LIVE: 5,800 US troops now in Kabul to help with evacuations, says official

Afghanistan crisis LIVE updates: Taliban's sudden victory, which comes as the US withdraws from the country following a 20-year-war, has sparked chaos

3:20 PM

Open community halls, schools for people coming from Afghanistan: BJP councillor to SDMC

BJP councillor and South Delhi Municipal Corporation's (SDMC) central zone chairman has urged the civic body to open its community halls and schools for people coming from Afghanistan following the political turmoil in the country, PTI reported.

Rajpal Singh, chairman SDMC's central zone, in a letter to civic body's commissioner Gyanesh Bharti said many individuals and families, including Hindus and Sikhs, are coming to India from Afghanistan after a crisis like situation there.

Singh said a sizeable number of Afghans live in areas like Lajpat Nagar, Amar Colony and Bhogal and they have businesses here.

2:58 PM

Western groups desperate to save Afghan workers left behind

The Italian charity Pangea helped tens of thousands of Afghan women become self-supporting in the last 20 years. Now, dozens of its staff in Afghanistan are in hiding with their families amid reports that Taliban are going door-to-door in search of citizens who worked with Westerners, AP reported.

 

Pangea founder Luca Lo Presti has asked that 30 Afghan charity workers and their families be included on Italian flights that have carried 500 people to safety this week, but the requests were flatly refused. On Thursday, the military coordinator told him: Not today.

2:57 PM

EU officials to visit Afghan Spain refugee camp

Top European Union officials will visit a Spanish military airport being used as a hub to receive Afghans flown out of Kabul before they are distributed to other countries in the bloc, AP reported.

 

Spanish Foreign Minister Jos Manuel Albares said Friday that EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Charles Michel will visit a temporary camp at the Torrejn de Ardoz military airport near Madrid on Saturday.

 

Albares told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE that Spain is receiving evacuated Afghans who have worked for EU bodies or EU member nations.

2:28 PM

Al Qaeda celebrates Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch has congratulated the Taliban on their takeover of Afghanistan, IANS reported.

 

"This victory and empowerment reveals to us that jihad and fighting represent the Sharia-based, legal, and realistic way to restore rights (and) expel the invaders and occupiers," Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said in a statement.

 

"As for the game of democracy and working with simple pacifism, it is a deceptive mirage, a fleeting shadow, and a vicious circle that starts with a zero and ends with it," said the statement carried by SITE Intelligence group, which monitors extremist networks worldwide, a global news wire reported.

 

2:21 PM

US has evacuated 9,000 people since August 14

The United States evacuated about 3,000 people from 's Kabul airport on Thursday, a White House official said, Reuters reported.
 

"The United States evacuated approximately 3,000 people from Hamid Karzai International Airport on 16 C-17 flights," the official said in a media pool report on Friday, adding that nearly 350 were U.S. citizens.
 

"Additional evacuees include family members of U.S. citizens, Special Immigrant Visa applicants and their families, and vulnerable Afghans," the official said, for a tally of about 9,000 evacuated by the military since August 14.

 

1:48 PM

Free media, jobs for women will be allowed: Taliban

1:45 PM

No difference between 'old' and 'new' Taliban, says captain of Air India flight hijacked in 1999

1:20 PM

People missing after attempts to escape from Kabul airport, reports IANS

Afghan families do not know the whereabouts of their sons since earlier this week after they went to the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul in an attempt to leave the country following the Taliban takeover.

 

They are not among those who have been either killed or seriously injured amid the chaos at the airport that began on Sunday.

 

At least 40 casualties, both fatalities and serious injuries, from shootings, stampeding and falling from aircraft have been reported since Monday.

 

Afghan media reported that Faisal, 25, was a graduate of the Sharia faculty of Kabul University who went with other young men to the airport at 7 a.m. on Monday but has not been heard from since.

 

"My son has been missing since Monday," said Habibullah, a father of a missing person.

 

"According to the news, forty people were killed and wounded since Monday, exact figures remain unknown," said Humayoun, a relative of one missing person named Faisal.

1:02 PM

US evacuates about 3000 people from Afghanistan on Thursday

The United States has airlifted around 3000 people from Afghanistan's Kabul airport on 16 flights, a White House official said.

 

Among those, 350 were US citizens. Additional evacuees include family members of U.S. citizens, SIV applicants and their families, and vulnerable Afghans.

 

"On August 19, the U.S. evacuated approximately 3,000 people from Hamid Karzai International Airport on 16 C-17 flights. We have evacuated approximately 9,000 people since August 14," the official said.

