Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Potential Islamic State threats against Americans in Afghanistan are forcing the U.S. military to develop new ways to get evacuees to the airport in Kabul, a senior U.S. official said Saturday, adding a new complication to the already chaotic efforts to get people out of the country after its swift fall to the Taliban.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A panicked crush of people trying to enter Kabul’s international airport killed seven Afghan civilians in the crowds, the British military said Sunday, showing the danger still posed to those trying to flee the Taliban’s takeover of the country.

KABUL, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, political chief of Afghanistan's Taliban, said the Taliban intends to have economic and trade ties with all countries around the world.

"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan wants diplomatic and trade ties with all countries, particularly with the United States of America," Baradar wrote on social media platform twitter on Saturday.

Baradar denied media reports that the Taliban has not intended to have diplomatic and trade ties with the United States.

New Delhi, Aug 21 (PTI) A group of Indian nationals is learnt to have been stopped and taken to an unknown location near the Kabul airport on Saturday for questioning and verification of travel documents, triggering some confusion and concerns in India.

People tracking the developments in Kabul said there were no specific reports of any harm to Indians in Kabul so far.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants attacked protesters Wednesday in Afghanistan who dared to take down their banner and replace it with the country’s flag, killing at least one person and fueling fears about how the insurgents would govern this fractious nation.

18 Aug 2021; MEMO: A Taliban spokesman has insisted that he did not speak to any media identified as Israeli, Arabi21.com reported today.

Suhail Shaheen was heard answering questions about the rights of minorities, including Jews, the London-based news website said. He gave his answer to an Israeli reporter, who did not identify himself as such.

KABUL, Aug 18 (Reuters) - The leaders of Afghanistan's Taliban will show themselves to the world, an official of the Islamist movement said on Wednesday, unlike during the past 20 years, when its leaders have lived largely in secret.

"Slowly, gradually, the world will see all our leaders, there will be no shadow of secrecy," the senior Taliban official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

(AP) --- In just seven days, any lingering dreams of a free Afghanistan died.

As last week dawned, many clung to hope that the Taliban could be held back, though key trade routes had been seized, border crossings overtaken and swaths of remote areas clutched. But then, in just a week, militants won city after city, toppled the government and grabbed the grand prize of Kabul.

(AP) --- Ezanullah, one of thousands of young Taliban fighters from the countryside who rode into Afghanistan’s capital over the weekend, had never seen anything like it.

The paved streets of Kabul were lined with towering apartment blocks, glass office buildings and shopping malls. The plush furniture inside the Interior Ministry was like “something I thought of in a dream,” said the 22-year-old fighter from the country’s mountainous east.

He said he plans to ask his commander if he can stay. “I don’t want to leave,” he said.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban have blown up the statue of a Shiite militia leader who fought against them during Afghanistan’s civil war in the 1990s, according to photos circulating on Wednesday, sowing further doubt about their claims to have become more moderate.