Around 150 media outlets across Afghanistan have stopped printing newspapers and magazines due to a financial crisis that has gripped the country since the Taliban came to power, a report said on Thursday.

Tolo TV, citing the journalists' union of Afghanistan, said many newspapers had ceased publishing for good, while others had shifted online.

"Print media has stopped in the country. If the situation goes on like this, we will face a social crisis," Ahmad Shoaib Fana, chief executive of the national journalists' union, was quoted as saying. 

The Kabul-Kandahar highway, the main thoroughfare linking the Afghan capital to the southern city, has largely resumed traffic, and businesses around it are showing signs of recovery, reporters from the China Media Group (CMG) said on Monday.

International commercial flights will resume after the main radar at Kabul airport is repaired, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The government of Afghanistan is optimistic about future relations between the two countries, a Taliban spokesperson told a press conference on Tuesday.

"We're optimistic and looking forward to their assistance. We ensure that the pledged assistance will be delivered to people by the health sector," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said when asked about China's aid, including its donation of COVID-19 vaccines. 

He said the Taliban appreciated China's longtime support to Afghanistan as well as its recent stance on the situation in the country. 

Minorities are to be considered for inclusion in the interim government in Afghanistan as the new Taliban rulers work to make it more inclusive, spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said.

On the education of females, Mujahid said they are working to complete the procedures so that girls can return to the classroom.

"We are finalizing things... it will happen as soon as possible," he said. 

Taliban will announce some more names of the newly-appointed members of the Afghan interim government, including non-Taliban members, according to Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid.

The Taliban will consider putting women and members of the Hazara ethnic minority in government positions, spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday, after unveiling the remaining positions in the all-male cabinet.

The Taliban have fully acknowledged the role of women in the country's different sectors, especially on the medical services and education fronts, Mujahid said during a press conference in Kabul according to CMG reports.

Girls in Afghanistan will be allowed to return to school shortly, he added. "We are finalizing things... it will happen as soon as possible," he said, despite an order over the weekend that asked male teachers and students back to school without mentioning female students. 

To show the new government's "inclusiveness," the group will give non-Taliban people opportunities to work for the government, the spokesperson announced.

Mujahid added the Taliban will not allow any force to "threaten the sovereignty and safety" of Afghanistan after the U.S. troop withdrawal.

(Cover: The press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 21, 2021. /CMG)

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Afghan capital Kabul on Monday to meet with acting Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, TOLO News reported.

During the meeting, the WHO chief said the organization will continuously support Afghanistan's healthcare system and prevent the country from falling into a humanitarian disaster. The WHO will promote the unfreezing of assets that the international community has donated to Afghanistan.

"Protecting the health of the Afghan people is of the utmost priority for @WHO. We will visit health facilities meet with @WHOAfghanistan staff, health workers, and Taliban leadership on these vital issues," Tedros tweeted on Monday.

(Cover: WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference on the coronavirus situation in Geneva, Switzerland, February 28, 2020. /Reuters)

Thirteen truck-loads of food aid from Pakistan arrived in eastern Afghan province Nangarhar through the land border on Sunday, Pakistani Ambassador to Afghanistan Mansoor Ahmad Khan tweeted.

"These humanitarian goods will be dispatched for distribution among needy people in various Afghan provinces," the ambassador said, adding that another four trucks of assistance would be crossing the border to Afghanistan soon. 

"From today, Pakistan has started supplies of humanitarian assistance through land route," he said. 

Pakistan has already sent aid to Afghanistan by air.

The Taliban on Sunday condemned the U.S. drone attack that killed 10 Afghan civilians last month and urged the U.S. to take responsibility for their past "killings and oppression" in the country.  

"This is not the only incident that the U.S. has committed. It's 20 years that they have martyred civilians in Afghanistan," Zabihullah Mujahid, deputy minister of culture and information of the Taliban's interim government, told China Media Group. 

Condemning the acts as "a violation of human rights," he stressed that such carelessness leads to a humanitarian catastrophe.

"The U.S. must be held accountable for their past actions and cooperate with the people of Afghanistan as a form of compensation for the killings and oppression in the country," he said.

The deputy minister also commented on the six-month extension of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) which was adopted on Friday.

"We're optimistic about the extension of UNAMA activities because it's a body of the UN and an international organization," he said, reiterating the country's willingness to have good relations with the international community.

"We call upon them to not extend their mission but take effective steps in order to raise the voices of Afghan people and assist the Afghans. And also, the UN must play a positive role politically with Afghans," he added.

There are women working for the government of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Mayor Maulawi Hamdullah Numani told reporters at a news briefing on Sunday in response to questions about women's employment.

There are a total of 2,000 officials in the municipal government, nearly one-third of them are female, the mayor said, adding that the Afghan Taliban have requested all women to return to work.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan had previously ordered women to stay at home. It will take time for all female employees to return to work, Numani said, but some of them are working for the government.

Speaking of the major problems faced by Kabul, Numani said the city is facing a budget dilemma and the Taliban are setting aside some money from their own income channels to support the city's recovery.

The government is carrying out municipal works including citywide cleaning as well as working on the city's budget, Numani told a press conference on Sunday while calling for more outside aid and assistance, adding that payment of salaries for government staff is underway.

The municipal government at the current stage is focusing on city cleaning, plant maintenance, clearing roadblocks, securing a budget, receiving external assistance and cleaning up the city waste, said Numani

According to the mayor, the city has called off the building of a new square to cut the expenditure. 

Numani added that there are some difficulties in currency exchange and transfers in the city, and commodity prices are also rising. 

He also admitted that there are communication problems among Taliban members in terms of coordination, but said they're working to improve it.

"The Kabul city government is communicating with many traders on related issues and believes that many problems can be resolved with the further normalization of government work," he said. 

At least two people were killed and some 20 others injured after several blasts hit Jalalabad City, capital of eastern Nangarhar Province, on Saturday, local media reported.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks yet.

Earlier in the day, an explosion struck a street in the Afghan capital Kabul, injuring at least two people, TOLO News agency said, quoting an eyewitness.

Afghanistan's central bank said Wednesday that Taliban members had handed over $12.3 million in cash and several gold bars recovered from the homes of former government officials including ex-Vice President Amrullah Saleh. 

"The money recovered came from high-ranking officials in the previous government... and a number of national security agencies who kept cash and gold in their homes," a statement said.

Passenger flights between Iran and Afghanistan resumed on Wednesday, Iran's state-run Al-Alam TV channel reported.

An Iranian Mahan Air plane landed on Wednesday in the Afghan capital Kabul with 19 passengers on board, coming from the Iranian city of Mashhad, it said.

Regular passenger services to Kabul had stopped after the Taliban took control of Kabul last month.

The Taliban are holding consultations on the formation of an army, the group's chief of staff, Qari Fasihuddin, told a press conference in Kabul on Wednesday.

A regular army and force will be formed soon, Fasihuddin said. 

The "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" (IEA) didn't kill any civilian in the province of Panjshir, and such allegations are untrue, Bilal Karimi, a senior Taliban official, said in an interview with CGTN on Tuesday.

Speaking on the phone with CGTN, Karimi said reports circulating on social media are baseless and "propaganda against the IEA." 

"Indeed the humanitarian assistance is going normal to Panjshir," Karimi stressed.

Karimi also said the IEA only fought against those who took weapons against them. "Now such fighters have escaped Panjshir." 

"Fortunately, in the war of Panjshir, the civilians didn't suffer casualties at all, as operations were done in a very successful way," he added. 

(Cover: Taliban soldiers patrol in Panjshir Province, Afghanistan, September 8, 2021. /CFP)

France will contribute 100 million euros ($118 million) for emergency humanitarian work in Afghanistan following a UN flash appeal, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in Geneva on Monday. 

Al-Qaeda may be able to reconstitute itself in Afghanistan and be capable of orchestrating attacks inside the U.S. in one to two years, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Lieutenant General Scott Berrier.

China said it supports the Afghan people to independently choose a development path that suits their own national conditions and hopes the country will build a broad and inclusive political structure.

"China is willing to provide vaccines, humanitarian supplies and other assistance to Afghanistan, and work with the international community to help Afghanistan fight terrorism and realize national stability and economic development at an early date," Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu told Amir Khan Muttaqi, acting foreign minister of Afghanistan's caretaker government in a meeting on Tuesday. 

The Afghan official promised that the government will continuously improve its governance capabilities to better combat terrorism and will never allow any forces to use the Afghan territory to do things that endanger the interests of China and other countries.

The Taliban government's acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi Kabul expressed appreciation to the countries that pledged humanitarian support to Afghanistan at a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday and said the Taliban will coordinate with them.

Addressing reporters, Muttaqi said they want to have good relations with the world's countries, including the United States. 

He said the Taliban do not want countries to pressure Afghanistan because pressure does not work and does not benefit Afghanistan or other countries.

Talking about the international recognition, the acting minister said they are in contact with UN representatives and regional countries. 

"Negative reaction is rare and it is going forward," said Muttaqi. 

Acting Foreign Minister of the interim Afghan government Amir Khan Muttaqi on Tuesday said that Afghanistan wants to have good relations with countries around the world, and called for continuing aid from international organizations to the country.

"We want to have good relations with the world's countries, but want them to not pressure Afghanistan, because pressure does not work and does not benefit Afghanistan or world countries," he said at a press conference.

On the issue of international recognition of the Taliban government, Muttaqi said they were in contact with UN representatives and individual countries.  

"It is known that the people of Afghanistan have been reeling under the brunt of war for 40 years and that's why we hope the international community will lend a helping hand to Afghanistan in various domains," he added.

Foreign aid accounted for 43 percent of the Afghan economy in 2020, according to the World Bank. The country remains among the world's poorest, with a GDP per capita of just $509 the same year.

It has been almost a month since the Taliban entered Afghanistan's capital Kabul and on September 7, they announced the formation of a caretaker government. 

What have been the key events in the past month following the capture of Kabul? Check out this video.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tried to beat back criticism of the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan on Monday at a contentious congressional hearing where at least two Republicans called on him to resign. 

