A plane lands at Tempelhof Airport during the airlift of supplies to West Berlin, 1948. (Henry Ries/The New York Times)
When US President Joe Biden briefly referred to the Berlin airlift — the operation 73 years ago to feed a city whose access had been choked off by the Soviet Union — in describing the United States’ evacuation efforts in Afghanistan, he was revealing the inspiration for a broader plan to redeem his messy exit.
After 10 days of missed signals, desperate crowds and violence around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Biden and his team are eager to shift the narrative about the chaotic end of America’s longest war.
Occupying the presidential palace in Kabul, the triumphant Taliban leaders with bazookas in their hands proclaimed that “War has ended in Afghanistan”. Yet, from all around Afghanistan, we see images of anxiety, desperation, chaos, and fear. Winter has finally arrived in Afghanistan.
The situation demands grappling with some serious questions: How has the Taliban regained territorial control over Afghanistan? How has the Taliban managed to be so strong, notwithstanding efforts by America to bring it down? What has made this possible? Among many causal explanations, the geopolitical economy of opium can be traced as a plausible factor that led to the Taliban’s victory.
As the tragic chaos at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul continues, two interconnected political negotiations unfolding are likely to determine Afghanistan’s immediate future. One is focussed on building a new political order within Afghanistan and the other is about gaining international recognition for the incipient Taliban-led government.
Notwithstanding the current triumphalism in Pakistan at “overthrowing” the US-backed order in Kabul and “pushing” India out of Afghanistan, Delhi can afford to step back and signal that it can wait. For one, Rawalpindi is some distance away from establishing a new political order dominated by the Taliban. Then there is the challenge of securing the international legitimacy of a Pakistan-backed order in Afghanistan and sustaining its future.
Taliban fighters in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP) 
A photograph shared by the US Department of Defense shows Afghan children trying on helmets while waiting to be evacuated at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's Taliban have appointed senior veterans to the posts of finance minister and defence minister, two members of the group said, as it switches focus from a stunning military conquest to how to run a country in crisis, news agency Reuters reported citing local media.
The Taliban have not formally announced the appointments, which a commander said were provisional, but Afghanistan's Pajhwok news agency said on Tuesday that Gul Agha had been named as finance minister and Sadr Ibrahim acting interior minister.
The Taliban have asked Turkey for technical help to run Kabul airport after the departure of foreign forces but insist that Ankara's military also withdraw fully by the end-August deadline, two Turkish officials told Reuters. The conditional request by the Islamist Taliban, who swept back to power in Afghanistan 20 years after they were ousted in a US invasion, leaves Ankara with a difficult decision over whether to accept a hazardous job, one official said.
Visuals from the protest outside the UNHCR office in New Delhi.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to his British counterpart Dominic Raab on the developments in Afghanistan in the backdrop of the Taliban seizing control of the country. "Our conversation focused on developments in Afghanistan," Jaishankar said in a tweet.
Protesters have burned car tires outside a military base in the central Netherlands where Afghans are being housed after being evacuated from Kabul, the Associated Press reported. A police spokeswoman said that officers did not arrest or hand on-the-spot fines to anybody at the demonstration Tuesday night.
A French government spokesperson says France will continue its evacuation operation in Kabul “as long as possible” ahead of American Aug. 31 withdrawal date.
Gabriel Attal on Wednesday did not provide a date for the end of the French operation, saying only “we will likely need to anticipate a few hours, maybe a few days ahead” of the American forces’ departure from Kabul airport. “We will continue as long as possible,” he said.
“Due to extreme tension on the ground ... and the scheduled departure of American forces, these evacuations are a true race against time.” (AP)
Poland says it has halted airlift evacuations from Afghanistan as America’s Aug. 31 deadline looms.
A deputy foreign minister said Wednesday that a group taken from Kabul and now in Uzbekistan was the last evacuated by Poland. Another plane is on its way to Warsaw.
According to AP, Marcin Przydacz said the decisions was made after consultation with the US and British officials.
Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat on Wednesday asserted that any possible terrorist activity flowing out of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and finding its way into India will be firmly dealt with, and suggested that the Quad nations should boost cooperation in the global war on terrorism.
