As harrowing scenes played out on television – including desperate Afghans clinging to a US transport plane before takeoff – the White House scrambled to explain how the government collapsed so quickly.
Macron says EU setting up initiative to thwart arrival of Afghan refugees
French president Emmanuel Macron said the European Union would be setting up an initiative to thwart the expected arrivals of refugees from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.
“We must anticipate and protect ourselves against significant irregular migratory flows that would endanger the migrants and risk encouraging trafficking of all kinds,” he said in a televised statement.
He said the response from France, Germany and other EU countries would be “robust, coordinated and united” and would target smuggling rings.
He also said there was a duty to protect those most in need.
His speech focused on preventing Afghanistan from becoming a “sanctuary of terrorism”, which he said was a common interest of Europe, Russia and the United States.
“Our actions will above all be aimed at fighting actively against Islamist terrorism in all its forms,” said Macron in a televised statement. “Terrorist groups are present in Afghanistan and seek to profit from the instability.”
He said the situation in Afghanistan was an “important challenge for our own security”.
Updated
Turkey has dropped its plans for its soldiers to take control of Kabul airport because of the “total chaos” after Nato’s withdrawal, two Turkish security sources told Reuters.
“However, in the event the Taliban asks for technical support, Turkey can provide security and technical support at the airport,” said one of the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Updated
The Guardian view on Afghanistan: unnecessary suffering
Earlier this year, a bipartisan panel appointed by the US Congress advised against the “precipitous withdrawal” of American troops from Afghanistan. The panel warned of grave consequences if Joe Biden allowed himself to be driven by dates and a strict timeline, rather than a realistic assessment of conditions on the ground. Mr Biden, who had inherited a 1 May exit deadline from Donald Trump, ignored this advice, naming instead a new date. All US forces would be gone by 11 September, exactly two decades after the invasion prompted by the al-Qaida attack on the World Trade Center.
A timetable bound up with domestic political symbolism has handed over Afghanistan to the Taliban and millions of Afghans to a frightening and unstable future. In the spring, a Biden administration official said: “We went to Afghanistan to deliver justice to those who attacked us on September 11th … We believe we achieved that objective some years ago.” These words were presumably intended to convey a pragmatic determination to end a “forever war”, as well as a neat sense of narrative closure. Today they read like an insular, inward-looking rationale for an abdication of responsibility that will scar the Biden presidency.
For the thousands of Afghan citizens attempting to flee Kabul airport on Monday, there is no closure; only a sense of premature abandonment, and the beginning of an era in which they must navigate the likely brutalities, misogyny and authoritarianism of Taliban rule.
US and other allied troops were struggling to reopen Kabul airport on Monday after seven people were killed in chaotic scenes as desperate civilians converged on the only route out of the capital in the aftermath of the Taliban’s seizure of Kabul.
A day after the group took control of the city, declaring victory after 20 years of war, tens of thousands of Afghans who have been promised resettlement in the west because of their past work with the US, Britain and their allies, remained trapped in the country and in fear for their lives, amid reports of reprisal killings.
In Kabul and cities across the country, Taliban forces asserted control ahead of an expected announcement of an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in the coming days.
With Kabul airport seemingly close to being overrun, flights were grounded and several 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.
The US announced it was sending another 1,000 troops to help with the evacuation, and the British another 200.
Updated
Rowena Mason, Jessica Elgot and Lisa O’Carroll report:
Boris Johnson is coming under pressure from his own MPs to urgently set up a new resettlement scheme for Afghan refugees, amid fears that people with links to the west and high-profile women will be targeted by the Taliban.
Damian Green, the former cabinet minister, led Conservative calls for the UK to allow refugees safe passage to Britain, while Labour leader Keir Starmer and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon pressed for a programme to accommodate them.
“There are times and places where we should be strict with asylum applications. Afghanistan today is the exact opposite. We should take anyone who can make a case,” Green said.
While Canada has said it will take 20,000 Afghan refugees and the US appears likely to resettle up to 30,000, the UK only has a scheme for Afghans that have been employed by the military and embassy, such as interpreters, with about 2,000 settled so far.
A Home Office source said a new scheme was “in the works” but details were still being worked out.
Updated
The UN security council has called for an end to fighting and the creation of a government that is “united, inclusive and representative” in a joint statement.
It called for humanitarian access to be ensured and for talks between the parties to ensure a peaceful solution that “upholds human rights, including for women, children and minorities”.
“All parties must respect their obligations under international humanitarian law in all circumstances, including those related to the protection of civilians,” the statement said.
The UN’s resident coordinator in Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, told the Associated Press he would work with the “de facto authorities” to ensure humanitarian aid reaches people.
He said about 600,000 people have been displaced by recent fighting.
Updated
As an Afghan Australian, my heart is in my mouth as I watch on in complete despair.
The final nail in the coffin was seeing images emerge of Taliban members perched in Kabul’s presidential palace.
Headline after headline reads that Afghanistan is on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe. The truth is, it’s barely ever stepped out of one.
For most of my lifetime the country of my birth, Afghanistan, has been in a perpetual state of war.
As a female Afghan Shia minority, had my parents not fled Kabul when they did and if Australia hadn’t generously accepted us under its Refugee Humanitarian program, who knows what our fate would have been today.
I find myself reflecting on the privilege lottery that has been so good to my family but so cruel to many others. I often reflect on how each of us had no choice over the place or circumstances of our birth and yet because of it, some of us may never have to face the harsh realities my fellow Afghans are facing today.
For my mother, who has extended family in Afghanistan, this whole ordeal is very triggering, amplifying existing anxieties associated with life in lockdown in Sydney.
While many of us are shocked at the speed at which the Taliban were able to take hold of the country – a little less than a week – few are surprised that Afghanistan is now yet again in this situation after decades of foreign intervention by countries who have a track record of meddling in the Middle East.
Updated
Hundreds of troops on Afghan aircraft crossed the border and landed without permission, Uzbekistan said.
The state prosecutor said 22 military planes and 24 military helicopters “forcibly landed” at Termez airport in southern Uzbekistan, just across the border with Afghanistan, over the weekend.
Tajikistan also said it received three planes carrying 100 Afghan soldiers to land at Bokhtar, which is also near the border, after receiving SOS signals.
UK sends another 200 troops to Kabul
A further 200 UK troops are to be sent to Kabul to assist with the evacuation effort in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed.
The deployment will take the number in Afghanistan to 900. There were already 100 in the country and another 600 were deployed from this weekend to help evacuate British nationals.
British foreign secretary Dominic Raab called the Taliban takeover “a new reality”.
“We’re making it clear with our partners with all the means at our disposal, that we will hold the Taliban to account, to its commitments, to have a new start in Afghanistan,” he said.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, discussed the situation in Afghanistan by phone and agreed to continue consultations with China, Pakistan and the United Nations, Reuters reports, citing the Russian foreign ministry.
Lavrov also spoke by phone with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and discussed political coordination due to the situation in Afghanistan and its implications for the region, the ministry said.
Updated
A Downing Street spokesperson has said:
The prime minister spoke to French president Emmanuel Macron this afternoon to discuss the current situation in Afghanistan.
He stressed the need for the international community to come together and take a unified approach on Afghanistan, both in terms of recognising any future government and in working to prevent a humanitarian and refugee crisis.
The prime minister outlined his intention to host a virtual meeting of G7 leaders on Afghanistan in the coming days to this end.
The leaders both emphasised the ongoing importance of working together on the longterm future of Afghanistan and the immediate need to help our nationals and others get to safety.
They agreed that the UK and France should work together at the UN security council, including on a possible joint-resolution.
Updated
UK and others could impose sanctions, government minister says
The UK’s foreign secretary has said the country will hold the Taliban to account using any means at its disposal, adding that sanctions and withholding aid money could be on the table, depending on the approach the militants take in future.
Asked how he would hold the Taliban to account, following a Cobra meeting on Monday, Dominic Raab said:
Ultimately, through working with our partners through everything from the sanctions that we can apply, to the ODA [Official Development Assistance] that we will hold back, pending reform and a more inclusive government. I think there are levers.
Asked if he was holding out the possibility of new sanctions, he said:
The question of relief of existing sanctions as well. All of the financial means at our disposal will depend on the behaviour of the Taliban.
Speaking to broadcasters, he added:
Everyone, I think, has been surprised by the scale and the pace at which the Taliban have taken over in Afghanistan, and that’s a lesson that we’ve all got to learn from.
But the truth is what matters right now is focusing on getting British nationals out, getting out those who have so loyally served the UK, and making sure that the gains that we’ve made over 20 years are not lost.
He said the UK was looking at what help it could offer refugees.
Updated
Hundreds of Afghan soldiers fled to neighbouring Uzbekistan with 22 military planes and 24 helicopters last weekend, including one aircraft that collided with an escorting Uzbek fighter jet causing both to crash, Uzbekistan has said.
According to Reuters, the Uzbek defence ministry said an Afghan military jet had been shot down and crashed after crossing the border.
A total of 585 Afghan soldiers have arrived on aircraft and 158 more crossed the border on foot on Sunday, the Uzbek prosecutor general’s office added.
Updated
US and other troops working to restart international evacuation flights
US forces are working with Turkish and other international troops to clear Kabul airport to allow international evacuation flights to resume, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby has said.
According to Reuters, Kirby told a news briefing that the US defence secretary Lloyd Austin had authorised the deployment of another battalion to Kabul that would bring the number of troops guarding the evacuation to about 6,000.
Updated
Germany is working to get as many people as possible out of Afghanistan quickly, Reuters quotes the country’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, as saying. He reportedly added that Nato allies had misjudged the situation when they thought Afghan government forces could hold back the Taliban.
“We want to get as many people out of the country as quickly as possible,” Maas told reporters. He said people who had worked with German military forces in the country, human rights activists and Afghan-German dual nationals would make up the bulk of some 10,000 people Germany wants to lift out of the country.
Updated
US forces protecting the airport in Kabul have killed two gunmen in separate incidents, a US official has told Reuters.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the incidents had occurred over the past 24 hours. “Initial reports indicate armed assailants fired into the crowd,” the official said.
Updated
The US president, Joe Biden, will return to the White House to address his country on the crisis in Afghanistan at 7.45pm GMT, Reuters reports, citing an administration spokesperson.
It comes as the Associated Press reports that US officials have said at least seven people were killed as thousands rushed on to the tarmac of Kabul’s international airport in a desperate bid to escape the Taliban capture of their country.
You can follow our US live blog for more US reaction to events in Afghanistan:
Updated
The Russian foreign ministry has claimed the situation in Kabul “is stabilising” and that the militants have started to “restore public order”.
Russia, whose ambassador is due to meet with the Taliban on Tuesday, said the militants had vowed to “guarantee the safety of local people”, despite thousands of Afghans trying to flee the group’s hardline version of Islam.