In five hours of often testy exchanges with lawmakers, Blinken defended President Joe Biden's decision to pull out and pushed back on accusations that the State Department should have done more to help Americans and at-risk Afghans to be evacuated, blaming the previous administration for lacking a plan. 

He repeatedly noted that Republican former President Donald Trump had negotiated the withdrawal agreement with the Taliban, and said Biden's administration could not renegotiate because of threats from the group to resume killing Americans. 

"There's no evidence that staying longer would have made the Afghan security forces or the Afghan government any more resilient or self-sustaining," Blinken said. 

"We inherited a deadline. We did not inherit a plan," Blinken said, referring to the Trump administration's agreement to remove all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by May 1.

Read more: 

Chart of the Day: The Afghanistan exodus by the numbers

After Afghan withdrawal, will U.S. turn to China?

Members of Congress have pledged to investigate since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last month after a rapid advance against Western-back government forces. 

Blinken appeared on Monday before the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and was to testify on Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the first Biden administration official to testify publicly to lawmakers since the Taliban's takeover.

Many Republicans, particularly those closely allied to Trump, interrupted or even shouted over Blinken during the House hearing. Others offered harsh criticism. 

"This was an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions," said Representative Mike McCaul, the top Republican on the committee. "I never thought in my lifetime that I would see an unconditional surrender to the Taliban." 

McCaul asked why assets like the Bagram Air Base were not maintained and why the administration had not reached counterterrorism agreements with neighboring countries. 

"You can't blame the Trump administration for your failure," said Representative Greg Steube. "Your administration in the White House was seeing in real time what was happening in Afghanistan and you did absolutely nothing to stop it."

Blinken, however, suggested that the Taliban violated the accord through their "relentless march," even as the Trump administration pressed the former Afghan government to free Taliban prisoners. 

Lawmakers asked a long list of questions about the rapid collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government and scramble to evacuate 124,000 people. 

Democrats expressed concern about Americans and at-risk Afghans who still wish to leave, but backed the withdrawal as necessary, though painful.  

"Disentangling ourselves from Afghanistan was never going to be easy," said Representative Gregory Meeks, the Democrat who led the committee.  

"I would welcome hearing what exactly a smooth withdrawal from a messy, chaotic 20-year war looks like," he said. "I don't believe one exists." 

Blinken praised the evacuation as "a heroic effort." He pledged that the United States would continue to support humanitarian aid to Afghanistan but through non-governmental organizations and UN agencies, not the Taliban. 

Republicans grilled Blinken about what happened at Kabul's airport during the evacuation ahead of the administration's August 31 deadline to leave. Thirteen U.S. troops and dozens of Afghans were killed in a suicide bombing amid the chaos. 

Democrats said they wanted to address not just the seven months Biden was president before Kabul fell but all 20 years of U.S. involvement in the country – under presidents from both parties. 

(With input from Reuters, AFP)

(Cover: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies virtually before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 13, 2021. /CFP)

China will donate an initial 3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Afghanistan, with more emergency supplies to follow, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Monday.

China has decided to urgently provide food, materials for winter, COVID-19 vaccines, and medicines worth 200 million yuan to Afghanistan, said Chen Xu, head of the Chinese Mission to UN at Geneva.

The United Nations on Monday warned that Afghanistan is on the precipice of a major humanitarian crisis and appealed for more than $600 million in fresh aid to help millions of people on the ground. 

In his opening remarks, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the country faced a "looming catastrophe" and that many Afghans were in "perhaps their most perilous hour" after the Taliban took over in August.

READ MORE

China's first COVID-19 vaccine factory in Europe

Auto show focuses on electric future

Tennis's new British-Chinese-Romanian star

"Today, one in three Afghans do not know where their next meal will come from, the poverty rate is spiraling and basic public services are close to collapse. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes and at the same time, Afghanistan faces a severe drought – the second to hit the country in four years. Many people could run out of food by the end of this month just as winter approaches," he warned. 

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said 14 million people were on the brink of starvation. About one-third of the money was earmarked for the WFP to bring vital supplies to the country over the next four months. 

Guterres said more than $1 billion in aid pledges were made, but it was "impossible" to say how much was specifically earmarked for the UN. 

The U.S. pledged $64 million in fresh funding, Austria $73m, while France said it would allocate $117m. 

"Humanitarian aid will not solve the problem if the economy in Afghanistan collapses," Guterres added. "My appeal is to find ways to allow for an injection of cash in the Afghan economy, allowing it to breathe and avoiding a collapse that would be devastating for the people of Afghanistan." 

Taliban 'breaking its promises'

Even before the Taliban takeover last month, 18 million people – or roughly half of the Afghan population – depended on aid. The vast majority of them were children. 

The problem has become even more acute after billions in foreign funding that once flowed into Afghanistan's Western-backed government dried up. Countries including the U.S. and those in the EU said they will not even think of resuming such aid until the Taliban has proved itself tolerant. 

"Safe passage of visa-holders must be permitted. There must be a cessation of violence and terrorism must not find a home in Afghanistan. Human rights must also be upheld, especially for women and children," said Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne.  

Highlighting the West's distrust of the Taliban, the UN's human rights chief slammed the Islamic militant group for breaking its promises to be open and inclusive. 

"In contradiction to assurances that the Taliban would uphold women's rights, over the past three weeks, women have instead been progressively excluded from the public sphere," Michelle Bachelet said just hours before the aid conference got under way in Geneva.

Uzbekistan deported all Afghan servicemen and nationals to an unspecified country on September 12-13 after they illegally crossed the border from Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Many Afghans rushed across the land border with Uzbekistan as violence surged with the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces and the Taliban's lightning takeover of most of the country.

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday called for countries to dig deep and provide desperately needed aid to Afghans, and to support women and others whose rights appear threatened. 

Speaking to ministers gathering for a donor conference for Afghanistan, Guterres insisted that "the people of Afghanistan need a lifeline." 

"After decades of war, suffering and insecurity, they face perhaps their most perilous hour," he said at the UN's European headquarters in Geneva. "Let us be clear: This conference is not simply about what we will give to the people of Afghanistan. It is about what we owe." 

His comments came a month after the Taliban swept into power in Afghanistan, sparking a chaotic exit for the troops from the United States and its allies after 20 years in the country.

The half-day conference seeks to raise the $606 million that humanitarian agencies say is urgently needed to provide life-saving aid to millions of Afghans over the next four months.

The money is needed for food and livelihood assistance for nearly 11 million people and essential health services for 3.4 million.
Most of the funds requested were sought at the end of last year as part of a $1.3-billion humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan, which remains severely underfunded. But nearly a third of the requested funds are new needs that have arisen with the Taliban's takeover.

'Worst humanitarian crises'

Guterres stressed that Afghans were experiencing "one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world," with some 40 percent of the country's GDP already drawn from foreign funding, according to the UN. Half of the population were already dependent on humanitarian aid. Afghanistan is facing a devastating drought and mass displacement in addition to the impact of COVID-19.

Deborah Lyons, the UN secretary-general's special representative on Afghanistan, urged countries last week to keep money flowing in despite concerns over the Taliban government to "prevent a total breakdown of the economy and social order."

Guterres announced that the UN would release $20 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to support the humanitarian operation in Afghanistan. But he stressed that more money was needed – and quickly.

He also highlighted the need to safeguard human rights, women's in particular, in the country.

"One of the bright spots of Afghanistan today is the new generation of women leaders and entrepreneurs, educated and flourishing over the last two decades," he said. "Afghan women and girls want to ensure that gains are not lost, doors are not closed and hope is not extinguished."

(With input from AFP)

(Cover: An Afghan burqa-clad woman walks with a child along a road in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 9, 2021. /CFP)

A Taliban spokesman denied the allegation that the group is harboring al-Qaeda top figure Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan, reported Sputnik on Monday.

Michael Morell, former CIA deputy director between 2011 and 2013, said in an interview on September 12 that the U.S. intelligence believes Ayman al-Zawahiri is living in Afghanistan.

Kabul's airport will soon be ready for international flights as efforts are underway to remove technical problems, airport director Abdul Hadi Hamadani said Monday.

"The domestic flights have already begun and the international flights would begin soon and efforts are underway to remove the remaining 10 to 15 percent technical problems at the airport," Hamadani was quoted as saying by local media.

He made the remarks after a Pakistan International Airlines plane landed at and took off from the airport in Afghanistan’s capital on Monday.

Many facilities at the airport were destroyed during the withdrawal of the last U.S.-led forces and American nationals on August 31, according to the official.

Hamadani also confirmed that the airport has received planes carrying humanitarian assistance from Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Pakistan, adding that similar flights from Russia and Turkey are expected to arrive in the coming days. 

Qatar's foreign minister said on Monday that the Gulf state has asked the Taliban to respect women's rights by giving several examples of Muslim countries where women have an active role in society.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani was speaking in a joint press conference with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian in Doha.

Le Drian said dozens of French nationals are still in Afghanistan, and Paris is working with Qatar to evacuate them.

The Taliban have seized $6.5 million and 15 gold bricks from the house of former Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh, according to a video published online by Taliban soldiers. 

No comment has come from Amrullah Saleh and his anti-Taliban opposition forces yet.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, deputy prime minister in the Taliban's acting government, said he is alive and well, following online reports that he was injured or killed in clashes. 

In a tweet posted by Muhammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Taliban's political office in Qatar's capital Doha, Baradar confirmed his status via an audio message.

United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Monday that he has arrived in Afghan capital Kabul to assess the humanitarian situation and the requirements of displaced Afghans. 

"During my visit I will assess the country's acute humanitarian needs and the situation of 3.5 million displaced Afghans," he tweeted. "I am grateful to all UN, NGO and other humanitarian workers who are working hard on the ground to meet those needs."

The UN refugee agency has previously warned that a major humanitarian crisis is looming in Afghanistan after the Taliban took over Kabul and the majority of the country.

The UN is convening an aid conference in Geneva on Monday in an effort to raise more than $600 million for Afghanistan.

China will continue to help Afghanistan with livelihood projects and aid it with reconstruction, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Monday. 