Gen Rawat said India was anticipating a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan but the timelines of the latest developments have surprised it, noting that the outfit has not changed over the past 20 years.
He along with Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral John Aquilino was speaking at an interactive session organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
China says it has established an “open and effective communication and consultation with the Afghan Taliban,” following a meeting between representatives of the group and Beijing’s ambassador to Kabul, according to the Associated Press.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gave no details about the Tuesday meeting between the deputy head of the Taliban’s political office, Abdul Salam Hanafi and Ambassador Wang Yu. But he said China considered Kabul to be an “important platform and channel for both sides to discuss important matters of all kinds.”
Last month, China had hosted a delegation led by senior Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar for talks.
The Taliban entered Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on August 15, following a week of rapid territorial gains from retreating government forces. Here's a look into the group's history and ideology.
Russia began evacuating more than 500 people from Afghanistan on Wednesday while at the same time holding military exercises for its tank forces in neighbouring Tajikistan.
The U.S. exit from Afghanistan is a security headache for Moscow, which sees Central Asia as part of its southern defensive flank and fears radical Islamism spreading into the region.
Russia is holding a month of military exercises in Tajikistan, a Moscow ally, and has reinforced its base there. Russia's Defence Ministry said it had deployed a number of T-72 tanks to Tajikistan's mountains and practiced long-range firing at moving targets, the Interfax news agency reported. (Reuters)
When Hawa Alam Nooristani (56) left Kabul on August 8 to attend a conference in Beirut, she had no inkling of what lay ahead.
A week later, on August 15, as Nooristani and her colleagues waited in transit at Dubai airport to board the flight back to Kabul, her family informed her of the Taliban’s rapid advance on Afghanistan’s capital. Returning home was no longer safe, she was told.
Fearing retribution for their role in conducting elections in the country, all eight Election Commissioners changed their travel plans and flew to another country instead. (Read more)
British foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Wednesday that the deadline for evacuating people from Afghanistan was up to the last minute of this month.
Raab was asked after a White House spokesperson said at a briefing on Tuesday they needed to check if the deadline for evacuations was up to the last minute of Aug. 30 or Aug. 31.
'We think it goes until the end of August, but the military planners will firm up the details for the precise time frame,' Raab told BBC TV. Raab said Britain hoped there would be a functioning airport in Kabul after the evacuations end. (Reuters)
President Joe Biden on Tuesday stuck by his plan to remove the nearly 6,000 US troops from Afghanistan by the end of August, contingent on whether the Taliban cooperates to allow the evacuation of more Americans and their Afghan allies.
The Association of Wartime Allies, a refugee resettlement group, estimates 250,000 Afghans, including interpreters and drivers and other workers who helped the US effort, need to be evacuated, but only 62,000 have left since July.
The State Department says the aim is to help at-risk Afghans leave even after the troop withdrawal and that Washington will put pressure on the Taliban to ensure they are able to do so. (Read more)
The final batch of 180 Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan are likely to be evacuated from Kabul today, said president of World Punjabi Organisation.
Vikram Sahney said that the flight will take them to Delhi.
As many as 78 people who arrived from Afghanistan late on Tuesday have been taken to ITBP's Chhawla Camp for 14-day mandatory quarantine, reports news agency ANI.
"A total of 78 evacuees were shifted to ITBP's Chhawla based camp till Tuesday late night. Of total evacuees, 24 are Indians & 54 Afghan nationals that include 53 males, 14 females & 11 children. All had gone through COVID-19 test at IGI Airport & are reported negative," ITBP said, according to ANI
All Afghan nationals must henceforth travel to India only on e-visa, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a press release on Wednesday. The release said that previously issued visas to all Afghan nationals, who are presently not in India, stand invalidated with immediate effect.
"Owing to the prevailing security situation in Afghanistan and streamlining of the visa process by introduction of the e-Emergency X-Misc visa, it has been decided that all Afghan nationals henceforth must travel to India only on e-Visa," said the release.
"Keeping in view some reports that certain passports of Afghan nationals have been misplaced, previously issued visas to all Afghan nationals, who are presently not in India, stand invalidated with immediate effect. Afghan nationals wishing to travel to India may apply for e-Visa at www.indianvisaonline.gov.in," it added.