 

Additionally, in the last 24 hours, the US military facilitated the departure of 11 charter flights. The passengers on those charter flights are not included in the totals above."

1:00 PM

Destructive, terror forces can dominate for some time, but their existence not permanent: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that destructive forces and people who follow the ideology of creating empires through terror can dominate for some time, but their existence is not permanent as they cannot suppress humanity forever.

 

He was speaking while virtually inaugurating a few projects of the famous Somnath temple in Gujarat.

 

"Somnath temple was destroyed many times, idols were desecrated many times and attempts were made to wipe out its existence. But it came up in its full glory after every destructive attack, which gives self-confidence to us," Modi said.

 

"Forces that strive for destruction and those who follow the ideology of creating empires out of terror can dominate for some time, but their existence is never permanent as they cannot suppress humanity forever," he added.

12:38 PM

Taliban searched closed Indian consulates in Kandahar, Herat, reports IANS

The Taliban have searched the closed Indian Consulates in Kandahar and Herat two days ago and the reportedly took some documents from the two missions, news agency IANS reported, quoting sources in the security set-up said.

 

According to the sources, the insurgents broke into the Consulate buildings and also took parked vehicles.

 

India has four Indian consulates located in Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad, which were closed after the Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15.

 

Amidst the critical situation in Afghanistan, the Indian Embassy personnel were evacuated by an Indian Air Force C-17 aircraft on Tuesday, bringing back 120 Indians, including ITBP personnel from the Kabul airport.

12:23 PM

Taliban takeover of Afghanistan to benefit Pakistan the most: AIMIM Chief Owaisi

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Chief Asaduddin Owaisi said Taliban takeover of Afghanistan would benefit Pakistan the most as the country's intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) controls the terrorist outfit.

 

Speaking at an event here on Thursday, Owaisi said: "Pakistan has gained the most from the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Experts are saying that Al Qaeda and Daesh have reached some areas in Afghanistan."

 

"Jaish-e-Muhammad, which indulges in the acts of terrorism including the attack on Parliament, they are now in Afghanistan's Helmand. One must remember that ISI controls the Taliban. ISI is an enemy of India, and uses Taliban as a puppet," he added.

 

Owaisi also stated that China would also benefit from the Taliban takeover.

12:05 PM

Indian Military Academy trained Afghan soldier, figures among top Taliban leaders

After the swift victory of Taliban, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is likely to be the new President of Afghanistan while his deputy in the Doha office, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, is expected to be a key player in the new government.

 

Stanikzai, who was a deputy foreign minister in the last Taliban regime, is in contrast to his peers, considered to be highly educated as he has passed out of the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun. He was trained at the officers' academy in the 1970s, under the Indo-Afghan defence cooperation programme. Most of the other Taliban leaders have in contrast studied from madrasas in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

 

Born in 1963 in the Baraki Barak district of Logar province, Afghanistan, Stanikzai is ethnically a Pashtun.

12:01 PM

Imran Khan govt under fire for 'failing to control' Pakistan food prices

Imran Khan-led Pakistan government has failed to fulfill the basic needs of people of the country as it continues to ignore the soaring food prices for the last three years.

 

People slammed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for not taking any effective steps to reduce food prices. They are only confined to weekly meetings of the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) rather than taking any practical steps, the Dawn reported. Read on...

11:24 AM

'For what?': Joe Biden stands ground on Afghanistan exit

US President Joe Biden believes history will judge the US experience in Afghanistan as one where it "overextended" its stay to deal with its national interest.

 

At a time when roughly two-thirds of Americans say they think the Afghanistan war wasn't worth fighting, Biden stood his ground on his decision to exit Afghanistan nearly 20 years after the September 11 attacks.

 

"Are we gonna go to war because of what's goin' on in Tajikistan? What do you think?", Biden told ABC News in a wide ranging interview on America's exit from its longest war.

 

"I think the American people are with me," Biden told ABC News. "And when you unite that country, what do you have?," he asked. "They're surrounded by Russia in the north or the Stans in the north. You have-- to the west, they have Iran. To the south, they have Pakistan, who's supporting them. And to the-- and-- actually, the east, they have Pakistan and China. Tell me. Tell me. Is that worth our national interest to continue to spend another $1 trillion and lose thousands more American lives? For what?"

 

On Biden's watch, the two-decade war in Afghanistan ended with the Taliban storming back to power and capturing the capital city of Kabul at lightning speed.