Inside the Afghan evacuation: Rogue flights, crowded tents, hope and chaos
On the last day of August, when President Joe Biden called the airlift of refugees from Kabul an “extraordinary success,” senior diplomats and military officers in Doha, Qatar, emailed out a daily situation report marked “sensitive but unclassified.”
The conditions in Doha, according to their description, were getting worse. Almost 15,000 Afghan refugees were packed into airplane hangars and wedding-style tents at al-Udeid air base, home to the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing and nearby Camp As Sayliyah, a U.S. Army base in the Persian Gulf nation.
Two hundred and twenty-nine unaccompanied children were being held near the base, including many teenage boys who repeatedly bullied younger children. There were a “large number of pregnant women,” some of whom needed medical attention, and increasing reports of “gastrointestinal issues” among the refugees.
Afghan opposition leader Ahmad Massoud Sunday said he is ready to stop fighting if Taliban withdraw from Panjshir. Welcoming Ulema Religious Council's proposal for talks end the tussle over the valley where the opposition forces have been holding out since Kabul’s fall three weeks ago, the head of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA) said, "To reach a lasting peace, the NRF is ready to stop fighting on condition that Taliban also stop their attacks and military movements on Panjshir and Andarab."
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, has arrived for a three-day visit in Afghanistan. Peter Maurer arrived Sunday and plans to visit medical facilities, rehabilitation centers for victims of violence and disease as well as ICRC staffers. The relief group said in a statement that Maurer also plans to meet with local Afghan authorities. --AP
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The Taliban on Sunday said their forces had fought their way into Bazarak, the provincial capital of Panjshir where the opposition forces have been holding out since Kabul’s fall three weeks ago, news agency Reuters reported. The police headquarters and district centre of Rukhah had fallen, and opposition forces had suffered numerous casualties, Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said on Twitter.
Taliban spokesperson has told a German newspaper that his group wants to establish diplomatic relations with Germany. Zabihullah Mujahid tells the weekly Welt am Sonntag that "we want strong and official diplomatic relations to Germany". The newspaper reported Sunday that the Taliban also hope for financial support from Germany as well as humanitarian aid and cooperation regarding Afghanistan's health care system, education and agriculture. --AP
A suicide bomber of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan blew himself up in Balochistan province on Sunday, killing at least four security personnel and injuring 20 people, news agency PTI quoted a top police official as saying. The attack targeted a Frontier Corps check post in Quetta, the provincial capital, Deputy Inspector General of Quetta police Azhar Akram said. Akram told reporters that initial investigations showed that the bomber drove an explosive-laden motorcycle into a vehicle carrying Frontier Corps, reported PTI.
Italy plans to move its Afghan embassy to Doha, in Qatar, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Sunday, the latest indication of Western diplomats setting up permanently outside Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover.The announcement follows earlier signals that Western countries and the European Union, which have closed their missions in Kabul, may use the Gulf state as an offshore hub for their diplomatic relations with Afghanistan.Many diplomats flew to the Gulf state, which has hosted the Taliban's political office since 2013, after evacuating the Afghan capital late last month. --Reuters
Pope says he hopes many countries take Afghan refugees and that the young who remain in the country receive education
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi says his country wants peace and stability in Afghanistan and will support a government based on the will of the Afghan people.
A wary China is seeking to strike a common position with Afghanistan's key neighbour Iran to firm up its growing role in the war-torn country as it waits for the Taliban to form an "open and inclusive" government that makes a "clean break" from all terrorist groups. China is already coordinating its evolving policy on Afghanistan with its "all-weather ally" Pakistan and Russia which also share borders with Afghanistan. Beijing, which has kept its Embassy open in Kabul along with Pakistan and Russia, is awaiting the formation of a government by the Taliban to decide on recognising it amidst firm indications by the US, the UK and other western countries that they will not be in a hurry to endorse the new government. --PTI
US Representative Mike Waltz has called on the State Department to work with non-governmental organisations that he said are trying to clear charter flights to evacuate Americans and at-risk allies still hiding in several Afghan cities.
In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday, the Republican lawmaker and former White House official said he had been told by several NGOs that there were manifested charter flights "available, funded, and ready to fly" people out. Groups of American citizens, legal permanent residents, and Afghans eligible for special visas were hiding near airports waiting for clearance to depart the country, Waltz, a decorated veteran, said. (Reuters)
A Taliban source said the announcement of a new government would be pushed back to next week.
Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, reported by some Taliban sources to be in line to lead the new government, said in remarks on Qatar's Al Jazeera channel that the new administration will include all factions of Afghans.
"We are doing our utmost efforts to improve their living conditions. The government will provide security, because it is necessary for economic development," he said. (Reuters)
Some domestic flights have resumed at Afghanistan's international airport in Kabul, with the state-run Ariana Afghan Airline operating flights to three provinces.
Shershah Stor, the airline's station manager at the airport, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the flights took place Saturday to western Herat, southern Kandahar and northern Balkh provinces. He said the flights were conducted without a functioning radar system at the airport.
Stor said three more flights are scheduled Sunday to the same provinces. A team of Qatari and Turkish technicians arrived in Kabul last week to help restart operations at the airport, which the UN says is crucial to providing the country with humanitarian assistance. It remains to be seen, however, whether any commercial airlines will be willing to offer service. (AP)
It took years for Women for Afghan Women to build up Afghanistan’s largest network of women’s protection services — 32 safe houses, family guidance centers and children’s homes in 14 provinces, growing by word-of-mouth and driven by the intense need for their services.
They started closing their doors in a matter of days as the Taliban began their lightning advance through Afghan cities on Aug. 6. Most of the shelter directors grabbed or burned records, packed a few belongings and fled with their clients as word arrived that the Taliban were coming.
A very few safe-house directors — not only those affiliated with Women for Afghan Women, but also with a handful of other long-established shelters — opted to stay where they were, but went silent, fearful that anything they said could bring harm to the women in their care. No one is accepting new cases. (Read more)
US General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, underscored the tenuous situation in Afghanistan.
"My military estimate is, is that the conditions are likely to develop of a civil war. I don't know if the Taliban is going to be able to consolidate power and establish governance," Milley said.
Speaking to Fox News from Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Milley said if they cannot that will "in turn lead to a reconstitution of Al Qaeda or a growth of ISIS or other myriad of terrorist groups" over the next three years. (Reuters)
Demonstrating its clout over the Taliban leadership and anxious to find berths in the new Kabul regime for people it had nurtured over the years, Pakistan sent ISI chief Lt General Faiz Hameed to Kabul on Saturday.
The Pakistani spy chief landed in the city amid hectic negotiations within the Taliban on the governance structure. The announcement of the governing council, expected on Saturday, has been delayed because of back-channel negotiations.
And the ISI chief, according to sources in Delhi, has gone to Afghanistan to smoothen the process of government formation among various groups. Photographs of Lt General Hameed having tea with Pakistan’s ambassador Mansoor Ahmad Khan at the Serena hotel in Kabul did the rounds of social media. (Read more)
Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said the districts of Khinj and Unabah had been taken, giving Taliban forces control of four of the Panjshir province's seven districts.
"The Mujahideen (Taliban fighters) are advancing toward the centre (of the province)," he said on Twitter.
But the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, grouping forces loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, said it surrounded "thousands of terrorists" in Khawak pass and the Taliban had abandoned vehicles and equipment in the Dashte Rewak area.
Front spokesman Fahim Dashti added "heavy clashes" were going on.In a Facebook post, Massoud insisted Panjshir "continues to stand strongly." (Reuters)
Taliban fighters violently suppressed a women’s protest Saturday in Kabul, while 70 miles to the north ex-Afghan army and militia members battled the Islamist group in Panjshir province, as pockets of anti-Taliban resistance continued to flare up.
Several of the women, who were demanding inclusion in the yet-to-be named Taliban government, said they were beaten by Taliban fighters — some of the first concrete evidence of harsh treatment of women by the group.
A 24-year-old participant said in a telephone interview that the Taliban tried to rout the gathering of about 100 women using tear gas, rifle butts and metal clubs or tools. She said she received five stitches to close a head wound after she was knocked unconscious with a blow from one of the metal objects. (Read more)
Bone-tired like everyone else in Kabul, Taliban fighters spent the last moments of the 20-year Afghanistan war watching the night skies for the flares that would signal the United States was gone. From afar, US generals watched video screens with the same anticipation.
Relief washed over the war’s winners and the losers when the final US plane took off.
For those in between and left behind — possibly a majority of the allied Afghans who sought US clearance to escape — fear spread about what comes next, given the Taliban’s history of ruthlessness and repression of women. And for thousands of US officials and volunteers working around the world to place Afghan refugees, there is still no rest. (Read more)
Pakistan's powerful intelligence chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, who dashed to Kabul on an unannounced visit amidst efforts by the Taliban to finalise a government in Afghanistan, on Saturday expressed confidence that "everything will be okay" in the war-weary country.