Moscow confirmed it had “established working contacts with representatives of the new authorities”, AFP reports. The agency says:
Unlike Western countries, which scrambled to get their diplomats out of the country as the Taliban completed its military takeover of the country this weekend, Russia has said its embassy in Kabul will stay open.
Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov told Russian state media that the Taliban had already started to guard his embassy.
Foreign ministry official Zamir Kabulov said on Monday that Russia would decide on recognising the new Taliban government based “on the conduct of the new authorities”.
Russia will take part in an emergency UN security council meeting on Afghanistan due later Monday.
The Kremlin has in recent years reached out to the Taliban and hosted its representatives in Moscow several times, most recently last month.
Military flights taking part in the evacuation from Kabul airport are set to begin again shortly after a short pause, a US official has told Reuters.
Nato envoys will hold emergency talks on Tuesday on the situation in Afghanistan as western powers scramble to evacuate personnel from Kabul after the Taliban takeover, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quotes an alliance official as saying.
The secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, will then hold a news conference at 1pm GMT – his first appearance before the media since June – as the alliance reels following the collapse of the Afghan government forces.
Stoltenberg tweeted on Sunday that Nato was “helping keep Kabul airport open to facilitate and coordinate evacuations”, but there were scenes of chaos as crowds tried to board departing planes.
The Taliban’s seizure of power comes after Nato withdrew its 9,500-strong mission on the back of a decision from the US president, Joe Biden, to pull out his troops.
On Monday, Armin Laschet, the candidate from Angela Merkel’s party to succeed her as German chancellor, described the situation as “the biggest debacle that Nato has suffered since its founding” – seven decades ago.
Updated
Pictures from Kabul airport show thousands of Afghans waiting in hope of leaving the country after the Taliban’s swift takeover of the city.
That’s all from me, Caroline Davies, for now. Thank you for your time. Handing over to my colleague Kevin Rawlinson.
Updated
The former Afghan president Hamid Karzai is in contact with the Taliban with a view to bringing peace to the country, the BBC reports.
Karzai, who was Afghanistan’s leader from 2001-2014, said he was part of a three-member council working to transfer power to the militants peacefully.
In an interview with the BBC, Karzai said the council has had contacts with the Taliban leadership and will be coordinating with them.
The important thing is the life and safety of all Afghan people and our aim is to establish that. The Taliban have told me they have appointed people to focus on the security of the city, and I hope there will be further progress on this tomorrow [Monday].
Dr Ashraf Ghani [the current president] has deserted his job and gone. He has left the scene. To fill this vacuum, legitimacy needs to be brought back. Only through a legitimate body, the security of Kabul and the whole country can be tasked to suitable hands.
The Taliban are dominating now and I hope the domination is strong and for the good of the Afghan nation.
The council also includes the leader of the Hezb-e Islami party, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar – a former warlord turned politician – and the chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation and former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, the BBC reported.
Updated
Responding to calls for the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, to apologise to those who served in Afghanistan or those who lost loved ones, the PM’s official spokesperson said he recognised it would be an “extremely difficult time” for them.
Asked if Johnson would apologise, the spokesperson said:
Look, I fully understand that this must be an extremely difficult time for service personnel who served in Afghanistan and indeed the families of those who lost loved ones.
As the PM has said, the UK can be proud of what has been done in Afghanistan over the past 20 years. It is thanks to their sacrifices that we’ve seen now no al-Qaida attacks against the west for a very long time, there are millions of girls and young women who have been educated in Afghanistan, and that cannot be taken away.
Updated
The Islamic militant group Hamas has congratulated the Taliban for their swift takeover of Afghanistan and the end to the United States’ 20-year presence in the country.
AP reports:
In a statement on Monday, Hamas welcomed “the defeat of the American occupation on all Afghan land” and praised what it said was the Taliban’s “courageous leadership on this victory, which was the culmination of its long struggle over the past 20 years.”
Hamas, a Palestinian group that opposes Israel’s existence, has governed the Gaza Strip since taking over the area in 2007, a year after it won a Palestinian election. Hamas is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union.
It wished the people of Afghanistan future success and said the ouster of the American troops proves “that the resistance of the peoples, foremost of which is our struggling Palestinian people, is due for victory.”
Summary
Key developments so far today.
- There are 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.
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Unconfirmed reports are of up to five people killed at the airport amid the chaos, 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 onto 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”.
- Taliban spokesman: ‘The war is over in Afghanistan’. The spokesman for the Taliban’s political office told Al-Jazeera Mubasher TV on Sunday 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”.
- China has urged the Taliban to keep its promise and ensure a smooth transition as Beijing figures out its strategy in the neighbouring country following the US’s hasty departure.
- The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, chaired a Cobra meeting on Monday afternoon to discuss the ongoing situation.
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British ambassador, Sir Laurie Bristow, was working from the airport in Kabul alongside home office staff, diplomatic workers and the armed services to process visas.
- 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.
- 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 chaotic scenes at Kabul airport to “Saigon 2.0”, referencing evacuations as the North Vietnamese army captured the southern capital and ended the Vietnam War.
- The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, called for national reconciliation in neighbouring Afghanistan. The official IRNA news agency quoted Raisi as saying Iran will support efforts to restore stability in Afghanistan as a first priority.
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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.
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The UK will work with international partners “on preventing any sort of humanitarian crisis” Downing Street has said.
- A UK Conservative MP has called for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to apologise to the families of people who died in Afghanistan. John Baron, the MP for Basildon and Billericay, has joined other politicians in criticising the UK government as remaining UK nationals and their local allies try to flee the country.
- 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.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson was asked whether it was fair to say that the UK government was not expecting the pace at which the Taliban took control in Afghanistan.
He said: “I think it was clear that military intervention alone was not going to be sufficient. We have seen the Taliban move quickly across Afghanistan, that is true, but we have been monitoring the situation, and are continuing to do everything possible to secure UK and Afghan nationals.
Asked about whether the PM thought the withdrawal of troops had been done in the right way, he said: “Clearly, once the US decision was made, our view was that it would not be right to act unilaterally in this as an occupying force.
“We did speak to other international partners on this, but it was clear that that wasn’t going to be feasible. So we have focused on doing everything possible to enable ... to work with the previous Afghan government and to now facilitate the exit of UK nationals and Afghan nationals.”
Updated
The UK will work with international partners “on preventing any sort of humanitarian crisis” in Afghanistan, Downing Street has said.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said Boris Johnson had been, and would continue to speak to other world leaders, adding: “It’s important the international community works together to convey to any new government, whoever that might be, that nobody wants Afghanistan to be a breeding ground for terror. Any recognition of a new Afghan government would need to happen on a joint rather than a unilateral basis, that’s something we will be working to achieve.”
He said that while it was too early to set out specific plans, it could be expected that interventions such as sending aid to Afghanistan may be agreed to prevent a humanitarian crisis.
He said: “I think it’s clear that no one country has the capability to deal with this alone.”
Updated
Asked what the Biden administration should do about evacuating thousands of Afghan nationals at risk after the takeover of the country by the Taliban, an interpreter who worked with US forces on hundreds of missions said: “Everything screams for more planes.”
The Biden administration has been widely criticised for failing to expedite evacuations of Afghans who worked with US forces over nearly 20 years.
Scenes of chaos at the airport in Kabul have been broadcast around the world. On Monday morning US air operations there were temporarily suspended.
The translator, Mike Sahak, spoke to CNN. His family, he said, were “very much scared” and in a “state of shock”.
“They’re sitting at home, they’re not trying to get out. They’re not trying to draw attention. So they’re just in a state of shock and in the state of fear.”
Amid the first reports of the Taliban targeting those who worked with US troops and diplomats, Sahak said: “My family had to relocate quite a few times. I don’t really want to get into what city they’re living in. But they had to … burn pictures, they had to burn memories and everything.”
Sahak said he had been contacted by “almost every team commander that I’ve worked with … and they’ve offered help, but I don’t have an answer to them how they can help. I think it’s out of their hands, [the] best they can do is to write a letter of recommendation [for a US visa] but at this point that is not useful for people who are stuck or my family that is stuck in Afghanistan.
“I think at this point it’s up to the policymakers to be realistic about the situation and be very clear on what they’re going to do about thousands of translators and their families that are stuck in Afghanistan.”
Asked what he wanted the Biden administration to do, Sahak said: “I think the videos and the pictures that we see, everything screams for more planes to get in there, to pick people up and get them out to safety.”
The deputy national security adviser, Jonathan Finer, also spoke to CNN.
“These are people who are looking for a way out or a rescue to occur in a very dangerous situation,” he said, “and that is exactly why President Biden has ordered the evacuation of thousands of vulnerable Afghans, both people who have applied for Special Immigrant Visas to the United States, as well as others for vulnerable activists, women, judges, people who are potentially going to be in the crosshairs.”
Finer said the Taliban had been told “in no uncertain terms, they are not to interfere with the safe passing of Afghans to the airport … and should they interfere with those efforts they will face severe consequences and we have the military forces in place to be able to execute that.”
He added: “We are going to be providing security at the airport, and the people getting on these flights are gonna be people who are selected based on these priority categories that we’ve identified.”
The US, he said, was “asking people [to go to the airport] in an orderly way when their flight is called, and again this is not going to be just a free for all, it can’t, for security reasons, work that way.”
Biden has been criticised for not speaking publicly during the fall of Afghanistan. Finer was asked when the president would next do so.
“He’s not going to get ahead of decision-making, any announcements,” Finer said. “We expect the president again to address the American people on Afghanistan and as soon as we have more say about that we will.”
Sahak told CNN “this entire situation is very personal. On so many levels, I’ve lost friends, I’ve lost brothers in arms. And I’ve seen people lose land, and seeing where the country goes is just unfortunate.
“And I think [previously] … given the situation it was OK just to evacuate translators. But where the country is right now and where it’s gone, the families who enabled translators are in grave danger. So they have to get out.”
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The Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban for publicly advocating education for women and girls, said she was in “complete shock” that the group had taken control of Afghanistan, Jessica Murray reports.
The 24-year-old said she was “deeply worried about women, minorities and human rights advocates” and called for more intervention from world leaders.
“We watch in complete shock as Taliban takes control of Afghanistan. Global, regional and local powers must call for an immediate ceasefire, provide urgent humanitarian aid and protect refugees and civilians,” she said in a post on Twitter.
Read the full report here:
‘The world abandoned us’: desperate Afghans try to escape Taliban – video report.
The UK prime minister’s official spokesman said there would be “significant numbers flying out day-by-day” from Afghanistan as the rush to evacuate British nationals and local allies from the country continued.
