NEW DELHI: The G7 leaders, who met to discuss the situation in Afghanistan on Tuesday, have decided that India would be included in further discussions on the war-torn country. According to sources, the decision to include India in future discussions was taken keeping in mind India’s interests in the region. India has economic interests worth around $3 billion in Afghanistan.

It is learnt that the decision to include India in further negotiations by the G7 was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a 45-minute conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two leaders agreed to establish a permanent channel to deal with the situation in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, sources said India is ready to engage with anyone who has its national interests in mind. Without naming the Taliban, sources added that New Delhi was ready to protect its interests in Afghanistan by engaging with entities who are ready to secure their economic and security interests in the war-torn country.

Earlier also, India had hinted that it was engaging with the Taliban. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, when asked about India holding talks with the group, had said it was a fact that the militant group and its representatives had taken control of Afghanistan. “It is time to take it forward from here,” he added.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, in response to a question and without denying the engagement with the Taliban, had stated India was in touch with all stakeholders in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, there were unconfirmed reports that some of the evacuees from Afghanistan, who landed in the capital on Tuesday, have tested positive for coronavirus. They are said to be asymptomatic and are in quarantine. Some of theose who tested positive, had come in contact with Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and V Muraleedharan at the airport.

KABUL: A firefight at one of the gates of Kabul’s international airport killed at least one Afghan security officer early Monday, German officials said, the latest chaos to engulf Western efforts to evacuate those fleeing the Taliban takeover of the country.

The shooting near the military side of the airport came as the Taliban sent fighters northward to face a nascent rebellion against the insurgents who seized the country over a week ago in a lightning offensive.

So far, the Taliban said there had been no fighting though the rebels already have seized three rural districts in the mountains of the Hindu Kush.

Though the security forces of Afghanistan’s central government largely collapsed or fled the Taliban advance, some armed Afghans remain at Kabul airport assisting Western countries and others as they struggle to evacuate those gathered there.

The gunfire that killed the Afghan officer early Monday broke out near the airport’s northern gate, the same scene of chaos that on Saturday saw a crush of a panicked crowd kill seven Afghan civilians.

Who opened fire and the circumstances of the shooting around 6:45 a.m. local time remained unclear.

However, the German military said in a tweet that one member of the Afghan security forces was killed and three others were wounded by “unknown attackers.”

The U.S. military and NATO did not immediately acknowledge the shooting.

The Taliban as well did not acknowledge the incident.

The tragic scenes around the airport have transfixed the world as thousands of Afghans poured into the facility last week.

In the chaos, some plunged to their deaths while hanging onto an American C-17 taking off from the runway.

At least seven people died that day, in addition to the seven killed Sunday.

The Taliban blame the chaotic evacuation on the U.S. military, saying there’s no need for Afghans to fear them, even though their fighters shoot into the air and beat people with batons as they try to control the crowds outside the airport perimeter.

The Taliban have pledged amnesty to those who worked with the U.S, NATO and the toppled Afghan government, but many Afghans still fear revenge attacks.

There have been reports in recent days of the Taliban hunting down their former enemies.

It’s unclear if Taliban leaders are saying one thing and doing another, or if fighters are taking matters into their own hands.

As the airlift continues, the U.S. government has activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program, requesting 18 aircraft from U.S. carriers to assist in transporting Afghan refugees after they are evacuated to other countries.

The voluntary program, born in the wake of the Berlin airlift, adds to the military’s capabilities during crises.

Already early Monday, a Delta Air Lines flight part of those evacuations landed in Dubai and later took off for Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, where evacuees already crowd hangars there.

A steady stream of military transport planes continue to fly people out of Kabul to airfields across the Mideast.

There also have been concerns about a potential attack on the Kabul airport by a local Islamic State affiliate, whether through suicide bombers targeting the gathered crowds there or using portable surface-to-air missiles to bring down aircraft.

U.S. military planes have been executing corkscrew landings, and other aircraft have fired flares upon takeoff, measures used to, prevent missile attacks.

Meanwhile in Baghlan province, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Kabul, fighters calling themselves the “People’s Uprising” claimed to have seized three districts in the Andarab Valley, nestled the Hindu Kush.

Others have gathered in Panjshir province, the only of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces not to fall to the Taliban.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the insurgents’ forces had begun surrounding Panjshir province.

Amurllah Saleh, Afghanistan’s vice president under the country’s absent President Ashraf Ghani, wrote on Twitter that Taliban fighters have massed near the province after facing ambushes.