China announced last week that it would provide 200 million yuan ($30.96 million) worth of grain, winter supplies, vaccines and other medicines to Afghanistan.

The spokesperson also urged the international community to provide economic and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan to tide over its difficulties as the war-torn country is facing economic and pandemic-related challenges after the U.S. pullout.  

The United States should shoulder its responsibilities and help alleviate Afghanistan's economic difficulties while respecting its sovereign independence, Zhao added.

Russia will send humanitarian aid, including food and medical supplies, to Afghanistan soon, RIA news agency reported on Monday, citing the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Taliban forces rescued four kidnapped kids in Balkh Province, Afghanistan on Sunday night, an official from the Taliban's information and culture department in Balkh said on Monday.

Four of the six kidnapped children were rescued, the official said, while the two others were killed by the kidnappers. 

Five kidnappers were killed. 

The newly appointed Taliban government's acting Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund met with visiting Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani on Sunday, the state-run Bakhtar News Agency reported.

During the meeting held at capital Kabul's Presidential Palace, the two sides discussed bilateral ties, humanitarian assistance, Afghanistan's future economic development and the international engagement with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the agency reported.

Read more:

Graphics: Taliban announce new Afghan government, who are the key figures?

Graphics: The evolution of the Taliban

According to the report, Akhund thanked Qatar for its assistance to the people of Afghanistan, stressing that the Qatari people had helped Afghans in embracing peace and stability and stood alongside Afghans during difficult situations. 

The talks also touched upon the importance of international aid to Afghanistan. 

The Qatari foreign minister hoped that Afghanistan and Qatar "would have good relations in the future," the report said. 

Sheikh Mohammed and Akhund also discussed "concerted efforts to combat terrorist organizations that threaten the stability of Afghanistan," ways to enhance peace in the country and the safe passage of people, according to Qatar's foreign ministry.

Sheikh Mohammed also met Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the previous Afghan government, and former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the foreign ministry said.

The visit came days after the Taliban announced a caretaker government in Afghanistan on September 7.

Qatar is considered one of the countries with the most influence over the Taliban. It also played a pivotal role in the massive U.S.-led airlift of its own citizens, other Western nationals and Afghans who helped Western countries. 

The Qatari capital Doha also hosted the Taliban's political office, which oversaw the negotiations with the United States that eventually led to the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

(With input from agencies)

Women in Afghanistan can continue to study in universities, including at post-graduate levels, but classrooms will be gender-segregated and Islamic dress is compulsory, AP reported on Sunday, citing the higher education minister of the Taliban's new government.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with visiting Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Saturday in Moscow.

At a press conference following the meeting, Lavrov called for the joint efforts of international community to solve the refugee issue in Afghanistan. 

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will resume commercial flights to Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, starting from September 13, the airline said on Saturday.

Permission to land at Kabul airport has been granted by Afghanistan's Civil Aviation Authority, according to PIA.

It will be the first foreign commercial airline to resume operations since the Taliban seized power last month. 

Over 250 foreign nationals, including dozens of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, departed Kabul unhindered on Qatari flights over the last three days, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said on Friday. 

"We will continue to engage the government of Qatar, the Taliban, and others to ensure the safe passage of our citizens, other foreign nationals, and Afghans that want to leave," he tweeted. "Our thanks go out to Qatar for its help facilitating these flights, and we welcome the Taliban’s cooperation in this important effort."

Food and job insecurity is now the primary cause of concern for families in Afghanistan, Anthea Webb, deputy regional director for the World Food Program (WFP), told a UN press briefing on Friday.

With winter setting in and the economy on the verge of collapsing, their worries are also growing, Webb said via a conference call.

Quoting from the latest WFP survey, she said that 93 percent of households in Afghanistan don't have sufficient access to food now.

The randomized phone survey, carried out from August 21 to September 5 in all provinces in the country, indicated that three in four Afghan families have been reducing portions or borrowing food.

"They are buying cheaper food, foregoing more nutritious options such as meat, dairy products and vegetables. Parents are skipping meals entirely to allow their children to eat," Webb said.

She added that food insecurity in Afghanistan had already been widespread before August 15, with 81 percent of households reporting insufficient food consumption and one in three Afghans signaling acute food insecurity.

"It is now a race against time to deliver lifesaving assistance to the Afghan people before roads are cut off by snow," the UN official said.

She said that the main reason the situation had gotten so much worse over the past month was that many Afghans did not have access to the money they needed to buy enough food.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has announced that he will travel to Geneva on September 13 to convene a high-level humanitarian meeting to address the growing needs in Afghanistan.

Guterres appealed on Friday for an injection of cash into Afghanistan to avoid an economic meltdown that would spark a "catastrophic" situation for the Afghan people and be a "gift for terrorist groups."

His remarks come after his special envoy on Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, warned the Security Council on Thursday that the freezing of billions of dollars in international Afghan assets to keep them out of Taliban hands would inevitably spark "a severe economic downturn."

(With input from Xinhua, Reuters)

A Qatar Airways plane returned to Doha from Kabul on Friday carrying 156 passengers, the Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV channel reported on Saturday.

On Thursday, Qatar Airways flew the first international charter flight out of Kabul since the Taliban took over the Afghan capital. 

A third airplane with humanitarian aid from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) landed in Kabul on Friday and the cargo was handed over to Taliban officials for distribution to people in need.

The anti-Taliban battle is not over despite the Taliban having entered Panjshir, a spokesperson of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) said on Friday, adding that the resistance battle will continue.

The Taliban have previously claimed to completely capture Panjshir province and that they were negotiating with some of the resistance force who had fled to the mountains.

4,000 people associated with the American University of Afghanistan were hoping to make it out of Kabul during frantic evacuations at the end of August.

All the international faculty, and about 150 students got on flights out.

CGTN’s Caroline Malone speaks to two female students among the few to make it to the United States.

Check out The China Report, our new weekly newsletter. Subscribe here!

32 more U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents departed Afghanistan on Friday following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, the White House said.

American troops were flown out to meet President Joe Biden's August 31 deadline, but other Americans were left behind and have been leaving the country in scheduled evacuation flights.

The latest evacuation comes a day after an estimated 200 foreigners, including Americans, left departed Kabul on a commercial flight.

Reports indicate that there may still be some Americans in Afghanistan with no desire to leave immediately for various reasons.

The White House hopes more flights will be allowed to evacuate the remaining Americans willing to leave the country.

A second Qatar Airways passenger flight, which arrived in Afghanistan, has departed from Kabul airport, CNN reported on Friday. 

It is currently unclear how many passengers are on board the plane and what their nationalities are, according to the report.

Russia would not take part in the Afghan government inauguration ceremony, Reuters reported on Friday citing The Kremlin. 

From the invasion in 2001 to the hasty withdrawal before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, four U.S. presidents have overseen the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. CGTN looks back on how they created today's mess in Afghanistan over the past two decades. 

A Chinese envoy on Thursday expressed the hope that Afghanistan would be able to make the right choice and find a development path that is suited to its national conditions. 
  
The Taliban have announced the formation of an interim government in Afghanistan – a necessary step toward restoring order and post-war reconstruction, said Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations. 

"We hope that the Taliban will learn lessons from history, honor its commitments, unite all ethnic groups and factions, build a broad-based and inclusive political architecture, pursue moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies, protect the rights and interests of women and children, resolutely combat terrorist groups, and develop friendly and cooperative relations with other countries, not least its neighbors," he told the Security Council.
  
"Today, Afghanistan stands at a historic crossroads. We sincerely hope that Afghanistan can make the right choice and find a development path that is suited to its national conditions."
  
China welcomes UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' convening of an international conference on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan slated for Monday in Geneva and hopes the international community, major donor countries in particular, will step up assistance to the country, Geng said.

At the same time, the international community, he said, should help Afghanistan tap into its advantages in natural endowment, geographical location and human resources, carry out regional cooperation and connectivity activities, promote economic and social development, and improve the well-being of its people. 
  
One of the major causes for the current economic difficulties in Afghanistan is the freezing of Afghan's overseas assets, Geng noted, adding that these assets belong to Afghanistan and should be used for Afghanistan, not as leverage for threat or restraints. 

The United States froze nearly $9.5 billion Afghan reserves belonging to the Afghan central bank in mid-August after the Taliban took control of Kabul.  

Geng also commented on the U.S.-led military operation in Afghanistan during the past two decades. 

"Only history can do justice to what has happened in Afghanistan over the past 20 years," he said. "The recent abrupt changes in Afghanistan remind us once again that military interventions and power politics cannot gain popularity, and foreign models and democratic transformations are hard pressed to gain a foothold." 

The U.S. completed the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan on August 30. 

(With input from Xinhua)

The first international commercial flight since the end of last month's chaotic Western airlift from Afghanistan left Kabul airport on Thursday, officials said.

The flight, operated by state-owned Qatar Airways, later landed at Doha's Hamad International Airport, Al Jazeera news channel reported.

"We managed to fly the first plane with passengers just an hour ago," Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said in Islamabad, thanking Taliban leaders for helping reopen the airport.

The passengers included U.S., Canadian, Ukrainian, German and British citizens, Reuters reported citing a source with knowledge of the matter.

First civilian evacuation flight has taken off from Kabul since U.S. troop withdrawal.

Afghanistan's Kabul Airport is about 90 percent ready for operations, but its reopening is planned gradually, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing a Qatari official.

There would be a flight on Friday, another Qatari official said, speaking to journalists, adding that a flight out from Kabul on Thursday was a regular flight and not an evacuation.

Taliban authorities have agreed to let 200 American civilians and third-country nationals who remained in Afghanistan after the end of the U.S. evacuation operation to depart on charter flights from Kabul airport, both Reuters and AFP have reported,  citing sources.  

The Taliban were pressed to allow the departures by U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad, a U.S. official told Reuters. 

The departures were expected on Thursday.

Pentagon officials have remarked that some cabinet members of the Afghan government or family members of late Haqqani Sahib are on the U.S. blacklists and still targets, the Taliban's spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on Thursday.