The spokesman said he could not put a number on how many British citizens were still in the country, but he added: “Well, we have reinforced our capabilities with 600 military personnel who are there to facilitate the removal of people with UK visas and British nationals,” PA reports.
He said the British ambassador, Sir Laurie Bristow, was working from the airport in Kabul alongside home office staff, diplomatic workers and the armed services to process visas.
He said: “There are people on the ground who can consider visa applications and there are some rules as regards to those who have family members who can be considered, I think, on a case-by-case basis, but we have already removed a large number of Afghan nationals under the ARAP [Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy] scheme and we’ll continue to do so.”
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Footage appears to show Afghans falling to their deaths from a plane after takeoff. Ben Doherty and Luke Harding reports on scenes of desperation and panic, with apparent fatalities after people seen clinging to moving US aircraft.
Read the full report here:
Updated
Airlines are avoiding flights over Afghanistan as the local aviation authority on Monday urged them to reroute after it gave Kabul airspace to the military.
AFP reports that British Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Air France and Virgin Atlantic announced they were no longer flying over the country after the Taliban took over Kabul.
The Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority said in a “notice to airmen” that “Kabul airspace has been released to the military”.
It advised airlines to reroute as “any transit through Kabul airspace will be uncontrolled”.
Footage shared on social media appears to show Afghan civilians clinging to the side of a US military aircraft as it prepares to take off from Kabul’s international airport.
Video: People run on tarmac of Kabul international airport as a US military aircraft attempts to take off. pic.twitter.com/9qA36HS0WQ
— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) August 16, 2021
A photograph provided by the UK Ministry of Defence shows the first flight carrying evacuated personnel of British Embassy staff and British nationals arriving at RAF Brize Norton early this morning
No evacuation flights are leaving Kabul airport at the moment because desperate people trying to flee the country are blocking the tarmac, a spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said on Monday, Reuters reports.
“I understand there is no air traffic at the moment because a large number of desperate people are crowding the tarmac,” the spokesperson told journalists in Berlin. Forty staff from the German embassy were flown out to Doha overnight, he said, adding that a small team of fewer than ten staff would remain at Kabul airport to coordinate evacuations.
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China on Monday urged the Taliban to keep its promise and ensure a smooth transition as Beijing figures out its strategy in the neighbouring country following the US’s hasty departure.
“China welcomes the Taliban’s promise that they will allow no force to use the Afghan territory to engage in acts detrimental to China and its expression of hope that China will be more involved in Afghanistan’s peace and reconciliation process and play a bigger role in future reconstruction and economic development,” Hua said.
Hua also said that China will “continue developing good-neighbourly, friendly and cooperative relations with Afghanistan”, adding that Beijing will “adhere to non-interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs and pursue a friendly policy toward the entire Afghan people”.
The international condemnation of Washington’s departure may be seen as yet another opportunity for China to make a point about the merit of its own foreign policy doctrine. But Beijing is also wary of getting too entangled in the complex situation in its neighbouring country after Washington’s withdrawal.
China sees the issue of Afghanistan as a “quagmire”, where great powers often find themselves entrapped – from Britain to the Soviet Union, and more recently to the US. Chinese state media now calls Afghanistan a “graveyard of empires”.
“The truth is that China does not want to play any cards in Afghanistan, nor does it want to seek any geopolitical expansion …” wrote Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University on Sunday. “China will never intervene in Afghanistan in the way the US has done in the past 20 years.”
It is unclear what policies Beijing will adopt when it comes to Afghanistan, but Chinese experts are now talking about participating in helping rebuild the war-torn country. “What China could do is participate in the post-war reconstruction and provide investment to help the country’s future development,” the Global Times quoted a senior Chinese government expert as saying on Sunday.
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The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said on Monday the United States had decided to withdraw from Afghanistan partly because of domestic political reasons, sources in her party told AFP.
AFP reports: At a meeting with her CDU-CSU party leadership, Merkel said Nato’s decision to pull out after almost two decades of deployment was “ultimately made by the Americans”, and that “domestic political reasons” were partly to blame.
“We have always said, if the Americans stay, we will also stay,” she said, according to participants at the meeting.
“The troop withdrawal sparked a domino effect” that culminated in the Taliban sweeping back into power, said Merkel.
“For the many who have built on the progress and freedom – especially women – these are bitter events,” she said.
Efforts must now be focused on evacuating German nationals as well as Afghans who had worked with the Germans or who are in danger from the Taliban, she said.
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The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, will chair a Cobra meeting on Monday afternoon to discuss the ongoing situation in Afghanistan, No 10 has confirmed.
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European Union foreign ministers will hold emergency talks on Tuesday to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan. 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.
Following latest developments in #Afghanistan, and after intense contacts with partners in the past days and hours, I decided to convene an extraordinary VTC of EU Foreign Ministers #FAC tomorrow afternoon for a first assessment.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) August 16, 2021
Afghanistan stands at a crossroad. Security and wellbeing of its citizens, as well as international security are at play.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) August 16, 2021
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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.
Speaking to PA Media, Graham Knight, 69, father of 25-year-old RAF Sgt Ben Knight who was killed when his Nimrod aircraft exploded in Afghanistan in 2006, said the British government should have moved more quickly to get civilians out.
He said:
We’re not surprised that the Taliban have taken over because as soon as the Americans and the British said they were going to leave, we knew this was going to happen. The Taliban made their intent very clear that, as soon as we went out, they would move in.
As for whether people’s lives were lost through a war that wasn’t winnable, I think they were. I think the problem was we were fighting people that were native to the country. We weren’t fighting terrorists, we were fighting people who actually lived there and didn’t like us being there.
Ian Sadler, 71, whose 21-year-old trooper son Jack died when his Land Rover struck a mine in Afghanistan in 2007, told PA:
I was surprised the Americans and the allies had so much confidence in the Afghan national army.
Why did they think the Afghan national army would be able to keep the Taliban back based on just numbers alone? Why did our government and allies have so much confidence in them?
It proved to be rubbish, really. Why did the president say Kabul will never fall when, at the same time, he must have been planning his escape?
To pull them out so quickly like that ... I would have thought it would have been more of a strategic advantage to reduce the British and American influence. When the Nato forces were pulled out so suddenly, the Afghan National Army were left without any direction.
I don’t think any of the British governments – Labour, coalition or Conservative – have handled the situation in Afghanistan particularly well ... The level of support given to our soldiers in Afghanistan was trivial.
It wasn’t until we were out there for about 10 years that the urgent operational requirements came in. Why weren’t our soldiers equipped with mine-protected vehicles? We would have lost a lot less.
Updated
The fall of Kabul in pictures.
A UK Conservative MP has called for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to apologise to the families of people who died in Afghanistan.
John Baron, the MP for Basildon and Billericay, has joined other politicians in criticising the UK government as remaining UK nationals and their local allies try to flee the country following the collapse of western-backed authorities.
Baron, who said he was the only Tory MP to oppose intervention in Afghanistan and voted against it in 2010, has been consistently critical of the campaign.
He told PA:
The fundamental error was allowing the initial limited and successful mission of expelling al-Qaida from Afghanistan in 2001 to morph into the much wider mission of nation-building in the following years, which meant we had to take on the Taliban.
This wider mission was born of ignorance, was unrealistic in its aims, poorly executed and thoroughly under-resourced – even the withdrawal is a shambles.
Our intervention now brings its responsibilities. In addition to getting our nationals out safely, the international community must now stand by those fleeing the country in fear of their lives, including those who helped British forces.
As a country, we need to do our bit to reach out and welcome the refugees and asylum-seekers. The priority now is to save lives.
On behalf of previous governments, the prime minister should apologise to the bereaved families of service personnel, and to those personnel who are still paying the price for this folly.
We also need to examine the lessons from yet another foolhardy intervention – for example, while always maintaining our guard against terrorism, it has distracted us from the bigger threat of hostile nation states.
He was joined in his condemnation by the former defence minister Tobias Ellwood, the Tory MP for Bournemouth East, who has described chaotic scenes at Kabul airport – as people try to flee the country – as “Saigon 2.0”, referencing evacuations in 1975 as the North Vietnamese army captured the city and ended the Vietnam war.
Updated
The Australian government has been accused of waiting far too long to organise a military evacuation mission to Afghanistan, as it sends 250 defence force personnel to the region in a last-ditch effort to help people flee the Taliban, Daniel Hurst and Ben Doherty report.
Amid shock at the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, the Australian government promised to “continue to work with key partners in the days ahead” to seek the safe passage of more than 130 Australians in the country, along with Afghan nationals who worked alongside its troops and diplomats, and humanitarian visa holders.
After chaotic scenes at Kabul’s international airport, one of the few places not under Taliban control, the Australian government updated its travel advice, telling citizens they should “not go to the airport unless told by the Australian government”.
Read the full report here:
Updated
The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, on Monday called for national reconciliation in neighbouring Afghanistan, AP reports.
The official IRNA news agency quoted Raisi as saying Iran will support efforts to restore stability in Afghanistan as a first priority.
He called Iran “a brother and neighbouring nation” to Afghanistan. He also described the Americans’ rapid pullout as a “military failure” that should “turn to an opportunity for restoring life, security and stable peace”.
Iran shares nearly 600 miles of border with Afghanistan and is home to about 800,000 registered Afghan refugees and more than 2 million undocumented Afghans. The influx began after Soviet forces entered Afghanistan in 1979.
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People try to get into Hamid Karzai international airport in Kabul.
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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, AP reports.
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”.
Kabulov has said the Russian ambassador to Afghanistan, Dmitry Zhirnov, will meet a Taliban representative on Tuesday to discuss security for the diplomatic mission, adding that the outside perimeter of the embassy is already being guarded by the Taliban.
Kabulov also said the Taliban’s swift takeover of the Afghan capital was “somewhat unexpected”. He said Russia was “too optimistic in our assessment of the quality of the armed forces trained by the Americans and Nato”. Kabulov said of those forces: “They dropped everything at the first shot.”
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The UK defence minister, Ben Wallace, is emotional as he tells LBC “some people won’t get back”.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace breaks down admitting "some people won't get back" from Afghanistan and "it's sad that the West has done what's it's done."
— LBC (@LBC) August 16, 2021
@NickFerrariLBC pic.twitter.com/UKMrUAQlDx
Updated
Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood has compared chaotic scenes at Kabul airport to “Saigon 2.0”, referencing evacuations as the North Vietnamese army captured the southern capital and ended the Vietnam War.
AFGHANISTAN:
— Tobias Ellwood MP (@Tobias_Ellwood) August 16, 2021
Chaotic exodus from Kabul airport.
Apaches used to clear the runway.
If this is not Saigon 2.0 I don’t know what is.
Is this how we thought we’d depart Afghanistan?