ABU DHABI: Former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani said Wednesday he hopes to return home, after fleeing to the United Arab Emirates in the face of the Taliban’s rapid advance, and said he supported talks between the Taliban and top former officials.

“For now, I am in the Emirates so that bloodshed and chaos is stopped,” he said in a video message — his first appearance since leaving the capital on Sunday. He noted he had “no intention” to remain in exile. 

“I am currently in talks to return to Afghanistan.”

The United Arab Emirates announced earlier in the day that it was hosting Ghani “on humanitarian grounds”.

In his message posted to Facebook, Ghani added that he supports talks between the Taliban and top former government officials, after it emerged that Taliban members had met with former president Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, who headed the failed peace process. 

Taliban leaders have said they have “pardoned all former government officials”, according to the monitoring group SITE.

Ghani succeeded Karzai as leader of Afghanistan in 2014.

As per the new guidelines, only one person from a household would be permitted to go out and purchase essentials while all shopping malls have been asked to shut.

COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government on Wednesday issued fresh guidelines restricting the movement of people even as businesses have started imposing a self-lockdown in view of the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

As per the new guidelines, only one person from a household would be permitted to go out and purchase essentials while all shopping malls have been asked to shut.

These guidelines are to be in force until the end of August, the Director General Health Services Asela Gunawardena said.

Meanwhile, the health trade unions held protests to urge the government to order a total lockdown to arrest the third wave of coronavirus.

“We ask the government to lockdown the country for 10 days,” said Ravi Kumudesh, a health trade unionist.

In several areas, businesses are imposing self-lockdowns.

Shops remain shut as the number of cases have seen a rapid increase.

The government has decided to purchase nine million doses of Sinopharm and 14 million doses of Pfizer vaccines, the Cabinet spokesman and minister Ramesh Pathirana told reporters.

He said that the aim was to vaccinate all above 18 by September 30.

According to the health ministry, over 2,400 new infections were recorded on Wednesday.

With 174 more fatalities, the death toll has crossed the 6,400-mark, the ministry added.

OUAGADOUGOU: Burkina Faso’s president declared three days of national mourning from Thursday after suspected jihadists killed 47 people, including 30 civilians, in an attack in the north of the country.

The assault Wednesday near the town of Gorgadji also left 14 soldiers and three militia volunteers dead, the communications ministry said.

The soldiers and militia had been “guarding civilians setting off for Arbinda,” another town in northern Burkina.

In an ensuing gunbattle, security forces killed 58 “terrorists” and put the rest to flight, according to the government. Nineteen people were also wounded, it said.

“Rescue and relief operations are continuing,” it said.

The area is in the notorious “three-border” zone where Burkina Faso meets Mali and Niger, a focus of the jihadist violence that plagues the wider Sahel region of west Africa.

It was the third major attack on Burkinabe soldiers in the past two weeks, including one on August 4 near the Niger border which killed 30 people, including 11 civilians.

President Roch Marc Christian Kabore declared three days of national mourning from Thursday for the victims of the latest attack, according to an official decree.

Flags would be flown at half-mast from public buildings and festivities banned during the period, it said.

Burkina Faso, a poor country in the arid sub-Saharan Sahel region, has since 2015 been battling increasingly frequent and deadly attacks by jihadist groups affiliated with the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda.

On June 4-5, gunmen killed at least 132 people, including children, in the northeast village of Solhan, Burkina’s deadliest attack in the history of the insurgency.

Raids and ambushes have been concentrated in the north and east close to the borders with Mali and Niger, both of which have also faced deadly violence by jihadists.

These attacks along with inter-communal violence have left more than 1,400 people dead and forced 1.3 million to flee their homes, according to official estimates.  

Along with central Mali, the vast, arid “three-border” region straddling Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso has become the worst-hit area in the jihadists’ Sahel campaign.

Militants linked to Al-Qaeda emerged in northern Mali in 2012, prompting French military intervention. After being scattered, the jihadists regrouped and spread to neighbouring countries.

Even before Taliban could cement its political footprint in Afghanistan, capital Kabul is already facing a grim makeover. One sans pictures, ad posters of women on showrooms and beauty salons.

A photo of two men covering up such posters in the city has gone viral on Twitter.

The picture surfaces at a time when women in Afghanistan, who have been vulnerable targets of the Taliban regime in the past, are terrified of what lies ahead.

Multiple ‘reassurances’ from Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen that women’s rights will be respected this time around, in adherence to norms that suit Afghanistan’s future as an Islamic Emirate, has done little to help the cause.

