Tag: conflict

US tells citizens to avoid Kabul airport due to ‘security threats’

The United States on Saturday urged its citizens in Afghanistan to avoid traveling to the Kabul airport, citing “potential security threats” near its gates. The warning from the US embassy in Kabul provided no detail on the danger, but a White House official later confirmed that aides had briefed President Joe Biden on “counterterrorism operations” in Afghanistan, including against the Islamic State group. Conditions outside Hamid Karzai International Airport have been chaotic amid the crush […]

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ANALYSIS: Why didn’t Biden leave 2,500 troops in Afghanistan?

  by Paul HANDLEY Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The Taliban’s lightning-fast takeover of Afghanistan after President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw US troops by August 31 has critics asking: why didn’t he just leave 2,500 troops there to fortify the now-fallen government? That was how many US forces remained in the country when Biden took office in January, after his predecessor Donald Trump slashed their numbers from 15,000. In appearances, the […]

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Taliban revenge fears grow in Afghanistan

  by David FOX KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — The Taliban are going house-to-house searching for opponents and their families, according to an intelligence document for the UN that deepened fears Friday Afghanistan’s new rulers were reneging on pledges of tolerance. After routing government forces and taking over Kabul on Sunday to end two decades of war, the hardline Islamist movement’s leaders have repeatedly vowed a complete amnesty as part of a well-crafted PR blitz. Women […]

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Defiant Afghans wave flags amid fears of Taliban crackdown

by David FOX KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — Defiant protesters waved Afghan flags at scattered rallies Thursday to mark the country’s independence day, as a UN document suggests the Taliban are rounding up people placed on a blacklist for working with the Afghan government, or US-led forces. As the small-scale demonstrations unfolded, the son of the nation’s most famous resistance fighter vowed to take up arms against the Islamist hardliners, who are back in power after […]

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Afghan woman news anchor stopped from working after Taliban takeover

KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — An Afghan woman journalist has said she was barred from working at her TV station after the Taliban took control of the country, and pleaded for help in a video posted online. Wearing a hijab and showing her office card, well-known news anchor Shabnam Dawran said “our lives are under threat” in the clip on social media. Under the Taliban’s regime from 1996 to 2001, women were excluded from public life, […]

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Taliban pledge to be ‘different’, as Afghans flee

by David FOX KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — The Taliban have offered a pledge of reconciliation, vowing no revenge against opponents and to respect women’s rights in a “different” rule of Afghanistan from two decades ago. The announcements came on Tuesday night shortly after the return to Afghanistan of their co-founder, crowning the group’s astonishing comeback after being ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001. With huge concerns globally about the Taliban’s brutal human rights record […]

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White House insists Biden was right on Afghan ‘hard calls’

  by Sebastian Smith Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden is being called everything from reckless to incompetent over the panicky retreat from Afghanistan, but the White House has a different portrayal: a leader who simply dared to make the tough calls. The Democrat is taking a pounding, including from some in his own party, for the extraordinary meltdown in Kabul. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, facing journalists for the […]

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US military has evacuated 3,200 people from Afghanistan so far: official

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US military has evacuated more than 3,200 people from Afghanistan so far, including 1,100 on Tuesday alone, a White House official said. “Today, US military flights evacuated approximately 1,100 US citizens, US permanent residents, and their families on 13 flights,” the official said, adding: “Now that we have established the flow, we expect those numbers to escalate.” The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said that the […]

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US steps up evacuation from Kabul; says Taliban pledge ‘safe passage’

  by Paul HANDLEY Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The White House said Tuesday that the Taliban had promised that civilians could travel safely to the Kabul airport as the US military stepped up its airlift for Americans and Afghans fleeing the Islamist group. Some 11,000 people with US nationality remain inside the country, including diplomats, contractors and others, according to the White House, most waiting to be evacuated after the Taliban […]

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Pentagon investigating Afghan airport deaths

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Air Force said Tuesday it was investigating how civilians were killed as they tried to cling to an aircraft departing Kabul’s airport amid chaotic scenes sparked by the imminent seizure of the Afghan capital by the Taliban. Investigators are reviewing footage of what appears to be at least two Afghans plummeting from an airborne C-17 transport Monday as well as videos and social media posts related to […]

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Up to 20,000 Afghans to be resettled in UK ‘long term’

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain on Tuesday announced a resettlement scheme for Afghans fleeing the Taliban after their return to power, offering an initial 5,000 places in the first year, rising to up to 20,000 in the long term. The announcement came on the eve of an extraordinary session of parliament on Wednesday, where MPs recalled from holiday will discuss the collapse of the Afghan government, so soon after the withdrawal of Western forces. […]

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Kabul airport has reopened: US general

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Kabul’s airport reopened early Tuesday Afghanistan time after being closed for hours by US forces following a breakdown in security on the tarmac that interrupted evacuation operations, a US general said. The airport reopened at 1935 GMT Monday, said Major General Hank Taylor, a logistics specialist on the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. He said a C-17 transport aircraft had landed with US Marines aboard, and a second one loaded […]

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