I repeat my call for a UK inquiry. pic.twitter.com/Bd7bRPRTVy
The UK defence secretary 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, Rowena Mason reports.
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, following the Taliban takeover. About 4,000 British nationals and eligible Afghans are thought to be in the capital in need of rescue, with western forces having secured Kabul airport to prepare for their passage out of the country.
Wallace said it was a “really deep part of regret for me” that it would not be possible to extract all Afghans eligible to come to the UK, and many would have to make asylum applications after the evacuation, possibly from third countries.
Wallace’s comments came as British troops arrived in Afghanistan to help evacuate remaining UK nationals and local allies. Paratroopers from the 16 Air Assault Brigade were working with US forces to secure Kabul airport on Monday to ensure flights can continue as Afghans and foreigners scramble to leave.
Read the full report here:
The former head of Nato has said the UK military cannot return to Afghanistan. George Robertson, who served as general secretary of the military alliance between 1999 and 2004 – and issued a statement invoking article five of the treaty that provides for collective defence after the attack on the World Trade Centre on 9/11 – said on Monday that the UK should focus on increasing its defences against terrorism at home.
Speaking on Good Morning Scotland on Monday, Lord Robertson said the speed of the takeover showed a “failure of intelligence” from allied forces. He added that the time for military intervention in the country is over and the focus must shift to stopping terrorist acts on British soil.
He said:
I don’t think we’re going to be back in there again. We can’t go in there militarily – that’s over, that’s finished.
That’s an episode we’ll have to reflect on and learn lots of lessons from.
But what we have to do is to make sure that our own defences are much more resilient as a consequence of this particular failure, and we’ve got to watch what the international ramifications are going to be – they will not be good.
That’s why I think it’s tragic that we will commemorate the disaster that was 9/11 with the Taliban back in control of the presidential palace in Kabul.
Updated
Women in media in Kabul tell of trying to destroy traces of their identity as they brace for Taliban retribution, Kate Banville reports:
On US President Joe Biden’s leadership over Afghanistan, the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said: “The die was cast when the deal was done by Donald Trump if you want my observation.”
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
President Biden inherited a momentum, a momentum that had been given to the Taliban because they felt they had now won, he’d also inherited a momentum of troop withdrawal from the international community, the US.
So I think in that sense, the seeds of what we’re seeing today were before President Biden took office. The seeds were a peace deal that was [effectively] rushed, that wasn’t done in collaboration properly with the international community and then a dividend taken out incredibly quickly.
Updated
Emmanuel Macron is holding an emergency defence council meeting today and will make a televised statement about Afghanistan at 8pm French time.
France is saying the security of its citizens is an “absolute priority” and is making plans to evacuate them. The French embassy has been “relocated” to Kabul airport. France has been advising its nationals to leave Afghanistan since April and organised a first repatriation flight in July.
Florence Parly, the armies minister, has announced two transport planes are being despatched to the French military base at Abu Dhabi in the UAE and will begin evacuating people from the Afghan capital late on Monday.
She said the planes would also evacuate “Afghans who have rendered very distinguished services to our armies”.
France has also halted the expulsion of Afghans whose asylum applications have been turned down.
Updated
Russia said its ambassador to Afghanistan would meet with the Taliban in Kabul on Tuesday and will decide on whether to recognise the new government based on its conduct, AFP reports.
“Our ambassador is in contact with the Taliban leadership, tomorrow he will meet with the Taliban security coordinator,” a foreign ministry official, Zamir Kabulov, said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station on Monday.
He said the talks between Moscow’s ambassador, Dmitry Zhirnov, and the Taliban would centre on how the group plans to provide security for the Russian embassy in the Afghan capital.
On Sunday, as the Taliban completed their military takeover of Afganistan, Kabulov said Russia had no plans to evacuate its embassy – though on Monday he said “part” of its staff would be evacuated.
Kabulov also said Moscow would decide on recognising the new Taliban government based “on the conduct of the new authorities”. “We will carefully see how responsibly they govern the country in the near future. And based on the results, the Russian leadership will draw the necessary conclusions,” Kabulov said.
Updated
Afghans crowd Kabul airport as they wait to leave.
The UK MP Tobias Ellwood, a former captain in the British army who is chairman of the defence select committee, criticised the west for pulling out of Afghanistan.
Appearing on Sky News, he said: “The world is now a little bit more dangerous because they’ve now taken control of the country, and the west should really hang its head in shame after abruptly abandoning Afghanistan to a civil war after two decades of effort.”
He added: “This is not a good day for the west at all, and China will be observing things very, very closely indeed. They are already making alliances with the Taliban and glossing over the human rights atrocities that are likely to unfold.”
Updated
Pakistan’s state-run airline says it has halted all flights to Kabul because of the “uncertain security situation” there.
Spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez said Pakistan International Airlines decided to protect passengers, the crew and the planes after consulting the Afghan civil aviation authorities, AP reports.
Updated
The Chinese embassy in Kabul has no plans to evacuate its staff, the outpost has signalled.
“The Chinese embassy has requested various factions in Afghanistan to ensure the safety of Chinese nations, Chinese institutions and Chinese interests,” it said.
“The embassy will take further steps to remind Chinese nationals to closely follow the security situation, increase safety precautions and to refrain from going outside.”
In a statement on its website the embassy said the situation in Kabul had become “extremely complex and severe” and they were in close contact with Chinese citizens in Afghanistan. The decision not to evacuate has also been taken by Russia. Neither Russia or China were signatories to today’s joint statement by 65 counties calling on all parties to facilitate the safe departure of foreign nationals and Afghans who want to leave.
China’s government has said little on the weekend’s events in Afghanistan, but an analysis by Reuters correspondent Yew Lun Tian, published today, noted China’s propaganda apparatus had already begun laying the groundwork for the country’s citizens to accept that Beijing might have to recognise the Taliban.
“This is us being pragmatic. How you want to rule your country is largely your own business, just don’t let that affect China,” Lin Minwang, a South Asia expert with Shanghai’s Fudan University, told Reuters.
“When a major Asian power like China shows it recognises Taliban’s political legitimacy by meeting them so openly, it is giving the Taliban a big diplomatic win,” Lin said.
Taliban officials visited China in July, and met with the foreign minister, Wang Yi. After the meeting the Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, said they saw China as a “friend” to Afghanistan and they hoped to talk to Beijing about investment in reconstruction work.
China’s state media has reported quite extensively on the Taliban’s takeover of the country. Much of it has focused on the failures of the US. CCTV, the main state channel, posted on Weibo: “Twenty years of war did not bring steady and safe to the country that is protected by the United States, instead it brought violence, and more disasters.” A China Daily editorial called the withdrawal “humiliating and deleterious”.
The Global Times has also reported on protests in front of the White House. In a series of Weibo posts, the nationalistic tabloid has also published old clips from the end of the Vietnam war, including very similar photographs of the Saigon evacuation and scenes from Kabul, a now viral clip of the US president, Joe Biden, saying the Afghan government would not collapse, and a critical report from the Washington Post (which is blocked in China).
Updated
Italy has evacuated 70 embassy staff and Afghan employees from Kabul, AP reports. The plane was scheduled to arrive in Rome on Monday. The evacuation is part of Italy’s Operation Aquila Omnia (Eagle Ready for Anything) to quickly evacuate Italian diplomatic staff, citizens and Afghan employees and family members. Italy had one of the largest contingents in Afghanistan before the pullout.
Updated
UK defence secretary Ben Wallace said British and US forces, as well as forces from other nations, were continuing to fly people out of Kabul airport.
He told BBC Breakfast: “We put in over 600 forces yesterday, today and over the weekend to make sure that we can keep a secure part of the airport functioning and, at the same time, to effectively process, manage and escort people onto our flights to get them out of Afghanistan.”
He said the government was aiming to fly out a further 1,500 people over the next 24 to 36 hours or slightly longer. Work was under way to “remove any bureaucratic barriers” to make sure people who pass screenings are able to be flown to the UK,” he added.
“We all see what we’re seeing, time is of the essence,” he said. “If we managed to keep it in the way we’re planning to, we should have capacity for over 1,000 people a day to exit to the United Kingdom.
“Currently, this is not about capacity on planes, it’s about processing speeds, so that’s why I’m trying to fix that.”
Updated
Five killed at Kabul airport – reports
Reuters is reporting witness claims that at least five people were killed in Kabul airport as hundreds of people tried to forcibly enter planes leaving the Afghan capital.
One witness said he had seen the bodies of five people being taken to a vehicle. Another witness said it was not clear whether the victims were killed by gunshots or in a stampede, Reuters said. US troops, who are in charge of the airport, earlier fired in the air to scatter the crowd, a US official said. Officials were not immediately available to comment on the deaths.
Updated
France said it would evacuate its first nationals and Afghan colleagues from Kabul to a base in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, AFP reports.
“We are planning to carry out the first rotation between now and the end of this Monday,” defence minister Florence Parly said, adding there were several dozen French citizens to be evacuated.
“We have organised at the base we have in the United Arab Emirates the capabilities to receive the first evacuees,” Parly said.
These are for French nationals who remain in Kabul but also “people under our protection and who we are going to evacuate”, Parly said.
Diplomatic personnel are included among the dozens of people set to be evacuated, she added.
The priority is to “evacuate (Afghan) personnel who rendered eminent service to our country by helping us daily, and also doing the maximum to provide protection to figures who defended the rights, human rights, journalists, artists, all those who stood for these values that we continue to defend around the world”, she said.
Updated
UK defence secretary: 'Nato's not going to go back in'
Asked if Nato was going to return and take over Kabul, UK defence secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News: “No, look that’s not on the cards that we’re going to go back.”
He added: “The US have made itself clear that they’re not intending to stay and as the framework nation that leaves us with difficult choices and I’ve been pretty much honest about that all the way through this process.”
On the airlift of British nationals, he added: “The military flights are coming in and out, they’ve just brought in more UK soldiers.
“Border Force is joining us to make sure that we accelerate the process to get more Afghans out, which is our obligation. We flew out 370 staff and British citizens, eligible personnel yesterday and the day before and we’ll continue to engage those flights.
“The next group of Afghans to come out will be 782 and we’ll make sure we get them in the next 24 to 36 hours out of the country and are continuing to process those people.”
He said of the Afghanistan evacuation: “We will do everything we can to bring as many people out as possible.”
Asked if the Taliban had changed, he replied: “It does not look like a change ... The leadership has a responsibility to make sure that it upholds human rights.”
Asked about the prospect of the Taliban flag flying over the UK embassy in Kabul, he said: “That’s the consequence of the Taliban, it’s not the embassy any more, we have left that location, we’ve drawn down within the airport ... symbolically it’s not what any of us wanted.”