The Taliban considers this position a clear violation of the Doha Agreement, which is neither in the interest of the United States nor Afghanistan, Mujahid added.

Ariana Afghan Airlines, Afghanistan's flag carrier, will partially resume its international flights soon, an official for the airline told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has promised that women will be brought into the Afghanistan government, France's BFM TV reported on Thursday.

"This government is temporary," he is quoted as saying in reference to the interim cabinet announced earlier this week. "We will have positions for women." 

Suhail Shaheen, one of the Taliban spokespersons, said the formation of interim government has ended the political vacuum in Afghanistan. 

He made the remarks during an interview with China Media Group (CMG).

The pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan left "tens of thousands of America's Afghan allies to face a future of uncertainty and danger," according to a Wall Street Journal article. Brishna Sadiqi, a senior coordinator who worked with the U.S. government for five years in Kabul, is one of those left behind. Sadiqi said she applied for the special immigrant visa, but it is still under review even though she submitted all documentation required and requested that the process of evacuation be expedited. "We women actually worked side by side with Americans. But still, we are left behind," she said.

Pakistan on Wednesday announced the dispatch of humanitarian assistance comprising food and medicines for the people of Afghanistan. 

"Three C-130s are being dispatched to Afghanistan. After the first immediate tranche through air, further supplies would continue through land routes," the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The acting prime minister of Afghanistan's caretaker government Hassan Akhund called on former Afghan officials to return to the country, he told reporters on Thursday.

The officials' security and safety will be guaranteed, he said.

Ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country last month as the Taliban entered Kabul, tweeted an apology on Wednesday, expressing regret that he "could not make it end differently."

In a statement posted on Twitter, Ghani said he had left at the urging of his security team who said that if he stayed there was a risk of "the same horrific street-to-street fighting the city had suffered during the Civil War of the 1990s." 

Read more: Wang Yi says Afghanistan stands at crossroads of history

"Leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life, but I believed it was the only way to keep the guns silent and save Kabul and her 6 million citizens," he said. 

Ghani, a former World Bank official who became president after two bitterly disputed elections marred by widespread allegations of fraud, dismissed reports that he had left with millions of dollars in cash as "completely and categorically false." 

"Corruption is a plague that has crippled our country for decades and fighting corruption has been a central focus of my efforts as president," he said, adding that he and his Lebanese-born wife were "scrupulous in our personal finances." 

He offered appreciation for the sacrifices Afghans had made over the past 40 years of war in their country.

"It is with deep and profound regret that my own chapter ended in similar tragedy to my predecessors – without ensuring stability and prosperity. I apologize to the Afghan people that I could not make it end differently."

(With input from Reuters)

(Cover: Ashraf Ghani looks on while attending a Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board meeting at the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul, July 28, 2021. /CFP)

A plane loaded with around 30 tons of food and medical supplies provided by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) landed in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Wednesday morning, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

The UAE is among the first batch of countries to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

The Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada on Tuesday said the newly formed Taliban caretaker government will start functioning soon.

"As a caretaker and committed Cabinet has been announced by authorities of the Islamic Emirate to control and run affairs of the country which will start functioning at the earliest, I assure all countrymen that the figures will work hard towards Islamic rules and Sharia law," Akhundzada said in a statement.

This is the first statement issued by the Taliban supreme leader after the Islamic group's takeover of capital Kabul in mid-August.

"We want to have peaceful, prosperous and self-reliant Afghanistan, for which we will strive to eliminate all causes of war and strife in the country, and our countrymen to live in complete security and comfort," he said.

The statement came as Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid earlier on Tuesday announced the lineup of the new government, with Mullah Hassan Akhund appointed as the acting prime minister.

China on Wednesday said the Afghan Taliban's announcement of the formation of an interim government is a necessary step for Afghanistan to restore domestic order and pursue post-war reconstruction, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in an exclusive interview with CGTN.

The Afghan Taliban's announcement of the formation of an interim government and some key roles has put an end to the three-week anarchy in Afghanistan, Wang noted, adding China attaches importance to the move.

Asked to comment on the Afghanistan situation, Wang reiterated that China, as a responsible major power and a neighboring country of Afghanistan, has a clear and consistent stance on the issue.

"We respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan and uphold the principle of non-interference in the country's internal affairs," Wang stressed.

China supports the Afghan people to choose a national development path based on the country's situation, and hopes the country will build an inclusive political structure and stay committed to a moderate domestic and foreign policy, resolutely crack down on all forms of terrorist forces and get along with other countries, especially its neighboring countries, added the spokesperson.

Read more:

Who are some of the key figures in the Taliban government?

Taliban announce key members of new Afghan government

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid announced the names of some of the key members of the new Afghan government at a press conference on Tuesday.

According to the spokesperson, the Taliban's Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada will be the emir of Afghanistan. Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund will be the acting prime minister while political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will be his deputy

Regarding questions that currently released members of the new government are all from the Taliban, Wang called on the Taliban to consult with all ethnicities and all sides to meet the expectations of the Afghan people and the international community.

"We have also noted the Afghan Taliban's promise of ensuring all people benefit from the new government," said Wang.

Pakistan said on Tuesday that it would host a meeting of the foreign ministers of neighboring countries of Afghanistan.

In a statement, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said that Foreign Ministers' meeting on the Afghan issue among the neighboring countries of Afghanistan on Wednesday would be chaired by Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi and attended by China, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

"The neighbors of Afghanistan have a vital stake in the stability of the country. A peaceful, stable, united, sovereign and prosperous Afghanistan will contribute towards transit trade, people-to-people exchanges and security in the region," read the statement.

The meeting comes one day after the Taliban announced the formation of an interim government.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday that the situation in Afghanistan has undergone fundamental changes with many implications for regional security, which is of common concern to Afghanistan's neighbors. 

He added Yue Xiaoyong, China's special envoy for Afghanistan, attended a meeting of special representatives for Afghanistan organized by Pakistan and attended by China, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan on Saturday.

(Cover: A Taliban fighter stands guard as people move past him at a market with shops dealing with currency exchange in Kabul, September 5, 2021. /CFP)

The Taliban's supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada will be 'emir' of Afghanistan, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday at a press conference.

Mulah Hassan will be the chief of the acting cabinet of Afghanistan, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday at a press conference.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced the names of some of the key members of the new Afghan government at a press conference on Tuesday.

Read more:

Who are some of the key figures in the Taliban government?

According to the spokesperson, the Taliban's Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada will be the emir of Afghanistan. The word emir refers to the "supreme commander" in Arabic and is still the title for monarchs of Qatar and Kuwait. The position would grant Akhundzada the final say on all political, religious and military affairs.

Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund will be the acting prime minister while political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will be his deputy, Mujahid announced.

Taliban's military chief Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of the late Taliban co-founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, has been appointed as the acting defense minister. Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of the founder of the Haqqani network, will serve as the acting interior minister, said the spokesman.

He went on to say that the post of acting foreign minister has been given to Amir Khan Muttaqi; Abbas Stanikzai will be his deputy.

Meanwhile, Mullah Hidayat Badri will be acting finance minister, Abdul Hakim will be acting justice minister, and Khairullah Khairkhwa will serve as the acting information minister.

Mujahid said the interim government appointments were not final, as they are acting positions and that the remaining posts would be announced later.

He said the move aimed at carrying out necessary government work and stressed that it was an "acting" government and the group would try to take people from other parts of the country.

He did not elaborate on how long the caretaker government will serve.

The U.S. said it was concerned by the track records of some of the cabinet members and noted that no women had been included.  

"The world is watching closely," a U.S. State Department spokesperson said.

Akhundzada said the newly formed Taliban caretaker government will start functioning soon after the Mujahid announced the lineup.

"As a caretaker and committed cabinet has been announced by authorities of the Islamic Emirate to control and run affairs of the country which will start functioning at the earliest, I assure all countrymen that the figures will work hard towards Islamic rules and Sharia law," Akhundzada said in a statement.

This is the first statement issued by the Taliban supreme leader since the Taliban's takeover of capital Kabul in mid-August.

"We want to have peaceful, prosperous and self-reliant Afghanistan, for which we will strive to eliminate all causes of war and strife in the country, and our countrymen to live in complete security and comfort," he said.

He told Afghans that the ultimate goal of the new authorities would be to "put the country on its feet as soon as possible" and rebuild the country.

(With input from agencies)

(Cover: Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid addresses a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 7, 2021. /CMG)

Taliban will announce first members of new Afghanistan government Tuesday night, AFP reported citing Taliban official.

Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov on Thursday said Russia has not decided to recognize the Taliban and will continue to watch their actions to see how much promise they hold in the future.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier confirmed that Russia had received an invitation from the Taliban to attend a ceremony announcing the formation of the new government, and said Russia would accept if a new government is inclusive.

Mullah Neda Mohammad, Taliban-appointed governor of Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province, said on Monday that they had arrested around 80 ISIS members since taking control of provincial capital Jalalabad, local media reported.

He held ISIS responsible for some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan in recent years, which killed civilians in mosques, public squares and even hospitals.

Gunfire was heard at a rally in Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Tuesday, according to CMG reporters at the scene. Hundreds of people gathered in Kabul on Tuesday to protest against a visit from a delegation of senior Pakistani intelligence officials, according to local media.

The Taliban's supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada will be the emir of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," Tariq Ghazniwal, a journalist with the Taliban's official media Alemarah, told NDTV from India on Monday.

Akhundzada, 60, is a religious scholar from Kandahar. He became the Taliban's supreme leader in 2016 after the group's then-leader Mohammad Mansour died from a U.S. drone strike.

So far, the Taliban haven't made any comments on the claim.

If it is true, the position would grant him the final say on all political, religious and military decisions.

The word emir means "to command" in Arabic. There is a long history of it being used as title in the Arab world, East Africa, West Africa, Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent. It is still the title for monarchs of Qatar and Kuwait.

(Cover: An undated photo of the leader of the Afghanistan Taliban Haibatullah Akhundzada. /CFP)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the Taliban renewed promises to let Afghans leave freely amid concern over blocked chartered flights.