A delegation of senior Pakistani officials led by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lieutenant General Hameed arrived in Kabul to conduct discussions with the incoming Taliban government, the Pakistan Observer newspaper reported. In a short video clip circulated in the media, Hameed is seen trying to respond to questions by a journalist who asked: "Will you be meeting senior people in the Taliban?"
"No, I'm not clear," the ISI chief said and looked towards Pakistan ambassador to Kabul Mansour Ahmad Khan, who was standing by his side, to respond to the question. (PTI)
Afghan female filmmakers who fled the Taliban are begging the world to not forget the Afghan people and to support its artists. The women spoke at a panel discussion at the Venice Film Festival to warn that a country without culture will eventually lose its identity.
Sahraa Karimi, the first female president of the Afghan Film Organisation, choked up in telling reporters all that had been lost after the Taliban completed their takeover of the country. She cited numerous films in pre-and-post production, filmmaking workshops, insurance policies that had all ground to a halt, and film archives that are now in the hands of the Taliban.
"Imagine a country without artists, a country without filmmakers. How can they defend its identity?" she said. (AP)
Iran's president is calling for elections in Afghanistan to determine the future of the country, where he hopes peace will return after Western troops have left and the Taliban have seized control.
Speaking on state TV on Saturday, Ebrahim Raisi said that the Afghan people should vote to determine their own government "as soon as possible."
"A government should be established there which is elected by the votes and the will of the people," he said. "The Islamic Republic has always sought peace and calm in Afghanistan, and an end to bloodshed and fratricide, and the sovereignty of the people's will. We support a government elected by the Afghan people," he added. (AP)
Veteran-led rescue groups say the Biden administration's estimate that no more than 200 U.S. citizens were left behind in Afghanistan is too low and also overlooks hundreds of other people they consider to be equally American: permanent legal residents with green cards. Some groups say they continue to be contacted by American citizens in Afghanistan who did not register with the U.S. Embassy before it closed and by others not included in previous counts because they expressed misgivings about leaving loved ones behind. As for green card holders, they have lived in the U.S. for years, paid taxes, become part of their communities and often have children who are U.S. citizens. Yet the administration says it does not have an estimate on the number of such permanent residents who are in Afghanistan and desperately trying to escape Taliban rule. --AP
Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Saturday told British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab that Islamabad will “assist” the Taliban to form an inclusive administration in neighbouring Afghanistan.
General Bajwa, in his meeting with Raab here, discussed issues of mutual interest, regional security and the current situation in Afghanistan.
The Pakistan Observer reported that Gen. Bajwa said in the meeting that Pakistan will “continue to fight for peace and stability in Afghanistan, as well as assist the formation of an inclusive administration.” Read more
Incidents in Afghanistan could be a catalyst for the European Union to come to a common migration policy, European Commissioner Margaritis Schinas said in an interview to a newspaper, Reuters reported. EU states are concerned that the Taliban takeover could trigger a repitition of the 2015/16 crisis, when the arrival of more than a million migrants, majorly from the Middle East, burdened the security and welfare systems and fuelled support for far-right groups."It is true that we are now in a major crisis, but the EU did not cause the situation, yet we are once again called upon to be part of a solution," Reuters quoted the Greek commissioner.
he Taliban have postponed the formation of a new government in Afghanistan for next week, their spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said on Saturday, as the insurgent group struggles to give shape to a broad-based and inclusive administration acceptable to the international community. The insurgent group was expected to announce on Saturday the formation of the new government in Kabul, likely to be led by the outfit's co-founder Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar. This is the second that the Taliban have delayed the formation of the new government in Kabul since they seized Kabul on August 15. --PTI
These pictures show how life changed for Afghans since Taliban takeover
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Women rights activists and reporters protested for a second day in Kabul on Saturday, reported TOLO news. They said the protest turned violent as Taliban forces did not allow the protesters to march toward the Presidential Palace.
Pakistani ISI Chief Faiz Hameed has arrived at Kabul Serena Hotel.
Qatar's ambassador to Afghanistan said a technical team was able to reopen Kabul airport to receive aid and that it would be prepared for civilian flights soon, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday.The runway at Kabul airport has been repaired in cooperation with authorities in Afghanistan, the ambassador said, according to Al Jazeera. The Qatari news channel also said two domestic flights were operated from Kabul to the cities of Mazar-i-Sharif and Kandahar. --Reuters
Fighting between Taliban fighters and rebel forces in the Panjshir valley continued on Saturday, as the Taliban battles to take control of the country's last rebel stronghold. “The fighting has gotten worse and worse with each night,” a resident of the valley told Al Jazeera. Due to the incessant fighting, at least 400 families have left their villages.
