KABUL: The Taliban on Tuesday, September 7, 2021, announced an all-male interim government for Afghanistan stacked with veterans of their hard-line rule from the 1990s and the 20-year battle against the U.S.-led coalition, a move that seems unlikely to win the international support the new leaders desperately need to avoid an economic meltdown.
Appointed to the key post of interior minister was Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list with a $5 million bounty on his head and is believed to still be holding at least one American hostage. He headed the feared Haqqani network that is blamed for many deadly attacks and kidnappings.
The announcement came hours after Taliban fired their guns into the air to disperse protesters in the capital of Kabul and arrested several journalists, the second time in less than a week that heavy-handed tactics were used to break up a demonstration.
Drawn mostly from Afghanistan’s dominant Pashtun ethnic group, the Cabinet’s lack of representation from other ethnic groups also seems certain to hobble its support from abroad.
As much as 80% of Afghanistan’s budget comes from the international community, and a long-running economic crisis has worsened in recent months. Near daily flights from Qatar bring in humanitarian aid, but the needs are massive, and the Taliban can hardly afford isolation.
In announcing the Cabinet, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid emphasized that the appointments were temporary. He did not say how long they would serve and what would be the catalyst for a change.
Since taking over Afghanistan in mid-August after U.S. troops withdrew, the Taliban have shown no indications they will hold elections.
The U.S. State Department in a statement expressed concern that the Cabinet included only Taliban, no women and personalities with a troubling track record, but said the new administration would be judged by its actions. The carefully worded statement noted the Cabinet was interim, but said the Taliban would be held to their promise to give safe passage to both foreign nationals and Afghans, with proper travel documents, and ensure Afghan soil would not be used as to harm another.
“The world is watching closely,” the statement said.
The interim prime minister, Mullah Hasan Akhund, also headed the Taliban government in Kabul during the last years of its rule. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who had led talks with the U.S. and signed the deal that led to the withdrawal, will be one of two deputies to Akhund.
A policy statement accompanying the Cabinet announcement sought to allay fears of Afghanistan’s neighbors and the rest of the world, but was unlikely to calm the fears of women, who didn’t get a single post.
“Our message to our neighbors, the region and the world is that Afghanistan’s soil will not be used against the security of any other country,” the statement said.
It urged foreign diplomats, embassies, consulates and humanitarian organizations to return to Afghanistan. “Their presence is the need of our country,” it said.
The statement spoke of protecting the rights of minorities and the underprivileged, and it promised education “to all countrymen within the framework of Sharia.” Women were not mentioned in the three-page statement.
Abdul Salam Hanafi, an ethnic Uzbek, was named as second deputy to Hasan Akhund. A long-time Taliban member, he is unlikely to satisfy demands for inclusivity and minority representation.
Besides Haqqani as head of the police, the other top security post of defense minister went to Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob , the son of Taliban founder and near mythic figure Mullah Mohammad Omar.
The Haqqani network, which dominates most of eastern Afghanistan, has been blamed for dramatic attacks in Kabul in the past two decades and for orchestrating kidnappings, often of Americans. Washington believes it still holds Mark Frerichs, a civilian contractor, who was abducted in January 2020 and hasn’t been heard from since.
The new foreign minister will be Amir Khan Muttaqi, another prominent figure from the Taliban’s last time in power. He faces a difficult task, given the Cabinet’s lack of diversity.
The Cabinet selection defied the many voices that had urged inclusivity and moderation. Instead, it seemed to be a bow to the Taliban’s tens of thousands of fighters, who would have struggled to accept figures from previous governments that they see as corrupt and that they believe they were called upon to oust.
“The fighters made the sacrifices. … They are the decision makers, not the politicians,” said analyst and author Fazelminallah Qazizai, who has has written extensively about the Taliban.
Yet even with a Cabinet dominated by ethnic Pashtuns, the Taliban’s fighting force would appear to have already attained some diversity, with their ranks bolstered considerably by ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks. That may have helped hand the Taliban a surprising win in the mostly Tajik province of Badakhshan, which they overran with hardly a fight. When they last ruled, the province was the only one they failed to control.
At Tuesday’s demonstration that was broken up by gunfire, protesters had gathered outside the Pakistani Embassy to accuse Islamabad of aiding the Taliban’s assault on northern Panjshir province. The Taliban said Monday they seized the province — the last one not in their control — after their lightning advance through Afghanistan last month.