The Taliban told the United States that "they will let people with travel documents freely depart," Blinken told a news conference in Qatar. 

"We will hold them to that," he said.

Blinken on Monday arrived in Doha for talks with the Qatari side after the Taliban claimed to have full control over Afghanistan.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) destroyed its base in Kabul before withdrawal from Afghanistan, Taliban told reporters on Monday.

According to the Taliban, U.S. soldiers destroyed important documents and hundreds of Humvees, armored tanks and weapons.

Gunfire was heard at a rally in Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Tuesday, according to CMG reporters.

Hundreds of people gathered in Kabul on Tuesday to protest against a visit from a delegation of senior Pakistani intelligence officials, CMG reporters cited local media as saying.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday said the country is a long way from recognizing the Taliban, who are set to announce a new Afghan government.

"That's a long way off," Biden told reporters at the White House.

Students across Afghanistan returned to classes on Monday as the country's almost deserted universities reopened for the first time since the Taliban came to power.

In major cities including capital Kabul, female students at several universities are reportedly being segregated in classes, taught separately or restricted to certain parts of the campuses. A widely circulated photo on social media shows female students being separated from their male peers by a curtain down the middle of the classroom.

Women's rights in Afghanistan have been closely monitored by the international community, which has raised concerns about Afghan women's rights to education and employment under Taliban's rule. Those rights were severely curtailed under the conservative Islamist group when it was last in power from 1996 to 2001.

Different for women this time?

The Taliban's education authority issued a lengthy document on Sunday outlining their measures for the classroom, which also ruled that men and women should be segregated – or at least divided by a curtain if there are 15 students or less.

Women can only attend classes if they wear an abaya and a niqab and are separated from men, the group said.

At private colleges and universities, which have mushroomed since the Taliban's first rule ended, women must only be taught by female teachers, or "elderly men," and use a women-only entrance, according to another document circulated by an association of private universities in Afghanistan and seen by Reuters.

They must also end their lessons five minutes earlier than men to stop them from mingling outside, the AFP reported.

So far, the Taliban have said nothing about public universities.

A senior Taliban official told Reuters that classroom dividers such as curtains were "completely acceptable," and given Afghanistan's "limited resources and manpower" it was best to "have the same teacher teaching both sides of a class."

For some women, however, it was a relief that they would still be able to attend university at all.

Zuhra Bahman, who runs a scholarship program for women in Afghanistan, said on social media she had spoken to some of the students.

"They are happy to go back to university, albeit in hijab," she said. "Taliban opening universities for women is a key progress. Let's continue to engage to agree on other rights and freedoms."

Brain drain concern

On Monday, there was a strikingly low turnout at Kabul's universities, with education leaders fearing many more of the nation's young and talented people have fled the country.

Noor Ali Rahmani, director of Gharjistan University in Kabul, estimated up to 30 percent of the students left Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control in the middle of August.

Rahmani told AFP that only 10 to 20 percent of the 1,000 students who enrolled last year came to Gharjistan University on Monday, although there were no classes scheduled.

Several teachers said there was uncertainty over what rules would be imposed under the Taliban, who have yet to form a government.

Sher Azam, a 37-year-old teacher at a private university in Kabul, said he was worried about how many students would come back, given the economic crisis the recent turmoil has triggered.

"I don't know how many students will return to school, because there are financial problems and some students are coming from families who have lost their jobs," he told Reuters.

For 28-year-old computer science student Amir Hussein, "everything changed completely" after the Taliban takeover, he said.

"Many students are not interested anymore in studying because they don't know what their future will be," he said.

(With inputs from Reuters and AFP)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 14 to testify about the administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan, reported The Hill on Tuesday.

It is the first scheduled public hearing with administration officials since the U.S. completed its troops withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday arrived in Doha for talks with the Qatari side after the Taliban claimed to have full control over Afghanistan.

Before his landing, a senior State Department official disclosed that four Americans had left Afghanistan, with Taliban knowledge, in the first departures arranged by Washington since its chaotic military pullout.

"This is the first overland evacuation facilitated by the State Department," the official said, adding that the Taliban were aware of the operation and did not impede safe passage of the individuals.

Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday condemned the attacks on Panjshir Province of Afghanistan.

During a weekly press conference, the ministry's spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that "news from Panjshir is very worrying. The attacks (on Panjshir) last night is strongly condemned."

"Everyone should know that the history of Afghanistan has shown that foreign intervention has no result but failure," he added, noting that the Panjshir issue must be resolved politically and through negotiation and mediation.

"Iran is making all its efforts to end the suffering of Afghan people and the formation of an inclusive government, and the international institutions, as well as the regional countries should support the restoration of peace and stability in Afghanistan," he said.

The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that the Taliban armed forces have seized eastern Panjshir province following heavy fighting on Monday and gained control over the last province of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.

Read more: 

Taliban say war over in Afghanistan, formation of new government soon 

Leader of Afghan hold-out region says he is ready to talk with Taliban

(Cover: Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran, October 5, 2020. /Getty)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed Monday that Russia has received an invitation from the Taliban to attend a ceremony announcing the formation of a new government, Sputnik reported.

Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Massoud on Monday called on the anti-Taliban forces to continue their fight against the Taliban, he said in an audio address on social media.

Afghanistan's former Vice President Amrullah Saleh is in talks in Tajikistan to organize a site for negotiations with the Taliban, RIA news agency reported on Monday citing a source in Kabul.

Amrullah Saleh will come back to the country from Tajikistan soon, according to the source.

A new Afghan government will be announced in the next few days and it may serve in a caretaker capacity, a Taliban spokesman said on Monday. 

At a press conference, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also confirmed that former Vice President Amrullah Saleh has left Afghanistan for Tajikistan.

Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Massoud on Monday said in Twitter message that he is safe. 

The Taliban held a press conference in Kabul on Monday, after the group claimed complete control in Panjshir province, the last area in Afghanistan being held by resistance forces.

At the press conference, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the group tried to solve the Panjshir problem with dialogue, but the opponents didn't want to.

"We have chosen way of peace and dialogue, but the resistance forces preferred war," Mujahid said at a press conference after the Taliban claimed full control of the contested Panjshir province. 

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Monday said the group had "completely conquered" and taken control of Panjshir province, the last area in Afghanistan being held by resistance forces.

"Our latest efforts to bring peace to the entire country succeeded as the Panjshir province is completely conquered and came under control of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," Mujahid wrote on Twitter. 

Mujahid said Taliban attacked and eliminated scores of resistance forces in Panjshir on Sunday night, while dozens fled after Taliban advances in the mountainous valley. 

In the meantime, the opposition or the so-called National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) led by Ahmad Massoud denied the Taliban's claims of seizing the valley. 

"Taliban's claim of occupying Panjshir is false. The NRF forces are present in all strategic positions across the valley to continue the fight," a media section of the NRF tweeted.   

Panjshir is the last province in Afghanistan uncontrolled by Taliban since the U.S. troops pullout from the Central Asian country in late August. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has sent Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths to Kabul for talks with the Taliban leadership, said Guterres' spokesman on Sunday.

"At the request of the secretary-general, Martin Griffiths ... is currently in Kabul. During his visit today (Sunday), Mr. Griffiths met with Mullah Baradar and the leadership of the Taliban in Kabul to engage with the authorities on humanitarian issues," said spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a statement.

In this meeting, Griffiths reiterated the humanitarian community's commitment to delivering impartial and independent humanitarian assistance and protection to millions of people in need, said the statement.

Griffiths emphasized the critical role of women in the delivery of aid and called on all parties to ensure their rights, safety and well-being. He called for all civilians, especially females and minorities, to be protected at all times. He expressed his solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, it said.

The authorities pledged that the safety and security of humanitarian staff and humanitarian access to people in need will be guaranteed, and humanitarian workers, both men and women, will be guaranteed freedom of movement. The authorities pledged to cooperate with the humanitarian community to ensure assistance is delivered to the people of Afghanistan, said the statement.

Further meetings are expected in the coming days, it said.

Griffiths will also meet and convey his thanks on behalf of the United Nations to representatives of humanitarian organizations, both UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations, who remain operational in the country and have assisted 8 million people this year, said the statement.

Today in Afghanistan, half of the population – 18 million people – need humanitarian assistance to survive. A third do not know where their next meal is coming from. More than half of all children under 5 are at risk of acute malnutrition. A severe drought, the second in four years, will further contribute to hunger in the months ahead. Now more than ever, the people of Afghanistan need the support and solidarity of the international community, it said.

The leader of the Afghan opposition group resisting Taliban forces in the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, said on Sunday he welcomed proposals from religious scholars for a negotiated settlement to end the fighting.

Ahmad Massoud, head of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), made the announcement on the group's Facebook page.

"The NRF in principle agree to solve the current problems and put an immediate end to the fighting and continue negotiations," Massoud said in the Facebook post.

"To reach a lasting peace, the NRF is ready to stop fighting on condition that (the) Taliban also stop their attacks and military movements on Panjshir and Andarab," Massoud said.

Fahim Dashti, a spokesman for the NRF, was killed while fighting in Panjshir Province on Sunday, reported TOLO News, citing a source from Panjshir. 

The group has not confirmed the report.

In an exclusive interview, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told CGTN that since the Taliban entered Kabul, people’s lives have gradually returned to normal, most banks have resumed operations, and the currency exchange market has also reopened.

The structure of the new government will be announced soon, government departments will begin operations, and normal foreign trade will also resume in the future.

He also said that over 20 years of foreign military occupation has brought suffering and disaster to the Afghans. 

He emphasized that the occupation of any foreign army is to achieve their own goals and will never bring happiness to the people of the occupied country. 

The existence of foreign troops makes the security environment in Afghanistan extremely deteriorated, and violence and attacks are endless.

The Taliban are currently formulating plans for national reconstruction, making efforts to maintain national security.

Check out The China Report, our new weekly newsletter. Subscribe here!

Germany wants to talk with the Taliban about how its remaining local contract workers out of Afghanistan, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday, adding it was a good sign that the airport in Kabul could be used for evacuation flights again.