As the tragic chaos at the Kabul airport continues, two interconnected political negotiations unfolding are likely to determine Afghanistan’s immediate future. Prof C. Raja Mohan explains.
C. Raja Mohan is Director, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, and contributing editor on foreign affairs for 'The Indian Express'. (Read more)
Prominent Afghan women's rights activist Zarifa Ghafari said that Pakistan's role in the current crisis is very clear and "every child of Afghanistan knows this". In 2018, Ghafari became the mayor of the Afghan town of Maidan Shahr at the age of 26.
"The Taliban came to my house in Afghanistan, they were searching for me & they also beat my house guard. They have a list of people who took a liberal approach earlier," she told news agency ANI in an interview. Ghafari arrived in Germany together with her family members after fleeing Afghanistan to Pakistan last week.
Ghafari is a recipient of the the U.S. State Department's 2020 International Women of Courage award. According to the State Department, she has survived at least six assassination attempts.
The World Bank has paused disbursements in its operations in Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the country, and is closely monitoring the situation there, a World Bank spokesperson said after a board meeting on the issue on Tuesday.
"We are deeply concerned about the situation in Afghanistan and the impact on the country’s development prospects, especially for women," the spokesperson said.
The bank would continue to consult closely with the international community and development partners about the situation and was exploring ways to remain engaged and preserve "hard-won development gains," the spokesperson said. (Reuters)
When US President Joe Biden briefly referred to the Berlin airlift — the operation 73 years ago to feed a city whose access had been choked off by the Soviet Union — in describing the United States’ evacuation efforts in Afghanistan, he was revealing the inspiration for a broader plan to redeem his messy exit.
After 10 days of missed signals, desperate crowds and violence around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Biden and his team are eager to shift the narrative about the chaotic end of America’s longest war. (Read more)
When US President Joe Biden briefly referred to the Berlin airlift — the operation 73 years ago to feed a city whose access had been choked off by the Soviet Union — in describing the United States’ evacuation efforts in Afghanistan, he was revealing the inspiration for a broader plan to redeem his messy exit.
After 10 days of missed signals, desperate crowds and violence around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Biden and his team are eager to shift the narrative about the chaotic end of America’s longest war. (Read more)
With the Aug. 31 deadline for a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan rapidly approaching, the Pentagon has sharply ramped up the speed of evacuations from the Kabul airport, flying out 21,600 people in 24 hours, Defense Department officials said Tuesday. But bottlenecks in the system, and President Joe Biden’s insistence that all troops leave the country by the end of the month, may prevent the military from keeping that pace.
The race against time means that the 5,800 Marines and soldiers at Hamid Karzai International Airport must try to evacuate thousands more Americans and Afghan allies, and then get themselves out, somehow erasing the detritus of 20 years of war in Afghanistan in the next seven days. (Read more)
Russia will use four military transport aircraft to evacuate more than 500 citizens from Afghanistan, Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday, citing Russian Defence Ministry.
"On August 25, by order from Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian Defence Minister, Army General Sergei Shoigu organised the evacuation by military transport aircraft of over 500 citizens of the Russian Federation, CSTO member states (Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and Ukraine from the territory of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan," Interfax cited the ministry's statement. (Reuters)
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said he shares the concern, anxiety and pain of the United Nations personnel in Afghanistan, asserting that the world organisation is doing everything in its power to ensure their safety and well-being. Guterres, in a video message to UN personnel in war-torn Afghanistan on Tuesday, said that they have "our full support and solidarity".
"I want to personally thank you for everything you are doing to support the Afghan people in this time of crisis. I speak for the entire United Nations family when I say, we are all deeply grateful to you for your service, in particular the Afghan national colleagues. You represent the best of the values of the United Nations," he said.
"I know most of you, especially the humanitarian actors, want to stay and deliver to respond to the dramatic needs of the Afghan people," he said, adding that the safety of all United Nations personnel in Afghanistan is our top priority. "And we are doing everything in our power, namely through the permanent engagement with all relevant actors, and will continue to do so to ensure your safety and well-being, and to find external solutions where they are needed," Guterres said. (PTI)
Afghanistan's neighbours should open their land borders to allow more people to leave, a NATO country diplomat said on Wednesday, as aid agencies warned of a looming humanitarian crisis under the new Taliban rulers.
"Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan should be pulling out more people using either air or land routes. It's vital air and land routes are used at a very fast pace," the Kabul-based diplomat told Reuters.
The risk of starvation, disease and persecution rises for the millions who will be left behind after a chaotic exodus from Kabul airport ends, the aid agencies said. (Reuters)
Fox News Channel, bolstered by viewers' rapt attention to the US-led evacuation from Afghanistan, was last week's most-watched TV outlet on broadcast or cable, according to Nielsen company figures out Tuesday.
The channel averaged just under 3 million viewers. Fox News Channel outpaced both its cable news competition and the broadcast networks that typically jockey for the top spot.
The channel, which is popular with conservative-leaning viewers, surged following the Taliban's sudden conquest of Afghanistan this month and as the Biden administration directed the chaotic removal of US citizens and Afghans at risk after the nearly 20-year war's end. (AP)
Two members of the US House of Representatives traveled to Afghanistan on Tuesday, prompting a warning from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said such trips could divert resources from the evacuation of Americans and at-risk Afghans.
Representatives Seth Moulton, a Democrat, and Peter Meijer, a Republican, both of whom served in the Iraq war before running for Congress, said in a statement they went to Kabul to gather information as part of Congress’ oversight role.
"America has a moral obligation to our citizens and loyal allies, and we must make sure that obligation is being kept," they said in a statement released after they left Kabul, having seen conditions at the airport. (Reuters)
Former US President Donald Trump has slammed his successor Joe Biden on his Afghan policy and expressed concerns that thousands of terrorists might have been flown out of Afghanistan as part of the evacuation process.
'Biden surrendered Afghanistan to terrorists and left thousands of Americans for dead by pulling out the military before our citizens,' Trump said in a statement on Tuesday. 'Now we are learning that out of the 26,000 people who have been evacuated, only 4,000 are Americans. You can be sure, the Taliban, who are now in complete control, didn't allow the best and brightest to board these evacuation flights.'
'Instead, we can only imagine how many thousands of terrorists have been airlifted out of Afghanistan and into neighbourhoods around the world. What a terrible failure. NO VETTING. How many terrorists will Joe Biden bring to America? We don't know!' he said. (PTI)
Five members of an all-girl Afghan robotics team arrived in Mexico on Tuesday evening, fleeing an uncertain future at home. The team, made up of girls and women as young as 14, has been heralded for winning international awards for its robots and started work in March on an open-source, low-cost ventilator as the coronavirus pandemic hit the war-torn nation.
'We give you the warmest welcome to Mexico,' Martha Delgado Undersecretary for Multilateral and Human Rights at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the women as she greeted them during a news conference at Mexico City's airport. (Reuters)
President Joe Biden has decided not to extend his August 31 deadline for completing the US-led evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies from Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported citing an official on Tuesday. Biden made the decision after consultation with his national security team.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the G7 has agreed on a roadmap for future engagement with the Taliban. "We want to help with the humanitarian crisis ... but when it comes to engaging with the Taliban, the G7 has huge leverage. The G7 agreed a roadmap for future engagement with the Taliban," Johnson was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
"So if those huge funds are going to be unfrozen eventually for use by the government and people of Afghanistan, then, what we’re saying is Afghanistan can’t lurch back into becoming a breeding ground of terror; Afghanistan can’t become a narco state; girls have got to be educated up to the age of 18 and, and so on. Those are important things that we value as G7," he added.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the G7 had agreed their number one condition for the Taliban was granting safe passage to Afghans who wanted to leave the country beyond an August 31 deadline.
"The number one condition we're setting as G7 is that they've got to guarantee right the way through, through August 31 and beyond safe passage for those who want to come out," Johnson said after an emergency virtual meeting of the leaders of the Group of Seven richest nations.
"Some of them will say that they don't accept that, some of them I hope will see the sense of that, because the G7 has very considerable leverage, economic, diplomatic and political," he added.