Updated
Mark Sedwill, the UK ambassador to Afghanistan from 2009-10, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that it was not inevitable that the US and manner of its withdrawal would lead to this situation, but acknowledged “the speed of it has taken most of us by surprise”. Lord Sedwill said: “But it was precipitative and that’s the reason the Taliban have been able to take over at quite this pace.” And, he added, why people are so fearful about the future.
Asked if the UK, which has had troops on the ground for 20 years, did not bear some responsibility for the position the Afghan security forces were left in, he replied: “I think all Nato countries who have been involved for that period bear some responsibility,” adding, “but in the end this was a decision taken by the United States.”
It wasn’t, he said, “so much a case we hadn’t equipped the Afghan forces, it was the loss of confidence by those forces at the precipitant decision to withdraw the remaining western troops, the remaining western support. that caused the collapse in confidence that enabled the Taliban to take over so quickly.”
He added: “This is a humiliating moment for the west. We have Afghan citizens who are fearful. Extremists everywhere will be emboldened. They’ve been quieter since the end of the Islamic State, they will be emboldened.
“Of course our authoritarian opponents will undoubtedly be saying already that they have the strategic patience that we lack. So it is a very bad day.”
Asked if there was a real security threat posed to having the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, he replied: Yes. there is a direct and an indirect threat.” He said: “We saw terrorist attacks in this country not directed from the Islamic State but by people who were inspired by the existence of the Islamic State. That risk will doubtless be higher today.
“But of course there is a direct threat as well. We will have to see whether the Taliban will honour their commitment not to allow Afghanistan to become a haven for terrorists and, indeed, traffickers as well.”
The UK must now work with China, Russia and Afghanistan’s neighbours to ensure Afghanistan does not become another source of terrorism, and put in place the right mixture of incentives and potential sanctions in order to ensure that isn’t the case, he said.
Updated
Defence secretary Ben Wallace has acknowledged that the Taliban “are in control” of Afghanistan, saying there is a sense of sadness in the recent events, PA reports.
He told Sky News: “I think we all saw that and felt a real sense of sadness that first of all the forces that the British and the international community had invested in had melted away in some areas so quickly.”
“You don’t fix things overnight in global issues, you have to manage them... when that deal was done a few years ago, what happened was ultimately we undermined the community - the deal undermined the Afghan government and left it in a place that ultimately saw the end... the river flows fastest towards the end and that is what we saw yesterday and it’s what we’re seeing in our pictures today.”
He added: “My job as as defence secretary is to make sure that we protect not only the UK nationals, but those Afghans we have an obligation to, that is actually why we’re in the country. For the last few weeks we’ve been in the country solely to process those people and to make sure we protect our officials doing that job and we’ll continue to do so.”
Asked if he acknowledged the Taliban had won the war, he said: “I don’t know about a win, I think, I acknowledge that the Taliban are in control of the country. You don’t have to be a political scientist to spot that’s where we’re at.”
Updated
Finland said it would close its embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul immediately and until further notice as a result of the security situation. “Diplomatic personnel are being evacuated from the country,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Updated
Here’s a Guardian video round up of events as Kabul falls to the Taliban.
Taliban officials said on Monday they had received no reports of any clashes from across the country a day after the militants seized the capital, Kabul, and the U.S.-backed government collapsed.
Reuters reports one of the senior members of the Taliban as saying: “The situation is peaceful, as per our reports.” They declined to be identified
Updated
The first Czech evacuation flight has taken off from Kabul’s international airport and landed in Prague.
Prime minister Andrej Babis said 46 people were on board Monday’s flight, AP reports. They included Czech nationals, the Afghan staffers at the Czech embassy and Afghan interpreters who helped the Czech armed forces during NATO missions together with their families.
Babis did not immediately provide more details. It is not clear how many such flights will follow.
Updated
Good morning. Caroline Davies here. I will be bringing you latest developments over the next few hours. You can get in touch on caroline.davies@theguardian.com
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. Thanks for following along – and stay tuned for the latest. I’m now handing over to my colleague Caroline Davies, who will bring you developments as they happen.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation reporter Stephen Dziedzic says that, according to two Australians currently at Kabul airport, “the US military has struggled to maintain order”.
Have spoken to two Australians at Kabul airport. Chaotic and frightening scene. One says the US military has struggled to maintain order- there's the sound of gunfire, but source unclear. He says he's constantly trying to contact the Australian Government but he's got no response
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) August 16, 2021
Saudi embassy evacuated
Saudi Arabia says all staff were evacuated from the embassy in Kabul on Sunday due to the changing conditions on the ground, the AP reports, joining other countries that have also shuttered their embassies as the Taliban advance on the Afghan capital.
Updated
Summary
I’ll be handing over to my colleagues in London shortly. In the meantime, here are the dizzying key developments from the last while:
- There were scenes of panic and desperation at Kabul’s airport on Monday morning. Video footage showed people trying to climb the outside of passenger stairs and running across the Tarmac as they tied to get on board flights out of the country. The US military fired shots into the air to deter them, telling Reuters that the flights were “only meant to ferry diplomats, foreign staff, and local embassy staff”.
- US state department: all US Embassy personnel evacuated to airport. Ned Price, the spokesperson for the US department of state, said in a statement: “We can confirm that the safe evacuation of all Embassy personnel is now complete. All Embassy personnel are located on the premises of Hamid Karzai International Airport, whose perimeter is secured by the US Military,” Price said in a statement.
- Taliban spokesman: ‘The war is over in Afghanistan’. The spokesman for the Taliban’s political office told Al-Jazeera Mubasher TV on Sunday 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.
-
United Airlines said late Sunday it is rerouting some flights to avoid Afghanistan airspace after the Taliban took control of the presidential palace in Kabul.
- Emirates Airlines suspended flights to Kabul. Emirates has suspended flights to Afghanistan’s capital until further the notice, saying on its website, ““Customers holding tickets with final destination to Kabul will not be accepted for travel at their point of origin.”
- The “vast majority” of Afghanistans assets are not held in the country – and therefore cannot fall into the Taliban’s hands, CNN reported, citing a US official familiar with the matter.
- More than 60 countries, including the US, issued a joint statement saying Afghans and international citizens who want to leave Afghanistan must be allowed to depart and added airports and border crossings must remain open, the US State Department said late Sunday.
- American flag no longer flying at US embassy. A State Department official says the American flag is no longer flying at the US Embassy in Kabul amid evacuations from Afghanistan’s capital. The official tells The Associated Press that nearly all embassy personnel have been relocated to the city’s international airport.
- UN chief warns of “serious human rights violations”. UN secretary-general António Guterres has commented on the situation in Afghanistan, warning that “hundreds of thousands” of people are fleeing because of “serious human rights violations”.
- There was reportedly “chaos” at Kabul’s airport as people try to leave the country. But those who decide to leave the airport will now face Taliban checkpoints.
- The US is sending another 1,000 troops directly to Kabul, bringing US military numbers expected in Afghanistan up to 6,000 in an attempt to execute the safe withdrawal of US nationals and Afghan support staff - between two and three times the number of soldiers that were there last week.
- Afghanistan’s erstwhile president Ashraf Ghani is reported to have fled to Tashkent, the capital of neighboring Uzbekistan. Ghani put out an extraordinary message on Facebook saying he left the country to try to avoid a bloody war in Kabul, instead enabling the Taliban to take control with almost no fighting.
- US secretary of state Antony Blinken acknowledged that events in the last few days had happened more quickly than anticipated. He sidestepped questions about the chaotic nature of this rushed withdrawal itself.
- The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting in New York at 10am local time on Monday to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan.
- A Nato official said all commercial flights have been suspended from the airport in Kabul and only military aircraft are currently allowed to operate. The airport is now the only way out of Afghanistan. The Taliban control all land crossings.
Updated
More on the shots fired at Kabul airport, via Reuters.
US forces fired in the air at Kabul’s airport on Monday to prevent hundreds of civilians running onto the tarmac, a US official said.
“The crowd was out of control,” the official told Reuters by phone. “The firing was only done to defuse the chaos.”
Hundreds of Afghans have jammed the airport trying to get out of the country after Taliban insurgents entered the capital on Sunday. US troops are in charge at the airport, helping in the evacuation of embassy staff and other civilians.
Meanwhile in Kabul itself, the streets are quiet, according to a Reuters journalist who spoke to a local naan seller.
The Wazir Akbar Khan embassy district was deserted with almost all diplomats and their families either flown out of the city or at the airport awaiting a flight.
There were few guards left at the checkpoints in the usually heavily fortified area - some motorists were getting out of their cars to lift barriers at the checkpoints before driving through.
“It strange to sit hear and see empty streets, no more busy diplomatic convoys, big cars with guns mounted,” said Gul Mohammed Hakim, one the city’s ubiquitous naan (bread) makers who has a shop in the area.
“I will be here baking bread, but will earn very small amounts of money. The security guards who were my friends, they are gone.”
He had no customers yet, said, and was still heating his tandoor (clay oven) in anticipation.
“My first concern was to grow my beard and how to grow it fast,” Hakim added. “I also checked with my wife if there were enough burqas for her and the girls.”
During the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule, men were not permitted to trim their beards and women were required to wear the all-enveloping burqa cloak in public.
In the city’s Chicken Street, the scores of shops for Afghan carpets, handicraft and jewellery, as well as small cafes, were closed.
US troops fire shots into air at Kabul airport
A US official has confirmed to Reuters that American forces at the airport have been “forced to fire into the air to prevent afghans running onto 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”.
Updated
People desperate to board flights clamber up outside of passenger stairs to plane
Journalist Ahmer Khan has posted multiple videos of people climbing the outside of the passenger stairs leading to an aeroplane at Kabul airport:
Desperate situation unfolding at #Kabul airport this morning. pic.twitter.com/JlAWtTHPBy
— Ahmer Khan (@ahmermkhan) August 16, 2021
The sheer helplessness at Kabul airport. It’s heartbreaking! #KabulHasFallen pic.twitter.com/brA3WRdPp8
— Ahmer Khan (@ahmermkhan) August 16, 2021
Updated
AFP is reporting, citing a witness, that US troops have fired shots into the air at the airport.
More photos from the airport as people desperate to leave try to get flights:
Australia says it remains in close consultations with its allies and security partners over potential evacuation operations.
Asked to clarify the status of any Australian Defence Force involvement in evacuation from Afghanistan, a Defence spokesperson said:
“The Australian Government is deeply concerned about the evolving situation in Afghanistan. Australia is in close consultations with our allies and security partners, as we always have been since operations in Afghanistan began in 2001. Defence will not comment further for operational security reasons at this time.”
Earlier today, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, said cabinet’s national security committee would meet to “review the various operations” but he would not reveal the details “for the protection of those we’re engaged in seeking to provide for their safety”.