"We need to talk to the Taliban about how we can continue to get people who worked for Germany out of the country and to safety," Merkel said.

Italy plans to move its Afghan embassy to Doha in Qatar, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Sunday.

"I will meet today with the Emir of Qatar and then with the foreign minister because it is our intention to relocate the embassy we had in Kabul to Doha," said Di Maio, who was speaking in a video call from Doha to businessmen and politicians attending a business conference in Cernobbio on Lake Como.

"Qatar has become the center of diplomatic relations with respect to this Afghan government that is being formed," Di Maio said.

Taliban is willing to establish a strong and official diplomatic relationship with Germany, said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in an interview with Germany's Die Welt on Sunday.

Taliban would like Germany and other countries to provide financial support, humanitarian aid, and cooperation in health, agriculture, and education, according to the spokesman.

Afghanistan's flag carrier Ariana Afghan Airlines has resumed domestic flights, reported Tolonews on Sunday, a local television channel.

"The Ariana Afghan Airlines resumed its flights from Kabul to Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif and Kandahar cities," said Tolonews.

The flag carrier is the first local airline to resume domestic flights since completion of the U.S. forces pullout in late August. Facilities in Kabul airport were reportedly destroyed following their withdrawal.

The Taliban said on Sunday that their forces had fought their way into the provincial capital of Panjshir, the valley where opposition forces have been holding out since the fall of Kabul three weeks ago.

The police headquarters and district center of Rukhah, adjacent to the provincial capital Bazarak, had fallen, and opposition forces had suffered numerous casualties, with large numbers of prisoners and captured vehicles, weapons and ammunition, Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said on Twitter.

Fighting was underway in Bazarak, he said. It was not possible to confirm the report, which was echoed on other Taliban Twitter accounts.

Earlier on Sunday, Fahim Dashti, a spokesperson for National Retail Federation (NRF) said the existence of Taliban force in Panjshir is completely cleaned.

He said at least 1,000 Taliban soldiers were trapped due to a roadblock when retreating from the region and they were either killed, captured or surrendered.

Taliban spokesperson have previously told China Media Group the battle in Panjshir Valley is almost over.

"The battle is almost over except a small pocket of resistance which is being said to be sorted out either through negotiations or otherwise," he said.

(With input from AFP)

Taliban and opposition forces battled on Saturday to control the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, the last Afghan province holding out against the militant group, after negotiations between two sides broke down in late August.

Both sides claimed to have the upper hand in Panjshir, but neither could produce conclusive evidence to prove it. The Taliban, which swept through the country ahead of the final withdrawal of U.S.-led forces on August 31, were unable to control the valley when they ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said the districts of Khinj and Unabah had been taken, giving Taliban forces control of four of the province's seven districts.

"The Mujahideen (Taliban fighters) are advancing toward the center (of the province)," he said on Twitter.

The anti-Taliban forces have denied the claim. In a message from Ahmad Massoud, the head of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), the resistance said the fight was going on, and they will never give up.

"We will never give up the fight for God, freedom and justice," Massoud wrote on Facebook. "The fight, like Panjshir, who has stood strong until now and ... shows that people have not given up on their demands and fight for the truth."

"Our people will never get tired of trusting God and will move forward to building a prosperous, free and independent Afghanistan," he said.

NRF spokesperson Fahim Dashti said "heavy clashes" were going on, and the forces have surrounded "thousands of terrorists" in the Khawak pass. He also said the Taliban had abandoned vehicles and equipment in the Dashte Rewak area.

Read more:

Resistance at Panjshir Valley: How far is Afghanistan from peace?

The NRF and the Taliban held their first direct talks on August 25, but the negotiations seemed to break down, with each side blaming the other for the failure of talks as the Taliban prepared to announce a government.

Emergency, an Italian medical aid organization, said Taliban forces had pushed further into the Panjshir Valley on Friday night, reaching the village of Anabah where the group has medical facilities.

"We have received a small number of wounded people at the Anabah Surgical Center," Emergency said in a statement, adding that many people fled in recent days.

It was not immediately possible to get further independent confirmation of events in Panjshir, which is walled off by mountains except for a narrow entrance.

The Taliban are due to form a new government with members of the government to be announced in two to three days, Ahmadullah Wasiq, deputy head of the Taliban's cultural commission, told a CMG reporter on Friday.

Read more:

CGTN Exclusive: Taliban to announce new govt members in 2-3 days

According to Wasiq, preparations for the inaugural meeting of the new Afghan government are proceeding in an orderly manner.

"When the time comes, guests from local and abroad will attend," he said without giving any names.

(With input from Reuters)

(Cover: A general view of Panjshir Province, Afghanistan, August 23, 2021. /CFP)

CGTN talked to Afghans on the streets of Kabul on what life is like under the new Taliban government. 

Reporter Parwiz Krokahail asked what people thought about the current economic conditions in Afghanistan.

Several said they were concerned that banking limits of only $200 per week were hurting the economy and their ability to take care of their daily needs.

Check out The China Report, our new weekly newsletter. Subscribe here!

Following the hasty U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the fate of millions of Afghans now living under Taliban’s rule remains far from certain.

U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to hold the Taliban accountable to its promise to provide a safe passage for Afghans wanting to leave the county. But for many Afghan families, it is still not clear when and how. 

CGTN’s Ediz Tiyansan speaks to an Afghan immigrant who resettled in Los Angeles earlier this year, and is now worried about the safety of his family in Kabul.

Check out The China Report, our new weekly newsletter. Subscribe here!

Most of the over 57,000 people that were evacuated from Afghanistan to Qatar have bee moved out of the Gulf state to the U.S. and Europe, Reuters reports citing a U.S. general said on Saturday.

Around 124,000 people were evacuated from Kabul in a U.S.-led airlift of U.S. and other foreign citizens as well as other Afghans considered to be vulnerable following the Taliban’s takeover in the capital.

Many of them, including some with no documentation or pending U.S. visa applications, were evacuated through military bases in the Middle East, including Al Udeid in Doha, Qatar.

Reuters reports Brigadier General Gerald Donohue to say fewer than 1,400 evacuees were still on the base, with many scheduled to be flown out on Saturday while a small group needing medical care would remain until they can travel.

It was not immediately clear how many exactly were now in the U.S. or Europe, and an unspecified number were also at a nearby base in Qatar.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan, the Taliban is expected to announce a new government in 'two to three days.'

In an earlier interview with CGTN, spokesperson Suhail Shaheen confirmed the new government will be under an Islamic mechanism with a top leader and a leadership council.

(With input from Reuters)

In one of Afghanistan's smallest and hardest to reach provinces, opposition to the newly installed Taliban rule seems to be continuing.

The National Resistance Front – a combined force of local militia and remnants of Afghan security forces – and the Taliban have claimed they have inflicted casualties on the other.

It is hard to confirm what the actual situation is on the ground in the Panjshir Valley. 

The former Afghan vice president Amrullah Saleh said in a video posted online that he was in the Panjshir Valley and that he had not fled the country.

He also said there was fighting, and that both sides had suffered casualties.

READ MORE

Masks for all as French schools return

Poland declares emergency over Belarus border

The drones fighting rural poverty

"The enemy has suffered casualties. We also have taken casualties. Yesterday I was at the burial ceremony for some of our fighters. Today we faced attacks by the enemy at two to three positions, but we remain in complete control of the situation," he said, adding that "we are defending our homeland, and the resistance continues."

The National Resistance Front is led by the son of a former Mujahideen leader Ahmad Massoud.  

A video released by the Taliban claims to show their fighters on a mountain range above a part of the Panjshir Valley. It shows them near the village of Golbahar at the southern end of the valley.

On Friday, the Taliban said they had control of the area after shutting down power and cutting telephone lines in different districts. Once that news was relayed to Kabul, there was celebratory gunfire shot into the night sky. Reports say at least 17 people died and many people were wounded as a result.

Many in Afghanistan are struggling with last month's changes, and the instability is impacting the economy and security. It may take several days for the Taliban to announce a new government, said Hamza Momen Hakimi, a political analyst and assistant professor of law and political science at Kabul's Salam University.

"The Panjshir valley is very important for Taliban... this time when they want to form a government, they will not leave anyone behind. They don't want to leave anyone with the excuse that they are not part of the government," he said.

"That's why the announcement of the government was delayed once again until the situation in the Panjshir is resolved." 

Afghan women are also saying they want their rights protected under the new government. Azita Nazimi, a journalist and a women's rights activist, said: "The purpose of our gathering was to get our rights - the right to education, and the right to work. We gathered yesterday and today to defend our right to education and our children and do something." 

But they were reportedly confronted by Taliban fighters with allegations that tear gas and electric tasers were used.

The country faced many problems even before the Taliban swept to power on August 15, including the pandemic, alleged mismanagement by the previous Afghan government and drought that has meant food shortages in rural regions.

Mary-Ellen Mcgroarty, a director for the World Food Programme who has responsibility for Afghanistan, said there are "14 million people already in a crisis of hunger and over 2 million children facing a situation of malnutrition which of course impacts their longer-term growth and potential."

Some international help is arriving. And a plane landed in Kabul from the United Arab Emirates earlier this week, according to another video released by the Taliban.

Taliban sources claim that they have captured the Governor's Office in Afghanistan's Panjshir, according to CGTN Afghanistan correspondent Zmaryalai Abasin. 

The UN World Food Programme warns Afghanistan could face food shortages. It says Afghanistan will need 54,000 tons of food to support its people through the end of the year. But several nations and international institutions have cut off aid. Hamza Momen Hakimi, professor of law and political science at Salam University, said it makes no sense to ensure human rights by cutting aid.

Taliban are due to form a new Afghan government within days. Taliban sources say they have concluded a meeting on the formation of a new government. But a group of Taliban resistant forces has been fighting in north-central Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's biggest money exchange market which is based in Kabul started operation on Saturday, about three weeks after its closure, according to a CMG reporter. 

The central bank said that the people and money exchangers could resume their normal activities.

At least 17 people were killed and 41 wounded after Taliban fighters in the capital fired their weapons into the air on Friday, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday citing a source at the emergency hospital. 

