Taliban violence continues after checõpoint shooting

Taliban violence has continued in Afghanistan after the brother of a former vice-president was shot dead.

And videos circulating on social media apparently showed Taliban gunmen opening fire on resistance fighters being held as prisoners.

The brother of Amrullah Saleh, the former vicepresident of Afghanistan, and his driver were gunned down in northern Panjshir province, Saleh’s nephew said.

Shuresh Saleh said his uncle, Rohullah Azizi, was travelling in a car on Thursday when Taliban fighters stopped him at a checkpoint.

“As we hear at the moment Taliban shot him and his driver,” he said.

Amrullah Saleh led forces resisting the Taliban in Panjshir, which was the last province to be overrun by Afghanistan’s new rulers.

Meanwhile, the US has halted all inbound flights of Afghan evacuees from two main bases in Germany and Qatar for unspecified “health safety concerns”, a move officials warn will have a severe impact on the evacuation operation.

US Customs and Border Protection made the decision on the recommendation of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to halt the flights from US bases in Germany and Qatar, according to a government document.

The US has been conducting screening and other processing of evacuees at those two main overseas sites and others after evacuating them from Afghanistan.

The halting of the flights is a problem for the United States in part because many of the evacuees have already been at the Ramstein military base longer than the 10-day limit set by the German government in allowing the US to use the country as a transit site.

The US document said the suspension would “severely impact” operations at the base in Germany and have an “adverse effect” on the nearly 10,000 evacuees at Ramstein, many of whom have been there more than 10 days and are becoming increasingly fatigued.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.