Afghanistan’s previous government routinely accused neighboring Pakistan of aiding the Taliban, a charge Islamabad has denied.
Dozens of women were among the protesters, and some carried signs bemoaning the killing of their sons by Taliban fighters that they say were aided by Pakistan. One sign read: “I am a mother. When you kill my son, you kill a part of me.”
At one point, a Taliban fighter responded: “We have announced amnesty to everyone who has killed our sons.”
The Taliban moved quickly and harshly to end the protest as demonstrators arrived near the presidential palace. They fired their weapons into the air and arrested several journalists covering the demonstration. At one point, a Taliban member waving a Kalashnikov rifle took a microphone from a journalist and began beating him with it. The journalist was later handcuffed and detained for several hours.
“This is the third time I have been beaten by the Taliban covering protests,” the journalist told The Associated Press, speaking on condition he not be identified because he feared retaliation. “I won’t go again to cover a demonstration. It’s too difficult for me.”
A journalist from Afghanistan’s popular TOLO News was detained for three hours by the Taliban before being freed. He was given back his equipment and his video of the demonstration was intact.
On Saturday, Taliban special forces in camouflage fired their weapons into the air to end a protest march in Kabul by women demanding equal rights.
Taliban say they took Panjshir, last holdout Afghan province
Kabul(AP): The Taliban said on Monday they have taken control of Panjshir province north of Kabul, the Afghan capital. The province was the last holdout of anti-Taliban forces in the country and the only province the Taliban had not seized during their sweep last month.
Thousands of Taliban fighters overrun eight districts of Panjshir overnight, according to witnesses from the area. They spoke on condition of anonymity fearing for their safety.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement on Monday, saying Panjshir was now under the control of the Taliban fighters.
The anti-Taliban fighters had been led by the former vice president and the son of the iconic anti-Taliban fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud who was killed just days before the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
Soldiers detain Guinea’s president, dissolve government
Conakry (Guinea)(AP): Mutinous soldiers in the West African nation of Guinea detained President Alpha Conde on Sunday after hours of heavy gunfire rang out near the presidential palace in the capital, then announced on state television that the government had been dissolved in an apparent coup d’etat.
The country’s borders were closed and its constitution was declared invalid in the announcement read aloud on state television by army Col. Mamadi Doumbouya, who told Guineans: “The duty of a soldier is to save the country.”
“We will no longer entrust politics to one man. We will entrust it to the people,” said Doumbouya, draped in a Guinean flag with about a half dozen other soldiers flanked at his side.
It was not immediately known, though, how much support Doumbouya had within the military or whether other soldiers loyal to the president of more than a decade might attempt to wrest back control.
The junta later announced plans to replace Guinea’s governors with regional commanders at an event Monday and warned: “Any refusal to appear will be considered rebellion” against the country’s new military leaders.
The West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS quickly condemned the developments, threatening sanctions if Conde was not immediately released. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted that he strongly condemned “any takeover of the government by force of the gun.”
The US State Department warned against violence and urged authorities in Guinea to avoid “extra-constitutional” actions that “will only erode Guinea’s prospects for peace, stability, and prosperity.”
Spokesman Ned Price added in a statement that the junta’s “actions could limit the ability of the United States and Guinea’s other international partners to support the country.”
Conde’s whereabouts had been unknown for hours after the intense fighting Sunday in downtown Conakry until a video emerged showing the 83-year-old leader tired and disheveled in military custody.
The junta later released a statement saying Conde was in contact with his doctors. But they gave no timeline for releasing him other than to do say: “Everything will be fine. When the time comes, we will issue a statement.”
Conde, in power for more than a decade, had seen his popularity plummet since he sought a third term last year, saying that term limits did not apply to him. Sunday’s dramatic developments underscored how dissent had mounted within the military as well.
Doumbouya, who had been the commander of the army’s special forces unit, called on other soldiers “to put themselves on the side of the people” and stay in their barracks. The army colonel said he was acting in the best interests of the nation, citing a lack of economic progress by leaders since the country gained independence from France in 1958.
“If you see the state of our roads, if you see the state of our hospitals, you realize that after 72 years, it’s time to wake up,” he said. “We have to wake up.”