EU officials are currently speaking during the Group of Seven (G7) meeting, which is being held to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon said on Tuesday there had been no change so far in its plan to meet President Joe Biden's evacuation deadline for Afghanistan by the end of the month and that it intends to withdraw US troops by then, news agency Reuters reported.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Pentagon believes it has the ability to get all Americans who want to leave out of Afghanistan by Aug. 31.
The German military says it is concerned by the growing risk of attacks by the Islamic State group in Kabul.
Germany’s top military commander, Gen. Eberhard Zorn, told reporters Tuesday that “the threat has further increased.”
“We have signals both from American sources as well as our own assessment, that there is an increase of (IS) suicide bombers (slipping) into the city,” he said.
“That’s increasing and leads to heightened precautions,” he added. (AP)
According to AFP, the Taliban has asked female Afghan government workers to stay at home until security allows.
A total of 16 evacuees who came to India from Afghanistan tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday. They will now undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine at the ITBP camp in New Delhi's Nafajgarh area.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that no house to house searches have happened anywhere in Afghanistan, as the Taliban already announced a general amnesty.
Addressing a press conference in Kabul, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that the US should leave the country by August 31. According to Reuters, he also said that he is not aware of any meeting between the CIA director William Burns and Taliban leader Mullah Baradar.
Ahead of the virtual G7 meet on the Afghan crisis, China said the international community should support chances for positive developments in Afghanistan rather than impose sanctions on the Taliban.
The Group of Seven leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States are due to hold a virtual meeting today to discuss the situation arising after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul.
The UN human rights chief said on Tuesday that she had received credible reports of serious violations committed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, including “summary executions” of civilians and Afghan security forces who have surrendered.
Michelle Bachelet gave no details of the killings in her speech to the Human Rights Council, but urged the Geneva forum to set up a mechanism to closely monitor Taliban actions. Click here for more details.
Expressing concern over the situation prevailing in Afghanistan, India on Tuesday called upon the international community to ensure full support to the Afghan people and said it hopes that it does not pose a challenge to its neighbours and the country is not used by terrorist groups such as LeT and JeM.
In his address at a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the situation in Afghanistan, Indian ambassador Indra Mani Pandey said that a “grave” humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Afghanistan and everyone is concerned about the increasing violations of fundamental rights of the Afghan people. Read the full report here.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid will hold a press conference at the Media Center in Kabul. The press conference will start shortly.
America's top spy held a secret meeting with the Taliban's de facto leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul on Monday in the highest-level face-to-face encounter between the two sides since the militant group seized the Afghan capital, a media report said on Tuesday.
CIA Director William J. Burns held a secret meeting in Kabul on Monday with Baradar in the highest-level face-to-face encounter between the Taliban and the Biden administration since the militants seized the Afghan capital, the Washington Post reported, citing unnamed US officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
According to the Associated Press, the CIA declined to comment on the Taliban meeting but the discussions likely involved the impending August 31 deadline for the US military to conclude its airlift of US citizens and Afghan allies, it added.
India on Tuesday said that as a neighbour of Afghanistan, the current situation prevailing in the country is of great concern. While the security situation remains precarious, a grave humanitarian crisis is unfolding, India said at the UNHRC.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the evolving situation in Afghanistan.
"Had a detailed and useful exchange of views with my friend President Putin on recent developments in Afghanistan. We also discussed issues on the bilateral agenda, including India-Russia cooperation against Covid-19. We agreed to continue close consultations on important issues," Modi tweeted.
Earlier, Modi had spoken to German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the Afghanistan situation and its implications on the region and the world.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said an Afghan evacuated from Kabul to Paris and suspected of links to the Taliban was detained by French police on Tuesday.
According to the Associated Press, the man is one of five Afghans placed under strict surveillance by France’s intelligence agency for possible links to the Taliban. The five men were required to stay in a hotel in the Paris region for quarantine, as are all evacuees who arrive in France without having been fully vaccinated.
“One left the place where he was asked to stay” and police arrested him, the minister told media.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide says the evacuation deadline in Afghanistan should be extended beyond August 31.