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid Friday on Twitter criticized the practice of firing into the air and called on the fighters to stop it immediately. 

A strategically important area of the defiant Panjshir province, Khenj, and the Anaba district, have fallen to the Taliban, Sputnik news agency reported on Saturday, citing Taliban official Bilal Karimi. 

The Taliban have taken control of four districts of the province, Karimi said, adding that they are heading towards the provincial center.

Twenty years of war in Afghanistan have seen nearly 33,000 children killed or maimed, an average of one child every five hours, an aid organization has said.

"The numbers were a devastating insight into the deadly cost of war on children," said Save the Children, a London-headquartered international humanitarian organization which is said to have worked in Afghanistan since 1976 to deliver lifesaving services to children and their families, at a press release on Tuesday.

"The real number of direct child casualties of the conflict will likely be much higher than the estimated 32,945, and this number does not include children who have died due to hunger, poverty and disease in that time," the organization added.

"What remains after 20 years is a generation of children whose entire lives have been blighted by the misery and impact of war. The magnitude of human suffering of the past two decades is beyond comprehension," said Hassan Noor, Asia regional director for Save the Children.

Six children were killed on Sunday when the U.S. military carried out its latest drone strike targeting what it thought was a terrorist in a residential neighborhood of Kabul. 

"The Taliban kill us, ISIS kill us and the Americans kill us," lamented a neighbor of the victims in the wake of the strike. 

The U.S. pulled all its out forces from Afghanistan on Monday, ending the longest war in American history. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will convene in Geneva a high-level ministerial conference on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan on September 13, his spokesman said on Friday.

The conference will seek a swift scale-up in funding so that the life-saving humanitarian operation can continue, and appeal for full and unimpeded humanitarian access to make sure Afghans continue to get the essential services they need, said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman, in a statement.

Afghanistan faces a looming humanitarian catastrophe. Nearly half of Afghanistan's 38-million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. One in three Afghans does not know where the next meal will come from. Nearly half of all children aged under five are predicted to be acutely malnourished in the next 12 months, said the statement.

The Taliban has concluded the meeting to form a new government of Afghanistan and will announce its members in two to three days, Ahmadullah Wasiq, deputy head of the Taliban's cultural commission, told a CMG reporter on Friday.

Former Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh said the fight between Taliban and resistance forces in the Panjshir valley in Afghanistan is ongoing, denying the Taliban's claim that they have taken control of the region, TOLO news reported on Friday.

Amrullah Saleh, one of the leaders of the opposition forces,  said he has not left Panjshir amid reports of him fleeing from the valley.

Foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) on Friday set five conditions on which the bloc will engage in cooperation with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

For the EU to operatively cooperate with the Taliban, Afghanistan must fulfil its commitment that the country will not serve as "a base for the export of terrorism to other countries," the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told journalists after the end of the two-day informal meeting of EU foreign ministers.

The second will be respect for human rights, especially women's rights, the rule of law and freedom of the media.

"The third condition will be the establishment of an inclusive and representative transitional government, resulting from negotiations between political forces in Afghanistan," he said.

Providing free access for humanitarian aid will be the fourth, and lastly, the Taliban's fulfilment of their commitment about the departure of foreign nationals and Afghans at risk who wish to leave the country.

Britain's Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, says that, while the UK is not prepared to recognize the Taliban, it needs a "direct line of communication" with the group.

On a two-day visit to Pakistan Mr Raab gave a press conference along side Pakistani Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

"The approach that we are taking is we don't recognize the Taliban as a government," he said.

READ MORE

Masks for all as French schools return

Poland declares emergency over Belarus border

The drones fighting rural poverty

The Foreign Secretary said there is still a need to deal with the Taliban to ensure the safe passage of British foreign nationals out of Afghanistan and Afghans with links to the UK.

Some 13,000 former Afghans and their families who worked for the British government have been evacuated so far.

Raab said the international community must see whether the Taliban's statements about providing peace and security are backed up by action.

"I would say more generally, the Taliban has made a series of undertakings and some of them are positive at the level of words," Rabb said. 

"But we need to test them and see that they translate into deeds."

Pakistani Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, explained that Afghanistan is a country made up of different ethnic groups and the Taliban is part of that and it must be engaged with.

"That is why we have said it is in your interest as neighbors and friends and well-wishers to adopt an inclusive approach when we are dealing with Afghanistan," Shah Mahmood Qureshi said.

Pakistan already hosts more than 3 million Afghan refugees from the last 40 years of conflict.

"Pakistan has said it's for Afghans to decide about their future," the Pakistani Foreign Minister said.

"We will engage with a government that has the backing of the people of Afghanistan. Our focus is on the people of Afghanistan. We want to help the people of Afghanistan because we feel they have suffered."

The British government has been criticized for failing to anticipate the speed with which the Afghan government would collapse.

It has promised to provide $40 million to neighboring countries to help them cope with an influx of Afghan refugees.

Another $13 million will be donated to United Nations organizations.

And $27 million will also be provided to pay for the processing of visa claims for Afghan refugees who make it over the border to neighboring countries.

_{Cover image: PRU/AFP}

A total of 450 Taliban soldiers were killed and 130 captured in fights with the National Resistant Front opponents in Afghanistan's Panjshir Province on Tuesday night, the resistance forces' spokesman Fahim Dashti said on Wednesday. 

Aimal Ahmadi, whose daughter and brother were killed in the U.S. drone attack on August 29, told CGTN Global Stringer that he witnessed the fire and bodies after rushing home. "Why were the innocent children killed?" asked Ahmadi, who has lost 10 family members and doesn't know what his future will bring.  

Democracy can't be imposed by force in Afghanistan, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Friday. 

Putin said the western way of so-called "civilization" of other nations is wrong and its purpose is to control these countries under the pretext of promoting democracy.

When asked if Moscow would recognize the Taliban government, the Russian president said that there would be no political force to talk to directly if Afghanistan breaks up as a country. 

He also called for joint efforts to decide about "legalizing" a political force there. 

(Cover: Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a video conference meeting with moderators of the 2021 Eastern Economic Forum key sessions at the Far Eastern Federal University on Russky Island. /CFP)

UK does not recognize the Taliban as a government, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a press conference on Friday.

China is paying close attention as a new Afghan government is set to be established, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Friday.

The Chinese embassy in Afghanistan is a key channel for the contacts between the two countries, and the embassy is currently operating as normal, Wang told a regular press briefing.

"We hope that Afghanistan will form an open and inclusive government framework, adopt moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies, and sever ties with all terrorist organizations," the spokesperson said.

Wang also voiced the hope that all parties in Afghanistan can resolve their differences through negotiation, to ensure a smooth transition of power for the country.

"To ensure a peaceful transition of power, it is necessary to solve differences through negotiation. Only then can the residents of war-torn Afghanistan recover from chaos, and a lasting peace be reached."

He added that China hopes that all parties in Afghanistan will echo the aspiration of the Afghan people and shared expectation of the international community.

(CGTN's Su Yuting also contributed to the story.)

Domestic flights in Afghanistan will resume on Friday, AFP reported, citing Ariana Afghan Airlines.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will lead the new government of Afghanistan, Reuters reported on Friday, citing Taliban sources.

Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of late Taliban founder Mullah Omar, and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai will take senior positions in the government, the sources said.

Read more:

Analysis: After taking control of Afghanistan, what lies ahead for Taliban?

The Taliban have been busy with forming a new government since they took control of Afghanistan's capital Kabul on August 15. Friday's announcement comes just three days after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country after 20 years' military presence. 

(With input from Reuters)

The UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), operated by the World Food Programme (WFP), is resuming flights to enable 160 humanitarian organizations to continue their life-saving activities in Afghanistan's provinces, said a UN spokesman on Thursday.

The air passenger service is currently linking the Pakistani capital of Islamabad to Mazar-i-Sharif and Kandahar in Afghanistan, with three flights to Mazar-i-Sharif since August 29, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Afghanistan to resume domestic flights start from Friday, and external flights will take time, Al Jazeera reported Thursday, citing the head of the Afghan Aviation Authority. 

The Afghan Aviation Authority has asked for Qatar Air transportation assistance and is ready to enter into partnership agreements, according to the report.

The Taliban fought with local resistance forces in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley on Thursday, with each side saying it had inflicted heavy casualties in recent days of combat, according to local news reports.

The clashes came after efforts to negotiate a settlement between the two sides appeared to have broken down and each side blamed the other for the failure of talks.

"We started operations after negotiation with the local armed group failed," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said, adding the group's fighters had entered Panjshir and taken control of some territory. "They (the enemy) suffered heavy losses."

A spokesman for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF) said it had full control of all passes and entrances and had driven back efforts to take Shotul district.

"The enemy made multiple attempts to enter Shotul from Jabul-Saraj, and failed each time," he said, referring to a town in neighboring Parwan province.

Read more:

Resistance at Panjshir Valley: How far is Afghanistan from peace?

Since the Taliban swept into Kabul on August 15, several thousand fighters from local militias and remnants of the government's armed forces have massed in Panjshir under the leadership of Ahmad Massoud, son of former anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Massoud.

They have been holding out in the steep valley where attacks from outside are difficult.

(With input from Reuters)

The Taliban on Wednesday captured six checkpoints from the opposing National Resistance Front in the Shatal District of Panjshir Province, Afghan news agency Pajhwok reported.

Panjshir is the only one of the 34 provinces in Afghanistan that is not controlled by the Taliban, as conflicts between the two sides have been ongoing. 

At first glance, the streets of downtown Kabul have changed little. But now the roundabouts and intersections are watched over by Taliban militia, their trucks have machine guns mounted on the flatbeds and they have assault rifles draped over their shoulders.

To parts of the outside world this could be a sign of foreboding for Afghanistan's future, but the militia on the ground are clear; they are here to govern.

Walid Ullah appears to be the commander of 200 men. "We have come here to protect the people's property, honor and dignity and provide security," he says. "We have come here so that the Treasury is not betrayed, and people's property and lives are protected. We assure people that their lives and property are safe."