Observers, though say the tensions between Guinea’s president and the army colonel stemmed from a recent proposal to cut some military salaries.
On Sunday morning, heavy gunfire broke out near the presidential palace and went on for hours, sparking fears in a nation that already has seen multiple coups and presidential assassination attempts. The Defense Ministry initially claimed that the attack had been repelled by security forces, but uncertainty grew when there was no subsequent sign of Conde on state television or radio.
The developments that followed closely mirrored other military coup d’etats in West Africa: The army colonel and his colleagues seized control of the airwaves, professing their commitment to democratic values and announcing their name: The National Committee for Rally and Development.
It was a dramatic setback for Guinea, where many had hoped the country had turned the page on military power grabs.
Conde’s 2010 election victory the country’s first democratic vote ever was supposed to be a fresh start for a country that had been mired by decades of corrupt, authoritarian rule and political turmoil. In the years since, though, opponents said Conde too failed to improve the lives of Guineans, most of whom live in poverty despite the country’s vast mineral riches of bauxite and gold.
The year after his first election he narrowly survived an assassination attempt after gunmen surrounded his home overnight and pounded his bedroom with rockets. Rocket-propelled grenades landed inside the compound and one of his bodyguards was killed.
Violent street demonstrations broke out last year after Conde organized a referendum to modify the constitution. The unrest intensified after he won the October election, and the opposition said dozens were killed during the crisis.
In neighbouring Senegal, which has a large diaspora of Guineans who opposed Conde, news of his political demise was met with relief.
“President Alpha Conde deserves to be deposed. He stubbornly tried to run for a third term when he had no right to do so,” said Malick Diallo, a young Guinean shopkeeper in the suburbs of Dakar.
“We know that a coup d’etat is not good,” said Mamadou Saliou Diallo, another Guinean living in Senegal. “A president must be elected by democratic vote. But we have no choice. We have a president who is too old, who no longer makes Guineans dream and who does not want to leave power.”
From insurgent group to governing power:Taliban close to forming new administration in Afghanistan
KABUL: The Taliban were expected to form a government as early as Friday, September 3, 2021, with the new regime under intense international scrutiny over its vow to rule Afghanistan with greater tolerance, especially on women’s rights.
The announcement of a new administration could be made after Friday afternoon prayers, two Taliban sources told AFP, as the Islamists shift gears from insurgent group to governing power, days after the United States fully withdrew its troops and ended two decades of war.
While the West has adopted a wait-and-see approach to the Taliban, there were some signs of engagement with the new leaders gathering pace.
The United Nations said it had restarted humanitarian flights to parts of the country, linking the Pakistani capital Islamabad with Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and Kandahar in the south.
A Taliban spokesman tweeted early Friday that China’s foreign ministry had promised to keep its embassy in Afghanistan open and to “beef up” relations and humanitarian assistance.
The British and Italian foreign ministers were meanwhile both headed to Afghanistan’s neighbours in the coming days to discuss the plight of refugees still hoping to escape the Taliban.
The new rulers have pledged to be more accommodating than during their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001, which also came after years of conflict — first the Soviet invasion of 1979, and then a bloody civil war.
That first regime was notorious for its brutal and violent interpretation of Islamic law, and its treatment of women, who were forced behind closed doors, banned from school and work and denied freedom of movement.
Now, all eyes are on whether the Taliban can deliver a cabinet capable of managing a war-wracked economy and honour the movement’s pledges of a more “inclusive” government.
Speculation is rife about the makeup of a new government, although a senior official said this week that women were unlikely to be included.
In the western city of Herat, some 50 women took to the streets Thursday in a rare, defiant protest for the right to work and over the lack of female participation in the new government.
“It is our right to have education, work and security,” the demonstrators chanted in unison, said an AFP journalist who witnessed the protest.
“We are not afraid, we are united,” they added.
Herat is a relatively cosmopolitan city on the ancient silk road near the Iranian border. It is one of the more prosperous in Afghanistan, and girls have already returned to school there.
One of the organisers of the protest, Basira Taheri, told AFP she wanted the Taliban to include women in the new cabinet.
“We want the Taliban to hold consultations with us,” Taheri said. “We don’t see any women in their gatherings and meetings.”