Women from all spheres of society, football players to graduate students, are crying for help as the country’s inevitable instability leaves less to no options for them.

The Taliban swept into the capital on Sunday after the Western-backed government collapsed and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, bringing an end to a two-decade campaign in which the US and its allies had tried to transform the country.

Kabul: Two Afghan officials say President Ashraf Ghani has left the country.

The officials, one from former President Hamid Karzai’s office and another an aide on the Afghan security council, told The Associated Press that Ghani left Sunday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief journalists.

Ghani left along with his National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib and a second close associate. It wasn’t immediately clear where they went.

Meanwhile, the Taliban said it would further enter Kabul on Sunday night after spending hours on the city’s outskirts.

Washington: Guided by Mahatma Gandhi’s message of truth and non-violence, India achieved its long journey towards independence, US President Joe Biden said on the country’s 75th Independence Day, asserting that the commitment to respecting the will of the people through democracy continues to inspire the world.

Greeting Indians on the 75th Independence Day, Biden said in this moment of great challenges and opportunities, the partnership between India and the United States was more important than ever.

On this day, August 15, 1947, India achieved its long journey toward independence, guided by Mahatma Gandhi’s message of truth and non-violence, Biden said in a statement on Saturday.

Today, that foundational commitment to respecting the will of the people through democracy continues to inspire the world and is the basis of the special bond between our two nations. Over the decades, the ties between our people, including a vibrant community of more than four million Indian-Americans, have sustained and strengthened our partnership, he said.

Biden pointed out that in the past one year, the two nations have come together in new ways as they tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, including working in partnership with Japan and Australia through the Quad grouping to expand global manufacturing of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines and to strengthen the last-mile coordination to reach people throughout the Indo-Pacific.

The US, India, Australia and Japan have established the Quad grouping as the leaders of the four countries in March this year expounded their vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, amidst China flexing its muscles in the strategically-vital region.

Together, we must show the world that our two great and diverse democracies can deliver for people everywhere. And as we do, the friendship between our nations will continue to flourish and grow, Biden said.

I wish all those celebrating today, in India, in the United States, and throughout the world, a safe and happy Indian Independence Day, he said in his message.

Extending warm wishes to the people of India on the country’s 75th Independence Day, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the bonds between the United States and India began over seven decades ago and have transformed into a growing partnership.

Our regional cooperation is expanding at an exponential pace as we continue to work together, alongside our partners, to advance our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific. From climate action and clean energy to space technologies, US-India bilateral cooperation is wide-ranging and stronger than ever before, he said.

As I said during my visit to New Delhi, there are few partnerships more vital than the one between the United States and India. Mindful of our seventy-four years of friendship, our two democracies will continue to build a better tomorrow. Happy Independence Day! Blinken said in his message.

Kabul: An Afghan official says forces at Bagram air base, home to a prison housing 5,000 inmates, have surrendered to the Taliban.

Bagram district chief Darwaish Raufi said Sunday that the surrender handed the one-time American base over to the insurgents.

The prison housed both Taliban and Islamic State group fighters. It came as the Taliban entered the outskirts of Kabul. 

ANKARA: Turkish authorities said Thursday the death toll from the severe floods and mudslides that struck the north of the country has risen to 17.

One other person is reported missing.

The floods battered the Black Sea coastal provinces of Bartin, Kastamonu, Sinop and Samsun on Wednesday, demolishing homes and bridges and sweeping away cars.

Helicopters scrambled to rescue people stranded on rooftops.

As floodwaters began to recede across the affected regions in Turkey’s north, a statement from the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, or AFAD, said rescuers had recovered six bodies in Kastamonu.

An 80-year-old woman was reported missing in Bartin province.

The disaster struck as firefighters in southwest Turkey worked to extinguish a wildfire in Mugla province, an area popular with tourists that runs along the Aegean Sea.

The blaze, which was brought under control on Thursday, was one of more than 200 wildfires in Turkey since July 28.

At least eight people and countless animals died and thousands of residents have had to flee fierce blazes.

Climate scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving more extreme events, such as heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods and storms.

Such calamities are expected to happen more frequently on our warming planet.

Flooding inundated much of Bozkurt.

One building collapsed and a second building was damaged in the town, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

In Bartin province, at least 13 people were injured when a section of a bridge caved in.

The military said its helicopters airlifted 80 people to safety in the region.

Many of the affected areas were left without power and village roads were blocked.

Turkey’s Black Sea region is frequently struck by severe rains and flash flooding.

At least six people were killed in floods that hit the eastern Black Sea coastal province of Rize last month.