Here are photos from outside Kabul’s international airport this morning, where the Taliban has stationed fighters:
From further inside the airport, people walking near the gates:
Here is a quick recap of the events in Afghanistan from 2001 to last year. For a rundown of this year’s events see our story here.
2001: 9/11 and the “War on Terror”
President George W. Bush launches his “war on terror” in response to the 11 September attacks that killed around 3,000 people, with air strikes on Afghanistan on 7 October 2001. In power since 1996, the Taliban government is soon defeated and flees the Afghan capital Kabul on 6 December. Hamid Karzai is appointed to lead an interim government and NATO begins to deploy its International Security Assistance Force.
2004: First presidential election
Afghanistan’s first election under a new system is held on 9 October, 2004 with an enthusiastic turnout of 70 percent. Karzai wins 55 percent of the vote. The Taliban regroup in the south and east, as well as across the border in Pakistan, and launch an insurgency.
2008-2011: US reinforcements
As attacks multiply, the US command in 2008 asks for more troops and the first reinforcements are sent. Karzai is re-elected on August 20, 2009 in elections that are marred by massive fraud, low turnout and Taliban attacks.
In 2009, President Barack Obama, who had campaigned on a pledge to end the Afghanistan war, doubles the number of US troops to 68,000. In 2010, it reaches around 100,000. Osama bin Laden is killed on May 2, 2011 in a US special forces operation in Pakistan.
On June 22, Obama announces the beginning of a troop withdrawal, with the departure by mid-2012 of 33,000 soldiers.
2014: NATO exit
In June 2014, Ashraf Ghani is elected president but voting is marred by violence and a bitter dispute over claims of fraud.
In December, NATO ends its 13-year combat mission but a number of troops remain to train the Afghan military.
The following year, the Taliban make their greatest military advances since being ousted. The Islamic State jihadist group also becomes active in the region. Bloody attacks multiply, notably in Kabul
2020: US-Taliban deal, disputed election
Ghani is declared victorious for a second term on February 18, 2020, an announcement rejected by his rival and former minister Abdullah Abdullah, who vows to form his own parallel government.
On February 29, the United States and the Taliban sign a historic deal in Doha under which all foreign forces would leave Afghanistan by May 2021, provided the insurgents start talks with Kabul and adhere to other security guarantees.
May 2021: Foreign troops withdrawal
On May 1, 2021 the United States and NATO start withdrawing their 9,500 soldiers, of which 2,500 are American.
Leaders from the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have reacted to the news that the Taliban has begun taking control of Kabul.
UK prime minister Boris Johnsons said, ‘we don’t want anybody bilaterally recognising the Taliban’, while New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern said conversations over how the new regime is treated will be for some time in the future.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken blamed “the inability of Afghan security forces to defend their country” for the quick takeover while Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said he was ‘heartbroken’ at the news.
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said that fighting for freedom is “always worth it whatever the outcome”:
In case you missed this earlier: Afghan leaders have created a coordination council to meet with the Taliban and manage the transfer of the power, after the religious militia’s lightening offensive swept to the capital, Kabul, AP reports.
In a statement posted on social media by former president Hamid Karzai, he said the body will be led by the head of the High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, as well as the leader of Hizb-e-Islami, Gulbudin Hekmatyar, and himself.
The statement said the move was “to prevent chaos and reduce the suffering of the people,” and to manage peace and a “peaceful transfer.”
Updated
From PBS News Hour correspondent Jane Ferguson:
#Afghan hotel staff member just told me his #SIV application has been 'under review' since 2018. Then burst into tears. Didn't go home last night because there are #Taliban checkpoints just outside and fears they will know he works with US military contractors.
— Jane Ferguson (@JaneFerguson5) August 16, 2021
Afghanistan’s youth representative to the United Nations Aisha Khurram this morning:
Woke up to shoutings and gunfires in our doorstep. so called Mujahideen (thieves) went home by home and took away people’s cars and belongings.
— Aisha Khurram (@AishaKHM) August 16, 2021
As they heard Taliban are on their to our area, they ran away.
The chaos just began...
US Ambassador still at Kabul airport, has not left country – AFP
The state department has confirmed to AFP that US Ambassador Ross Wilson is still at Kabul airport.
More scenes now from Kabul airport this morning as people try desperately to get out of Afghanistan.
Kabul Airport this morning
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) August 16, 2021
Too many people, too few planes pic.twitter.com/rReyvBG5Lc
Just a note that the Guardian has not verified this video independently.
The US embassy in Kabul is telling its citizens and Afghan nationals not to travel to the airport unless they are told to, that it is unsafe.
We remind all American citizens and Afghan nationals that the security situation in Kabul remains unsafe. Please do not travel to the airport until notified. https://t.co/GFoQZrmMXs
— U.S. Embassy Kabul (@USEmbassyKabul) August 16, 2021
The Australian foreign minister, Marise Payne, says she discussed the “deteriorating situation in Afghanistan” in a call with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, this morning. Payne says the pair “reflected on our respective contributions over many years”.
It remains unclear precisely what evacuation efforts Australia may be involved in, but Payne endorsed a statement backed by the US and dozens of countries with a message for the Taliban. The countries “call on all parties to respect and facilitate, the safe and orderly departure of foreign nationals and Afghans who wish to leave the country”.
After chaotic scenes at Kabul airport, the Australian government posted that Australians should “not go to the airport unless told by the Australian Government”.
#Afghanistan update: The security situation in Kabul continues to deteriorate. The situation at the airport is worsening. Do not go to the airport unless told by the Australian Government. Australians in Afghanistan should register with DFAT: https://t.co/pY3ZSLlz6Y. pic.twitter.com/mNBhbGQjtS
— Smartraveller (@Smartraveller) August 16, 2021
Emirates Airlines suspends flights to Kabul
Emirates has suspended flights to Afghanistan’s capital Kabul until further the notice, the airline said on its website.
The website says: “Customers holding tickets with final destination to Kabul will not be accepted for travel at their point of origin.”
Fellow Dubai state-owned carrier Flydubai earlier has also suspended flights to Kabul.
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.
Reuters is reporting that “a Taliban leader” says it is “too early to say how we will take over governance” and that the group wants “to see foreign forces leave before restructuring begins”.
We’ll have more on this shortly.
Updated
Who is Afghan president Ashraf Ghani?
Afghan president Ashraf Ghani is now believed to be in Uzbekistan after leaving the presidential palace in Kabul on Sunday to the insurgent Taliban fighters, saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed. Reuters reports the 72-year-old had become an increasingly isolated figure who had an uneasy relationship with the West.
A trained anthropologist, Ghani holds a doctorate from New York City’s Columbia University. He spent almost a quarter of a century outside Afghanistan during the tumultuous decades of Soviet rule, civil war and the Taliban’s years in power.
During that period, he worked as an academic in the US and later with the World Bank and the UN across East and South Asia. His road to the presidency was hard-fought but was twice elected to the top job. Ghani took over from Hamid Karzai in 2014 and oversaw the conclusion of the US combat mission. He made the effort to end decades of war a priority, despite continuing attacks on his government and security forces by the Taliban, and began peace talks with the insurgents in 2020.
He promised to fight rampant corruption, fix a crippled economy and transform the country into a regional trade hub - but was unable to deliver on most of those promises. Ghani’s relationship with Washington and other Western capitals was uneasy.
He was a vocal critic of what he termed wasted international aid in Afghanistan and often did not see eye to eye with the West’s Afghan strategy, particularly as it looked to fast-track a slow and painful peace process with the Taliban.
Summary
It is just after 7am in Kabul, where lot has happened in the last few hours. Here is recap:
- US state department: all US Embassy personnel evacuated to airport. Ned Price, the spokesperson for the US department of state, said in a statement: “We can confirm that the safe evacuation of all Embassy personnel is now complete. All Embassy personnel are located on the premises of Hamid Karzai International Airport, whose perimeter is secured by the US Military,” Price said in a statement.
- Taliban spokesman: “The war is over in Afghanistan”. The spokesman for the Taliban’s political office told Al-Jazeera Mubasher TV on Sunday that the war is over in Afghanistan and that the type of rule and the form of regime will be clear soon. Spokesman Mohammad Naeem said that no diplomatic body or any of its headquarters was targeted, saying that the group assures everyone it will provide safety for citizens and diplomatic missions.
- United Airlines said late Sunday it is rerouting some flights to avoid Afghanistan airspace after the Taliban took control of the presidential palace in Kabul.
- The “vast majority” of Afghanistans assets are not held in the country – and therefore cannot fall into the Taliban’s hands, CNN reported, citing a US official familiar with the matter.
- More than 60 countries, including the US, issued a joint statement saying Afghans and international citizens who want to leave Afghanistan must be allowed to depart and added airports and border crossings must remain open, the US State Department said late Sunday.
- American flag no longer flying at US embassy. A State Department official says the American flag is no longer flying at the US Embassy in Kabul amid evacuations from Afghanistan’s capital. The official tells The Associated Press that nearly all embassy personnel have been relocated to the city’s international airport.
- UN chief warns of “serious human rights violations”. UN secretary-general António Guterres has commented on the situation in Afghanistan, warning that “hundreds of thousands” of people are fleeing because of “serious human rights violations”.
- There was reportedly “chaos” at Kabul’s airport as people try to leave the country. But those who decide to leave the airport will now face Taliban checkpoints.
- The US is sending another 1,000 troops directly to Kabul, bringing US military numbers expected in Afghanistan up to 6,000 in an attempt to execute the safe withdrawal of US nationals and Afghan support staff - between two and three times the number of soldiers that were there last week.
- Afghanistan’s erstwhile president Ashraf Ghani is reported to have fled to Tashkent, the capital of neighboring Uzbekistan. Ghani put out an extraordinary message on Facebook saying he left the country to try to avoid a bloody war in Kabul, instead enabling the Taliban to take control with almost no fighting.
- US secretary of state Antony Blinken acknowledged that events in the last few days had happened more quickly than anticipated. He sidestepped questions about the chaotic nature of this rushed withdrawal itself.
- The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting in New York at 10am local time on Monday to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan.
- A Nato official said all commercial flights have been suspended from the airport in Kabul and only military aircraft are currently allowed to operate. The airport is now the only way out of Afghanistan. The Taliban control all land crossings.
Updated
United Airlines rerouting flights to avoid Afghanistan airspace
United Airlines said late Sunday it is rerouting some flights to avoid Afghanistan airspace.
“Due to the dynamic nature of the situation we have begun routing affected flights around Afghanistan airspace,” a United spokeswoman said in a statement.
The changes impacts several of United’s US to India flights. The US Federal Aviation Administration in July imposed new flight restrictions over Afghanistan for US airlines and other US operators.