An official at Emergency Hospital in Kabul says two people were killed and 12 wounded after Taliban fighters in the capital fired their weapons into the air in celebration. Taliban in Kabul fired into the air Friday night to celebrate gains on the battlefield in Panjshir province, which still remains under the control of anti-Taliban fighters. The hospital official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
Bringing down what little is left of the Afghani culture, the Taliban have started painting the streets with murals, propaganda that support their cause and claims. An old street art of the historic Doha deal was removed to make way for a message saying don't trust the enemy’s propaganda, quoting Mullah Haibatullah.
At least 50,000 Afghans are expected to be admitted into the United States following the fall of Kabul as part of an "enduring commitment" to help people who aided the American war effort and others who are particularly vulnerable under Taliban rule, the secretary of homeland security said on Friday.
Tens of thousands of Afghans have already made it through security vetting and arrived in the US to begin the process of resettlement. Exactly how many more will come and how long it will take remain open questions, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said as he outlined the effort.
India and the United States are closely watching Pakistan’s actions in Afghanistan, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Friday. In the limited engagement that India has had with the Taliban, the new Afghan rulers have indicated that they would be reasonable in addressing New Delhi’s concerns, the foreign secretary added.
“Obviously, like us, they’re also watching carefully and we have to watch Pakistan’s actions with a fine tooth comb,” he told a group of Indian reporters at the end of his three-day official visit to Washington DC adding that the US will have a wait-and-watch policy with regard to how the situation evolves in Afghanistan.
The United Nations chief will convene a ministerial meeting in Geneva on Sept. 13 to seek a swift scale-up in funding to address the growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where nearly half the country's 38 million people need assistance.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric made the announcement Friday and said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will also appeal ``for full and unimpeded humanitarian access to make sure Afghans continue to get the essential services they need.'' Dujarric said the U.N. appeal for $1.3 billion for 2021 to help more than 18 million people is just 40% funded, leaving a $766 million deficit.
The Panjshir Valley has repeatedly played a decisive role in Afghanistan’s military history, as its geographical position almost completely closes it off from the rest of the country. The only access point to the region is through a narrow passage created by the Panjshir River, which can be easily defended militarily.
Famed for its natural defenses, the region tucked into the Hindu Kush mountains never fell to the Taliban during the civil war of the 1990s, nor was it conquered by the Soviets a decade earlier.Most of the valley’s up to 150,000 inhabitants belong to the Tajik ethnic group, while the majority of the Taliban are Pashtuns.
The valley is also known for its emeralds, which were used in the past to finance the resistance movements against those in power. Before the Taliban seized power, the Panjshir province had repeatedly demanded more autonomy from the central government. (With DW)
After the Taliban’s swift seizure of power in Afghanistan, the Panjshir Valley in the north is the last place that might offer any real resistance to the Islamist extremist group.
The region, located 150 kilometers (93 miles) northeast of the capital, Kabul, now hosts some senior members of the ousted government, like the deposed Vice President Amrullah Saleh and ex-Defense Minister Bismillah Mohammadi.
Saleh has declared himself the caretaker president after ousted President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
“I will never, ever and under no circumstances bow to the Taliban terrorists. I will never betray the soul and legacy of my hero Ahmad Shah Mas[s]oud, the commander, the legend and the guide,” Saleh wrote on Twitter.
After the news of Panjshir valley falling started spreading, celebratory gunfire was resounding all over Kabul on Friday night. This is how the capital sounded like.
The resistance leaders have denied the Taliban claim of Panjshir Valley takeover to Reuters. “News of Panjshir conquests is circulating on Pakistani media. This is a lie,” said Ahmad Massoud, who is leading the rebels.
Former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, one of the leaders of the opposition forces, said his side had not given up."There is no doubt we are in a difficult situation. We are under invasion by the Taliban," he said on a video clip posted to Twitter by a BBC World journalist. "We have held the ground, we have resisted."
Sources in the Taliban told news agency Reuters Saturday its fighters had taken Panjshir Valley, the final holdout in its quest to seize Afghanistan. “By the grace of Allah Almighty, we are in control of the entire Afghanistan. The troublemakers have been defeated and Panjshir is now under our command,” one Taliban commander was quoted as saying.