Among the 122,000 people who fled Afghanistan in a frenzied US-led airlift that ended on Monday was the first female Afghan journalist to interview a Taliban official live on television.
Speaking to AFP in Qatar, the former anchor for the Tolo News media group said women in Afghanistan were “in a very bad situation”.
“I want to say to the international community — please do anything (you can) for Afghan women,” Beheshta Arghand said.
Women’s rights were not the only major concern in the lead-up to the Taliban’s announcement of a new government.
In Kabul, residents voiced worry over the country’s long-running economic difficulties, now seriously compounded by the militant movement’s takeover.
“With the arrival of the Taliban, it’s right to say that there is security, but business has gone down below zero,” Karim Jan, an electronic goods shop owner, told AFP.
The United Nations warned earlier this week of a looming “humanitarian catastrophe” in Afghanistan, as it called for those still wanting to flee the new regime to be given a way out.
Italy’s foreign minister was due to visit Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Qatar and Pakistan from Friday to assist Afghan refugees, while his British counterpart was to head to the region next week.
Qatar’s foreign minister said on Thursday the Gulf state was working with the Taliban to reopen Kabul’s airport as soon as possible.
Turkey said it was also evaluating proposals from the Taliban and others for a role in running the airport.
Kim Jong Un orders tougher virus steps after North Korea shuns vaccines
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered officials to wage a tougher epidemic prevention campaign in “our style” after he turned down some foreign COVID-19 vaccines offered via the U.N.-backed immunization program.
During a Politburo meeting Thursday, Kim said officials must “bear in mind that tightening epidemic prevention is the task of paramount importance which must not be loosened even a moment,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday, September 3, 2021.
While stressing the need for material and technical means of virus prevention and increasing health workers’ qualifications, Kim also called for “further rounding off our style epidemic prevention system,” KCNA said.
Kim previously called for North Koreans to brace for prolonged COVID-19 restrictions, indicating the nation’s borders would stay closed despite worsening economic and food conditions. Since the start of the pandemic, North Korea has used tough quarantines and border closures to prevent outbreaks, though its claim to be entirely virus-free is widely doubted.
On Tuesday, UNICEF, which procures and delivers vaccines on behalf of the COVAX distribution program, said North Korea proposed its allotment of about 3 million Sinovac shots be sent to severely affected countries instead. North Korea was also slated to receive AstraZeneca shots through COVAX, but their delivery has been delayed.
According to UNICEF, North Korea’s health ministry still said it would continue to communicate with COVAX over future vaccines.
Some experts believe North Korea may want other vaccines, while questioning the effectiveness of Sinovac and the rare blood clots seen in some recipients of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The previously allocated 1.9 million AstraZeneca doses would be enough to vaccinate 950,000 people — only about 7.3% of the North’s 26 million people — meaning North Korea would still need much more quantities of vaccine to inoculate its population.
Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University, said North Korea is likely angling to receive more effective jabs from COVAX and then strategically allocate them domestically.
“Pyongyang appears to have issues with COVAX involving legal responsibility and distribution reporting requirements. So it might procure vaccines from China to deliver to border regions and soldiers while allocating COVAX shots to less sensitive populations,” Easley said.
“The Kim regime likely wants the most safe and effective vaccine for the elite, but administering Pfizer would require upgraded cold chain capability in Pyongyang and at least discreet discussions with the United States. The Johnson & Johnson option could also be useful to North Korea given that vaccine’s portability and one-shot regimen,” he said.
In a recent U.N. report on the North’s human rights situation, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asked North Korea to “take all necessary measures, including through international cooperation and assistance, to provide access to COVID-19 vaccines for all persons, without discrimination.”
He also asked North Korea to form a plan to enable diplomats and aid workers to return to the North and revive humanitarian aid distribution systems as soon as possible in conjunction with its COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
After their meeting in Seoul last month, Sung Kim, the top U.S. diplomat on North Korea affairs, and his South Korean counterpart Noh Kyu-duk told reporters that they discussed humanitarian cooperation with North Korea in providing anti-virus resources, sanitation and safe water.
Child sex abuse found across major UK religions
LONDON: An inquiry investigating child sexual abuse in a wide range of religious organisations and settings in England on Thursday found “shocking failures” in how many religions handled abuse allegations, with victim-blaming and abuse of power by religious leaders often contributing to under-reporting.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse looked into child protection in 38 religious organisations in England and Wales, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists, Methodists, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism and non-conformist Christian denominations.