'One of the main concerns is that the airport will be closed,' Eriksen Soereide told media on Tuesday morning.
'The civilian part is closed now, so we are completely dependent on the US military operation being maintained in order to be able to evacuate,' he said.
The Taliban have appointed a new finance minister, an intelligence chief, and an acting interior minister in Afghanistan, the Pajhwok news agency reported on Tuesday.
It said Gul Agha would be the finance minister and Sadr Ibrahim would be the acting interior minister. Najibullah would be intelligence chief, while Mullah Shirin would be Kabul governor and Hamdullah Nomani the mayor of the capital. No other details were immediately available. (Reuters)
India's complex mission to evacuate its citizens and Afghan partners from Kabul after its swift takeover by the Taliban last week has been named as "Operation Devi Shakti".
The name of the operation was known when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar mentioned it in a tweet on Tuesday while referring to the arrival of a fresh batch of 78 evacuees in Delhi.
"Op Devi Shakti continues. 78 evacuees from Kabul arrive via Dushanbe. Salute @IAF_MCC, @AirIndiain and #TeamMEA for their untiring efforts. #DeviShakti," he said. (PTI)
A Ukranian plane tasked with evacuation of Ukranians from Afghanistan was hijacked and flown into Iran, Russian news agency TASS reported on Tuesday, quoting Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin.
'Last Sunday, our plane was hijacked by other people. On Tuesday, the plane was practically stolen from us, it flew into Iran with an unidentified group of passengers onboard instead of airlifting Ukrainians. Our next three evacuation attempts were also not successful because our people could not get into the airport,' Yenin said, reports TASS.
The top U.N. human rights official Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday that she had received credible reports of serious violations committed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, including summary executions of civilians and restrictions on women and on protests against their rule.
Bachelet urged the U.N. Human Rights Council, holding an emergency session at the request of Pakistan and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to set up a mechanism to closely monitor Taliban actions.
"A fundamental red line will be the Taliban's treatment of women and girls," she told the Geneva forum. (Reuters)
A Ukrainian plane that arrived in Afghanistan to evacuate Ukrainians has been hijacked by unidentified people who flew it into Iran, reports news agency ANI.
ANI has cited Russian News Agency TASS as having sent out the alert, quoting Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin.
Starting today, Airbnb will begin housing 20,000 Afghan refugees globally for free, company CEO Brian Chesky said on Twitter.
"To make this happen, we are working closely with http://Airbnb.org, NGOs, and partners orgs on the ground to support the most pressing needs," he wrote, adding "If you’re willing to host a refugee family, reach out and I’ll connect you with the right people here to make it happen!"
Russia has reinforced its military base in Tajikistan with Kornet anti-tank guided missiles, Interfax quoted the Central Military District command as saying on Tuesday, amid instability in neighbouring Afghanistan. (Reuters)
In the days before the Taliban took Kabul, an Afghan woman was doubled over sobbing on a bench in a bus station in eastern Turkey, her children wailing at her feet.
Fourteen Turkish security and migration officials swooped down on her and other Afghan asylum-seekers as our reporting team was interviewing them, part of an intensive crackdown by Turkey to apprehend Afghans crossing from Iran by the thousands and to prevent journalists from reporting on their plight. As her husband tried to gather their belongings, the woman clutched her stomach and retched. After prolonged questioning, they were escorted to a police vehicle. (Read more)
In Panjshir Valley, former Afghan miltary men and anti-Taliban forces are preparing to take on the Islamic fundamentalist group. Taliban has said that they have surrounded the valley, but is looking forward to negotiate peace.
Western governments are unlikely to extend the evacuation window to allow their citizens and Afghans more time to fly out of Kabul airport, Britain's defence minister Ben Wallace said.
US President Joe Biden will face pressure to extend an Aug. 31 deadline to evacuate thousands seeking to flee the Taliban in Afghanistan when he meets Group of Seven leaders at a virtual meeting on Tuesday. The Taliban have said the Aug. 31 deadline is a red line.
Wallace told Sky News he was doubtful there would be an extension "not only because of what the Taliban has said but also if you look at the public statements of President Biden, I think it is unlikely." He added: "It is definitely worth us all trying and we will." (Reuters)