It is now 7am in Kabul. Journalist Jawad Sukhanyar is at the airport, where he has filmed people rushing to the terminal:
Another day begins in Kabul, a sea of people rushing into the Kabul airport terminal. #AFG pic.twitter.com/UekpGJ2MWd
— Jawad Sukhanyar (@JawadSukhanyar) August 16, 2021
Just a quick note to say that if you see news you think we may have missed, or have questions, the best place to get in touch with me is on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said the country is working with about 47 New Zealanders to evacuate them from Afghanistan, after the Taliban took power overnight.
Speaking to The AM Show on Monday morning, Ardern said “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was “actively trying to contact those that they believe may be in Afghanistan and working to get people out”.
“Previously there have been commercial options for people to leave on ... that will increasingly, if not already, no longer be an option,” Ardern said.
Nato has confirmed all commercial flights have been suspended from Kabul Airport, which is currently the only way out of Afghanistan. The Taliban control all land crossings. The government is also looking at options to help Afghan workers who may have assisted New Zealand troops in the country.
“Right now, I think everyone’s focus is the security situation on the ground and our responsibility to both our citizens who may be there but also those who may have been connected to our work there,” Ardern said.
The prime minister did not confirm or rule out the possibility of using New Zealand defence force troops to assist with evacuations.
“The NZDF are always on standby - that’s part of their job but they are aware and are part of these active discussions with our partners right now.”
Updated
Here is our full story on the astounding events of the last few hours:
The Taliban has declared the war in Afghanistan is over after insurgents took control of the presidential palace in Kabul as US-led forces departed and Western nations scrambled to evacuate their citizens.
Spokesman Mohammad Naeem said in interviews with Al Jazeera TV the Taliban did not want to live in isolation. He said the group respected women’s and minorities’ rights and freedom of expression within Sharia law.
“Today is a great day for the Afghan people and the mujahideen. They have witnessed the fruits of their efforts and their sacrifices for 20 years,” he said. “Thanks to God, the war is over in the country.”
Naeem said the Taliban wanted to have peaceful relations with foreign countries. “We ask all countries and entities to sit with us to settle any issues”, he said.
The comments came hours after several key events on Sunday, including Taliban insurgents entering, President Ashraf Ghani leaving Afghanistan saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed and America abandoning its embassy in panic. The swift arrival brings the Islamist militants close to taking over the country two decades after they were overthrown by a US-led invasion. By Monday morning a US official said the majority of Western diplomatic staff had left Kabul.
Even the militants themselves were surprised by the speed of the takeover, co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar admitted in a video statement in the evening. Now the group faces the challenge of ruling, he added. They are expected to proclaim a new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan soon:
Updated
In case you missed this earlier, here is the moment that a Taliban spokesperson called the BBC’s Yalda Hakim while she was live on air.
Hakim and her family fled Afghanistan on horseback in the 80s. She was six months old at the time and settled in Australia when she was three.
Getting the Taliban spokesman on your own phone while you’re presenting live. @BBCYaldaHakim nailing it, all while dealing with an incredibly upsetting story. Wow 🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/9DQpKznlBQ
— Stephanie Hegarty (@stephhegarty) August 15, 2021
US state department: all US Embassy personnel evacuated to airport
Ned Price, the spokesperson for the US department of state, has confirmed that all US Embassy personnel have now been evacuated to the airport.
“We can confirm that the safe evacuation of all Embassy personnel is now complete. All Embassy personnel are located on the premises of Hamid Karzai International Airport, whose perimeter is secured by the US Military,” Price said in a statement.
Updated
Our full story on the chaos at Kabul airport now.
Thousands of Afghans and foreign nationals have surged on to the tarmac at Kabul airport seeking a place on a flight out of the country, amid chaotic scenes that unfolded as the Taliban took control of the city.
With the Taliban installed in the presidential palace and the elected president having fled the country, access to Hamid Karzai airport, five kilometres from the centre of the capital, is now possible only through Taliban checkpoints. The US, UK, Germany, Canada and a host of other coalition nations are all seeking to evacuate their nationals from the country. The airport reportedly came under fire on Sunday.
Videos from the airport show people pouring into the terminal building, and even scenes of dozens being pulled into the back of a C-17A military aircraft on the tarmac.
Thousands of people – including parents carrying young children – are seen surging towards planes on the airfield. US Humvees are also on the ground at the airport.
In one video a woman calls out “look at the state of the people of Afghanistan”:
US official: 'majority of western diplomatic staff has left Kabul'
Most Western diplomats have left Kabul, a US official said on Monday as Taliban insurgents took over the Afghanistan capital.
“I can safely say the majority of Western diplomatic staff is out of Kabul now,” the official told Reuters. Some support staff remain, the official added.
Helicopters have been ferrying diplomats from the embassy district in the city to Kabul airport since Sunday, when the Taliban entered the city.
From CNN, on visas for Afghan citizens to the US:
As of last Thursday, 1,200 Afghans and their families had been evacuated to America as part of the administration’s “Operation Allies Refuge,” according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price. Those Afghans had been processed at Fort Lee in Virginia, but there are current efforts underway to prepare more US military bases to take in SIV applicants, including Fort Bliss in Texas, two sources familiar with the discussions said.
...
According to sources familiar with the matter, Biden national security officials told senators during a briefing on Afghanistan Sunday that there are as many as 60,000 Afghans who could potentially qualify as SIV holders or applicants, P1/P2 refugees, or others like human rights defenders and could need evacuation.
Reuters is reporting that, according to a US official, the “majority of western diplomatic staff has left Kabul”.
That is all we know for now – we should have more shortly.
Updated
CNN global affairs analyst and New Yorker staff writer Susan Glasser on the US management of evacuations:
So they got 2000 out before the Taliban took over, of the nearly 20,000 Afghan interpreters which worked with the US military. After announcing the exit in April…. https://t.co/7pk67vKlBP
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) August 16, 2021
'Vast majority' of Afghanistan's assets not held in country – CNN
The “vast majority” of Afghanistans assets are not held in the country – and therefore cannot fall into the Taliban’s hands, CNN reports, citing a US official familiar with the matter.
“Separately, a Biden administration official said Sunday that any assets the Afghan government has in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban.
So while it’s not exactly clear just how much money is being held in reserves at Da Afghanistan Bank, the US administration is pushing back on some critics who believe the Taliban will have access to the money,” CNN reports.
Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs with a not-so-subtle dig at the Americans:
Ukrainian aircraft stationed in Afghanistan took citizens of Ukraine, the Netherlands, Croatia, Belarus, Afghanistan out of Kabul. They’re safe now. We don’t abandon our people & help others. In case of further requests, will do everything possible to help Ukrainians & foreigners
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) August 15, 2021
Updated
France’s ambassador, who earlier posted a wordless video of himself leaving Kabul’s green zone, which houses government buildings, residences and foreign embassies, will reportedly remained in Kabul airport until all French nationals have been evacuated. As we reported, the British and German ambassadors are also remaining to help people leave.
France has relocated its embassy in Kabul to the airport. Evacuations have been in progress for weeks and a charter flight put in place by France in mid-July. Since May, France has taken in Afghan employees at French structures under potential threat, with 600 people relocated to France.
France gradually pulled out troops from Afghanistan between 2013 and 2015, and since then former personnel who worked for the French Army and their families, some 1,350 Afghans, were brought to France, according to a statement by Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drain.
Updated
US and 60 other countries say Afghans and others must be allowed to leave Afghanistan
More than 60 countries issued a joint statement saying Afghans and international citizens who want to leave Afghanistan must be allowed to depart and added airports and border crossings must remain open, the US State Department said late Sunday.
The US government and more than 60 other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Qatar and the United Kingdom said in a joint statement that “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.”
It added “the Afghan people deserve to live in safety, security and dignity. We in the international community stand ready to assist them.”
As we reported earlier, the Taliban have made statements aimed at reassuring Afghans – they say there will be no revenge attacks on those who worked for the government or its security services, and that “life, property and honour” will be respected.
But some of their actions send a different message, the AP reports.
Last month, after capturing the Malistan district of the southern Ghazni province, Taliban fighters went door to door looking for people who had worked with the government, killing at least 27 civilians, wounding 10 others and looting homes, according to the semi-official Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.
After capturing Herat, Taliban fighters paraded two alleged thieves through the streets with black makeup on their faces. That’s considered a warning, while repeat offenders risk having a hand cut off. The Taliban have also been known to stone suspected adulterers and carry out public executions in accordance with their harsh version of Islamic law.
If you haven’t yet read it, this account is well worth it for an idea of what yesterday was like for many young Afghan women.
Afghan women sacrificed a lot for the little freedom they had. As an orphan I weaved carpets just to get an education. I faced a lot of financial challenges, but I had a lot of plans for my future. I did not expect everything to end up like this.
Now it looks like I have to burn everything I achieved in 24 years of my life. Having any ID card or awards from the American University is risky now; even if we keep them, we are not able to use them. There are no jobs for us in Afghanistan.
The full story here:
American flag no longer flying at US embassy
A State Department official says the American flag is no longer flying at the US Embassy in Kabul amid evacuations from Afghanistan’s capital. The official tells The Associated Press that nearly all embassy personnel have been relocated to the city’s international airport.
The official says the flag itself is with embassy personnel, who are among thousands of Americans and others waiting for flights. The official was not authorised to discuss the details publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Here is a picture of the flag shortly after it was raised in 2001:
The New York Times reports that over 100 journalists employed by the US government’s radio stations are still in Afghanistan, which continued to broadcast throughout Sunday.
More than a hundred journalists employed by the American government’s own radio stations remain in Afghanistan as the Taliban take power, US officials and Afghan journalists said Sunday.
An update from US secretary of state Anthony Blinken – he has spoken to the foreign affairs ministers of Australia, Norway, France and Germany.
I discussed developments in Afghanistan with @MarisePayne, @JY_LeDrian, @HeikoMaas, and @NorwayMFA Soreide and reiterated the profound U.S. appreciation for their efforts there.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) August 15, 2021
Here is a timeline of how the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.
A reminder that it took 19 state capitals in just nine days – the below plus Maymana on 14 August and Kabul on 15 August:
The Taliban have taken 17 provincial capitals in just nine days: pic.twitter.com/nV7VFe0xWy
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) August 15, 2021
The lightning offensive began in May:
France’s minister for the armed forces Florence Parly has said that the country is sending two air and space army transport planes to carry out “initial” evacuations in Afghanistan.
“At the request of the President of the Republic, two air and space army transport planes - a C130 and an A400M - will be deployed in the coming hours to the United Arab Emirates in order to carry out initial evacuations in Afghanistan,” she tweeted.
From Monday, the planes will fly between Kabul and Abu Dhabi.
