1 DEAD IN GUNFIRE AT KABUL AIRPORT, TALIBAN MOVE TO CONTROL PANJSHIR
New regime warns presence of foreign forces beyond Aug 31 pull-out deadline will be seen as ‘extension of occupation’
KABUL: A firefight just outside Kabul’s international airport killed at least one Afghan soldier early Monday, German officials said, the latest chaos to engulf efforts to evacuate those fleeing Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. The airport shooting came as the Taliban sent fighters north of the capital to eliminate pockets of armed resistance to their lightning takeover earlier this month.
The Taliban said they retook three districts seized by opponents the day before and had surrounded Panjshir, the last province that remains out of their control.
KABUL/WASHINGTON/GENEVA: The Taliban warned on Monday there would be “consequences” if the United States and its allies extend the presence of troops in Afghanistan beyond next week, as chaos continued to overwhelm Kabul airport.
The rapid fall of the country to the hardliners last weekend shocked western nations, coming just two weeks before an August 31 deadline for all troops to fully withdraw from the country. Instead, thousands of soldiers have poured back in to manage the frantic airlifting of foreigners and Afghans - many who fear reprisals for working with western nations - out of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
“If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations - the answer is ‘no’. Or there would be consequences,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Sky News on Monday. Staying beyond the agreed deadline would be “extending occupation”, he added.
Taliban’s firm warning to America and its allies came even as US President Joe Biden on Sunday said that discussions were under way on whether or not to extend the evacuation deadline beyond August 31, the last day he has committed himself to for Americans to leave Afghanistan.
Biden indicated that US forces securing the Hamid Karzai International Airport were being expanded to provide “increased rational access” to the site to overcome difficulties.
With the European Union and Britain saying it would be impossible to get everyone out by the month end, Biden has been under pressure to extend the complete pull-out deadline.
‘Extension talks are on’ “There’s discussion going on among us and the military about extending,” Biden said. “Our hope is that we will not have to extend, but there are going to be discussions, I suspect, on how far along we are in the process.”
The rush to leave Kabul has sparked harrowing scenes and killed at least eight people, some crushed to death while at least one person died after falling from a moving plane.
The Taliban, infamous for an ultra-strict interpretation of sharia law during their initial 19962001 rule, have repeatedly vowed a softer version this time.
Enforced calm in Kabul
On the streets of the capital Kabul, the Taliban have enforced a calm of a kind, with their armed forces patrolling the streets and manning checkpoints. Visually, they have also been looking to stamp their authority, ensuring the tricoloured national flag is replaced with their white banner.
At a roadside in Kabul at the weekend, young men sold Taliban flags, which bear in black text the Muslim proclamation of faith and the regime’s formal name: “Islamic Emirate of
Afghanistan”.
“Our goal is to spread the flag of the Islamic Emirate throughout Afghanistan,” said seller Ahmad Shakib, who studies economics at university.
Taliban retake 3 districts Taliban forces have recaptured three districts in northern Afghanistan that fell to local militia groups last week, a spokesman said on Monday.
The districts of Bano, Deh Saleh, Pul e-Hesar in Baghlan province were taken by local militia groups in one of the first signs of armed resistance to the Taliban since their seizure of the capital Kabul on August 15.
By Monday, Taliban forces had cleared the districts and were established in Badakhshan, Takhar and Andarab near the Panjshir valley, according to the
Twitter account of spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
Forces loyal to Ahmad Massoud, son of the anti-Soviet mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, have established themselves in the Panjshir valley, a mountainous area northwest of Kabul which resisted the Taliban before 2001.
Massoud, whose forces include remnants of regular army and special forces units, has called for negotiations to form an inclusive government for Afghanistan, but has promised to resist if Taliban forces try to enter the valley.
More than 500 tonnes of medical supplies including surgical equipment and severe malnutrition kits due to be delivered to Afghanistan this week are stuck because of Kabul airport restrictions, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.
Aid agencies say it is critical that medical and food supplies reach some 300,000 people displaced in Afghanistan over the past two months.
Nearly 18.5 million people half the population - rely on aid and the humanitarian needs are expected to grow due to drought.
“While the eyes of the world now are on the people being evacuated and the planes leaving, we need to get supplies in to help those who are left behind,” WHO spokesperson Inas Hamam said in an emailed statement to Reuters. She said the WHO was calling for empty planes to divert to its warehouse in Dubai to collect the supplies on their way to pick up evacuees from the country.