It took evidence from two weeks of public hearings held earlier this year.
It cited figures showing that from 2015 to 2020, of all known institutions where abuse had been reported, 11% took place within a religious organization or setting.
Some 10% of suspects were employed by or linked to a religion.
” Some religious settings have no child protection policies in place, it found, and there is currently “either no or very limited oversight” of child protection in religious organisations.
“Religious believers can find it difficult to accept that members of their congregation or religious leaders could perpetrate abuse,” its report said.
“As a result, some consider that it is not necessary to have specific child protection procedures or to adhere strictly to them.
” The report cited examples including four victims who were sexually abused when they were about 9 years old while they were taught the Quran by a teacher in a mosque.
The teacher was convicted in 2017.
In another instance, the report said, a boy was abused by a prominent leader in an evangelical organization connected to the United Reformed Church at Sunday school camp and other places from 7 to 10 years old.
The abuser was convicted in 2017, decades after the abuse took place.
Thursday’s report came after the inquiry’s earlier investigations into the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches that detailed widespread abuse.
The long-running inquiry, which has heard from thousands of victims, has also looked into allegations of abuse linked to British government institutions and lawmakers.
Withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan could lead to civil war Pakistan Foreign Minister
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday said the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan was not “responsible or orderly”, warning that the “consequences of abandonment” could lead to a civil war in the war-ravaged country if the West failed to engage with the Taliban.
The last C-17 cargo aircraft carrying US forces took off from the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul in the early hours of Tuesday, ending America’s military campaign in Afghanistan.
The Taliban, ousted from power by the US shortly after the 9/11 attacks, now control nearly all of the country.
“Things could become chaotic, there could be anarchy, and that will give space to the organisations we all dread: the international terrorist organisation that we do not want their footprint to grow in Afghanistan,” he said.
The foreign minister said that the “consequences of abandonment” are dangerous and could “lead to a civil war.”
Qureshi said that the West should now test the new Taliban government to ensure it keeps its promises.
He said that if the West did not maintain dialogue with the Taliban, Afghanistan could fall victim to another civil war and a new wave of terrorism could spread in the region.
“They should have learned from their mistakes,” he said.
“And I think the attitude and the approach they are taking is reflective of a different approach,” the minister said.
“What I’m saying is test them (Taliban) before trusting them. They’re (making) big statements but let us see if they live up to them and if they do, then build on it because the other option is far worse,” he said.
Qureshi said the initial statements made by the Taliban leadership were positive and encouraging.
He hoped that the Taliban would work to establish an inclusive government in the multi-ethnic state.
“One option is engagement as opposed to isolation, you know we’ve withdrawn, let’s wash our hands, we’ve done our bit, we leave. That is a dangerous option. That is an option of abandonment of Afghan people,” he said.
He said that the same mistake was committed in the 1990s and urged the international community not to repeat the same mistake again.
US airstrike targets ISIS-K ‘planner’ in Afghanistan
Washington: The US has conducted a drone strike against an Islamic State “planner” in Afghanistan, striking back at the terror outfit in less than 48 hours after a suicide bombing claimed by the group killed 169 Afghans and 13 American soldiers at the Kabul airport.
“US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner. The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target, Capt Bill Urban, spokesperson of US Central Command, said on Friday.
We know of no civilian casualties,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the White House said President Joe Biden does not want the terrorists, who planned the attack at the Kabul airport, to live any longer.
I think he made it clear yesterday that he does not want them to live on the Earth anymore, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at her daily news conference.
However, it wasn’t immediately known if the ISIS-K planner was involved specifically in Thursday’s Kabul airport attack, claimed by the Islamic State’s Afghanistan affiliate — Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-K.
The US airstrike came a day after President Biden vowed to “hunt” down the terrorists and make them “pay” for the Kabul airport attack and ordered his commanders to develop plans to strike back at them.
“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm notice, we will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command,” Biden had said in his remarks at the White House on Thursday.
India to be part of all G7 talks on Afghanistan
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.
Afghanistan crisis: Gunfire at Kabul airport kills one Taliban mass near Panjshir valley
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.
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