A la demande du Président de la République, deux avions de transport de l’armée de l’air et de l’espace – un C130 et un A400M – seront déployés dans les prochaines heures aux Émirats arabes unis afin de procéder à de premières évacuations en Afghanistan.
— Florence Parly (@florence_parly) August 15, 2021
Here is the statement in full:
Joint Statement from the Department of State and Department of Defense: Update on Afghanistan
At present we are completing a series of steps to secure the Hamid Karzai International Airport to enable the safe departure of U.S. and allied personnel from Afghanistan via civilian and military flights. Over the next 48 hours, we will have expanded our security presence to nearly 6,000 troops, with a mission focused solely on facilitating these efforts and will be taking over air traffic control. Tomorrow and over the coming days, we will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens who have been resident in Afghanistan, as well as locally employed staff of the U.S. mission in Kabul and their families and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals. And we will accelerate the evacuation of thousands of Afghans eligible for U.S. Special Immigrant Visas, nearly 2,000 of whom have already arrived in the United States over the past two weeks. For all categories, Afghans who have cleared security screening will continue to be transferred directly to the United States. And we will find additional locations for those yet to be screened.
Updated
US and local staff and families, visa applicants to be evacuated 'tomorrow and over coming days'
The US departments of state and defence have released a statement outlining their plans for evacuations from Kabul over the next few days, albeit vaguely.
The statement says that the security presence at the airport will have expanded to 6,000 troops within 48 hours as they take control of air traffic at the airport.
American citizens and “locally employed staff of the US mission in Kabul and their families and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals” will be evacuated “tomorrow and over the coming days”. The US will also “accelerate” evacuations of those eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs).
We understand from the CNN report mentioned earlier that right now, flights for those eligible for SIVs have been paused – the last flight left on Sunday night / early Monday morning – while evacuating Americans is prioritised.
The US government statement does not contradict this as it does not lay out the exact timing for each (it does not say whether flights for Americans are being prioritised).
One can only hope that evacuating Afghans was planned carefully by the administration when they decided to stick to their plans of a full withdrawal by 11 September.
Updated
Here is more from that interview on Al Jazeera with Taliban political spokesperson, Mohammad Naeem, via Reuters.
Naeem on Sunday declared the war was over in Afghanistan and called for peaceful relations with the international community.
He said the Taliban did not want to live in isolation and the type of rule and the form of regime would be clear soon. The group respected women’s and minorities’ rights and freedom of expression within Sharia law, Naeem added.
The Taliban was keen to develop several channels of communication it had already opened with foreign countries, he said, adding, “We ask all countries and entities to sit with us to settle any issues.”
Naeem said that no diplomatic body or headquarters was targeted in the Taliban’s approach and the group would provide safety for citizens and diplomatic missions.
“We have reached what we were seeking, which is the freedom of our country and the independence of our people,” he said. “We will not allow anyone to use our lands to target anyone, and we do not want to harm others.”
“We do not think that foreign forces will repeat their failed experience in Afghanistan once again.”
Afghanistan’s television channels have reportedly stopped airing anything but Islamic programmes and serials – all other programmes have been cut. We’re hearing this on social media, but have not yet been able to verify it independently.
If you are reading this from Afghanistan and are able to confirm, you can find me here.
Updated
CNN’s reporter on the US state department, Jennifer Hansler, has said on Twitter that the last flight of Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants has now left Afghanistan, as the Biden administration prioritises evacuating Americans.
The Guardian has not verified this independently.
The last flight for the time being of Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants and their families bound for Fort Lee, Virginia, has left Afghanistan, sources tell me, @priscialva and @kylieatwood
— Jennifer Hansler (@jmhansler) August 15, 2021
Biden administration 'curtailing' flights for Afghans who worked with US; prioritising Americans – report
The Biden administration has “curtailed the number of flights to the US for Afghans who worked alongside the US”, according to CNN state department reporter Jennifer Hansler on Twitter.
Citing three sources familiar with the matter, she reports that Biden has curtailed the flights for Afghan citizens because it is prioritising the evacuation of American personnel from the country.
Updated
In Washington, a smallish group of protestors have gathered outside the White House, calling on the US government to not leave anyone behind, Reuters reports.
About a hundred people have gathered outside the White House, many with Afghan flags chanting:“save our women”, “save our children,” “don’t leave anyone behind” and “save our people.” (Biden is at Camp David) pic.twitter.com/2CjtG97vRB
— Idrees Ali (@idreesali114) August 15, 2021
America’s top general said Sunday that the United States could now face a rise in terrorist threats from a Taliban-run Afghanistan, the Associated Press reports.
General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators on a briefing call Sunday that US officials are expected to alter their earlier assessments about the pace of terrorist groups reconstituting in Afghanistan, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
In June, the Pentagon’s top leaders said an extremist group like al-Qaida may be able to regenerate in Afghanistan and pose a threat to the US homeland within two years of the American military’s withdrawal from the country.
Here is our analysis of what the Taliban’s victory may mean for al-Qaida:
UN chief warns of 'serious human rights violations'
UN secretary-general António Guterres has commented on the situation in Afghanistan, warning that “hundreds of thousands” of people are fleeing because of “serious human rights violations”:
Conflict in Afghanistan is forcing hundreds of thousands to flee amid reports of serious human rights violations.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) August 15, 2021
All abuses must stop.
International humanitarian law and human rights, especially the hard-won gains of women and girls, must be preserved.
Updated
The British ambassador and Germany embassy staff are reportedly staying behind at Kabul airport to help process visas for Afghan staff who worked for their countries.
We’re hearing this from the Washington Post’s bureau chief for Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, and via Channel 4 news, but have not been able to verify it independently.
..The British Ambassador to Afghanistan has stayed at the airport
— UK is with EU (@ukiswitheu) August 15, 2021
..Personally processing the visas of Afghan interpreters who will be flown to the UK#C4News
FCO website says its Sir Laurie Bristow pic.twitter.com/sOzAdGn0Rl
Hearing reports that the British ambassador and German embassy staff are staying behind at Kabul airport to process visas for Afghans who worked for them. Shower them with medals and ❤️
— Liz Sly (@LizSly) August 15, 2021
Updated
A reminder of just how quickly all of this happened – after 20 years of war:
These maps are just two days aparthttps://t.co/jM0H8A7xNE pic.twitter.com/RptieDXFDf
— Alex Selby-Boothroyd (@AlexSelbyB) August 15, 2021
Here is video footage from Kabul’s airport – as well as of Taliban fighters in the presidential palace:
A comment from the Australian Prime Minister – it is Monday morning in Australia:
PM Scott Morrison on Afghanistan - 'It's important that we continue to hold the Taliban to account... they're no friends of Australia'. #auspol
— Ben Fordham Live (@BenFordhamLive) August 15, 2021
If you’re just joining us: Taliban insurgents entered Kabul on Sunday and President Ashraf Ghani left Afghanistan saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed.
Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem said of Ghani’s escape that it wasn’t taken into account and “even those close to him did not expect it.”
He said the group today is seeing the fruits of its efforts and sacrifices for 20 years. “We have reached what we were seeking, which is the freedom of our country and the independence of our people.”
“We will not allow anyone to use our lands to target anyone, and we do not want to harm others,” Naeem said the group won’t interfere in the affairs of others and, in return, won’t allow interference in their affairs.
“We do not think that foreign forces will repeat their failed experience in Afghanistan once again,” Naeem said, adding that the group is ready to deal with the concerns of the international community through dialogue.
Taliban spokesman: 'The war is over in Afghanistan'
A short while ago the spokesman for the Taliban’s political office told Al-Jazeera that the war is over in Afghanistan and that the type of rule and the form of regime will be clear soon.
Spokesman Mohammad Naeem said that no diplomatic body or any of its headquarters was targeted, saying that the group assures everyone it will provide safety for citizens and diplomatic missions.
“We are ready to have a dialogue with all Afghan figures and will guarantee them the necessary protection,” he told the Qatar-based channel. He said the group takes every step responsibly and is keen on having peace with everyone.
Updated
US military has flown 500 embassy personnel out of Kabul so far – report
The US military is aiming to get 5,000 embassy personnel a day out of Kabul later this week, NBC chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander reports.
For now, they have flown 500 out of the country.
NEW: The US military has flown at least 500 Embassy personnel out of Afghanistan on military aircraft, defense officials tell @ckubeNBC.
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) August 15, 2021
They're working to take 5,000/day, but won’t have that capability for a couple days.
Updated
Summary
This is our live coverage of the latest developments in Afghanistan as the Taliban sweeps to power after taking control of the capital, Kabul.
Over the course of the last ten days, the Taliban has taken 18 other provincial capitals.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the news from Kabul as it happens.
If you see news you think we may have missed, or have questions, get in touch with me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Here is a summary of recent events:
- The Taliban has said from Kabul that the war in Afghanistan “is over”.
- There is reportedly “chaos” at Kabul’s airport as people try to leave the country. But those who decide to leave the airport will now face Taliban checkpoints.
- The US is sending another 1,000 troops, directly to Kabul, bringing US military numbers expected in Afghanistan up to 6,000 in an attempt to execute the safe withdrawal of US nationals and Afghan support staff - between two and three times the number of soldiers that were there last week.
- Afghanistan’s erstwhile president Ashraf Ghani is reported to have fled to Tashkent, the capital of neighboring Uzbekistan.
- Ghani put out an extraordinary message on Facebook saying he left the country to try to avoid, essentially, a bloody war in Kabul, instead enabling the Taliban to, it seems, take control with almost no fighting.
- US secretary of state Antony Blinken spent a lot of time on Sunday on TV defending the Biden administration, talking about the big picture plan that was always in place for the US to leave Afghanistan but often sidestepping questions about the chaotic nature of this rushed withdrawal itself. He did acknowledge that events in the last few days had happened more quickly than anticipated.
- The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting in New York at 10am local time on Monday to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan.
- A Nato official said all commercial flights have been suspended from the airport in Kabul and only military aircraft are currently allowed to operate. The airport is now the only way out of Afghanistan. The Taliban control all land crossings.
- The Taliban are on the verge of declaring that they have taken control of the country and that it is now the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a live TV interview after emergency meetings with relevant senior department heads in London: “Nobody wants Afghanistan to be a breeding ground for terror … or to lapse back into the pre-2001 situation.” He said he believed Britain could brings its remaining nationals and Afghan support staff out safely.
- The Stars & Stripes flag was lowered at the US embassy in Kabul and the evacuation of the compound was completed. Only a handful of security contractors were left behind.
- Taliban commanders and fighters took control of the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul. This followed the arrival of the Taliban on the outskirts and then into the heart of Kabul earlier on Sunday - days, weeks, if not months more quickly than most expected.
Updated