READ MORE:

The volunteers who tackled Greek wildfires

EU advises ban on non-essential U.S. travel

Special report: How conflict drives poverty

Nearby shopkeepers are quick to agree that the Taliban presence is a better deterrent against criminals and that so far, they feel safe.

But they are also deeply concerned about the vacuum in their country's economy. Without crucial foreign investment their currency, the Afghani, is crashing, and the banks are struggling to deal with the persistent demands from people trying to get access to their cash.

There are already stories about money changers refusing to handle the Afghani which, if true, would be disastrous in a cash-based economy like Afghanistan's.

Kabul's international airport is now in the hands of Taliban military units. The vast aircraft hangars have been deserted and helicopters and equipment lie around damaged and disabled by the owners before they left. There are few trophies to be salvaged from the 20-year occupation that ended a day ago.

In the Gulf, the last American transporter planes have touched down at Doha’s Al Udeid air base. They'll be cleared there and moved on to the U.S.. Preparations are being made on U.S. soil for makeshift accommodation at the bases there, until more permanent arrangements can be made.

Those who left on an evacuation flight have effectively leapfrogged those Afghans who fled months ago, traveling overland through Turkey or Iran.

Many of those are stalled at temporary shelters in countries such as Serbia, unable to move forward across the borders into Europe.

On of them is Ahmadmir, who talks nervously on the phone to the rest of his family back in Afghanistan. He worked with NATO forces and his decision to leave home months ago was a relatively straightforward one.

But he worries about his relatives. "My sister is now in Dubai," he says. "My father and my mom are left in Afghanistan with two sisters who are married."

He says he's convinced the Taliban is pretending and that soon they it start to clamp down on those who they judge to be on the wrong side.

The war may be officially over, but the damage it has yet to cause may stretch on for some time to come.

An end to a 20-year US military presence in Afghanistan... as the last US evacuation flights took off from Kabul airport a minute before midnight local time. How could Afghans pick up the pieces from years of conflict? The legacy and big lessons of American occupation? A World Insight special on Afghanistan 20 years on. 

British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said he wants the government to have a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, but it is not possible right now because of the security situation.

"We want to be in a position when the safety and security allows to have a continuity diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, but clearly that is not possible right now," Raab told parliament's foreign affairs committee.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the head of the Taliban's Political Office in Qatar's capital Doha met with Dutch Director General for Political Affairs Thijs van der Plas on Wednesday, Muhammad Naeem, a spokesman for the office said via Twitter.

Both sides discussed the current situation in Afghanistan and humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people as well as full cooperation in this regard, according to Muhammad Naeem.

Some people in Kabul have expressed their expectations from a new government. A student said: "I hope the future government will pay more attention to education because it's very important.”

What has happened in Afghanistan for at least the last two decades is a "flagrant violation of human rights," said Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday at a cabinet meeting, official news agency IRNA reported.

The experience has proved that the U.S. presence in different countries and regions of the world has never brought security, but is detrimental to world peace, security and stability, he added.

The formation of Afghanistan's new government is in its final stages after the U.S. withdrawal from the country, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday, citing Anas Haqqani, a senior Taliban leader.

"We have covered about 90 to 95 percent of the deal on forming a new government and we will announce the final outcome in the following few days," he said.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in an exclusive interview with CGTN on Tuesday that the group wants to build a strong relationship with China.

China's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday praised Afghanistan as a "heroic country" that has never surrendered to foreign forces, adding that a new page has been turned in the history of the war-torn country which is on the threshold of national peace and reconstruction.

China sincerely hopes relevant parties in Afghanistan will form an open and inclusive political system, pursue moderate and steady domestic and foreign policies and completely sever ties with all terrorist organizations, said the ministry's spokesperson Wang Wenbin.

Wang made the remarks in response to a question about reports that the Taliban will announce a new government on Friday. 

Read more: Special coverage on Afghan power shift after U.S. troop withdrawal

"Afghanistan is a heroic country and has never surrendered," Wang said quoting Chairman Mao Zedong.

"China and Afghanistan are friendly countries. China does not want to harm Afghanistan, and neither does Afghanistan," Wang said, adding that the two countries are mutually supportive. 

China will, as always, pursue a friendly policy for all Afghan people, respect Afghanistan's sovereign independence and territorial integrity, refrain from interfering in Afghanistan's internal affairs, and continue to provide assistance within its capabilities for the peaceful reconstruction of Afghanistan, Wang stressed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the 20-year U.S. presence in Afghanistan only resulted in tragedies, Sputnik reported on Wednesday.

"For 20 years, American troops were present in Afghanistan and for 20 years they tried to civilize the local population, in a broader sense, to impose their own norms and standards, including those related to the political organization of society," Putin said at a meeting with teenagers in the Russian far eastern city of Vladivostok to mark the start of the school year. 

"The result is only tragedies, only losses for those that did it – for the U.S. – and even more so for the people who live on Afghan territory," Putin added.

Referring to the roots of the current chaos in Afghanistan, Putin noted that "you have to understand that it is impossible to impose anything from outside."

The Russian president also pointed out states must provide assistance to other countries in a civilized manner.

"If someone does something in relation to someone, then it must start from the history, the culture, the philosophy – in the broadest sense – of the lives of these people. You must approach with respect to your tradition," said Putin.

He called for a "mature" scenario to solve Afghan issues, saying "it must be done in a civilized way, with care, supporting positive trends, without haste."

Putin has reiterated that the imposition of external values on Afghanistan is an irresponsible policy.

During his conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, Putin said the current changes in the Afghan situation showed that outside forces' forcibly promoting their political models did not work in some countries and will only bring destruction and disaster to these countries.

The Taliban have deployed security forces and technicians to the Kabul airport to repair the facilities, and are trying to restore order and work in Afghanistan's security, legal, health and banking sectors, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in an exclusive interview with CGTN on Tuesday.

The spokesperson also told CGTN that the new Afghan government will be an Islamic government. 

"Without any doubt, it will be an Islamic government... Whatever the combination, it should be Islamic. It being Islamic is guaranteed," he said, adding he hopes discussions and consultation on the new government's formation would come to a good conclusion.

Mujahid highlighted stabilizing security and solving technical problems when talking about the preparation for airport operations.

"We have created a special force that will maintain security at the airport, and we are hopeful that our technical team will solve these problems soon so that normal operations resume," he said.

As for plans to resume normal life for the Afghan people, Mujahid mentioned that measures have been taken in areas such as security, health and education.

"Firstly, one of the most important services is security – people are provided with good security and the rule of law is established," he said, adding that an acting overseer is assigned, health services are provided and efforts in the education sector are in progress.

"We hope that the government is announced soon and everything gets back to normal," he said.

(CGTN reporter Nasratullah Haqpal also contributed to the story)

Britain is in direct talks with the Taliban over securing safe passage out of Afghanistan for UK nationals and Afghans who have worked for Britain, a government spokesperson said late on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's special representative for Afghan transition, Simon Gass, traveled to Doha, Qatar, to meet with Taliban representatives, the spokesperson said in a statement.

"(Gass) is meeting with senior Taliban representatives to underline the importance of safe passage out of Afghanistan for British nationals, and those Afghans who have worked with us over the past twenty years," the statement said.

Senior officials from European Union (EU) member states on Tuesday pledged coordination with the United Nations on the stabilization of the region, urging Taliban to cut ties and practices with international terrorism, amid fears of illegal migration.

Justice and home affairs ministers of the EU countries said in a statement following a meeting in Brussels that the EU and its 27 nations "stand determined to act jointly to prevent the recurrence of uncontrolled large-scale illegal migration movements, by preparing a coordinated and orderly response."

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday that a humanitarian catastrophe looms in Afghanistan. 

"On the day Afghanistan enters a new phase, I want to express my grave concern at the deepening humanitarian and economic crisis in the country and the threat of basic services collapsing completely," he said after the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Today, almost half of the population of Afghanistan – 18 million people – need humanitarian assistance to survive. One in three Afghans does not know where their next meal will come from. More than half of all children under 5 are expected to become acutely malnourished next year. People are losing access to basic goods and services every day, he said in a statement.

"A humanitarian catastrophe looms," Guterres said.

Now more than ever, Afghan children, women and men need the support and solidarity of the international community. The humanitarian system's commitment to staying and delivering will not waver, he said. 

"Already this year, we have delivered aid to 8 million people. In the last fortnight, we delivered food to 80,000 people and relief packages to thousands of displaced families. Yesterday we airlifted 12.5 metric tonnes of medical supplies into the country." 

Amid a severe drought and with harsh winter conditions on the horizon, extra food, shelter and health supplies must be urgently fast-tracked into the country, he said. 

Guterres called on all parties to facilitate safe and unimpeded humanitarian access for life-saving and life-sustaining supplies, as well as for all humanitarian workers. 

Next week, the UN will release details of the most immediate humanitarian needs and funding requirements over the next four months in a flash appeal for Afghanistan. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths is coordinating the entire UN system in the preparation of the appeal, he said. 

"I urge all member states to dig deep for the people of Afghanistan in their darkest hour of need. I urge them to provide timely, flexible and comprehensive funding. I urge them to help ensure humanitarian workers have the funding, access and legal safeguards they need to stay and deliver," the UN chief said.  

Read more: 

UN Security Council adopts resolution on Afghanistan

China says U.S. withdrawal marks a new start for Afghanistan 
 

U.S. President Joe Biden Tuesday signed a bill, to provide aid for American civilians returning from Afghanistan, into law.

The "Emergency Repatriation Assistance for Returning Americans Act" provides $10 million in emergency funds per year this year and next, to help returning Americans with basic necessities as they adjust to life back home.

Thousands of Afghan refugees have arrived in the United States in recent weeks. They are greeted by authorities and volunteers who help them settle into a new life. 

But one Afghan man has fallen through the cracks - unable to return to Afghanistan to help his family and unable join his fellow Afghan in the U.S.

Check out The China Report, our new weekly newsletter. Subscribe here!

Members of the Taliban patrolled Kabul’s airport as the last members of the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan by the Aug 31 deadline. The group says that they will try to get the airport up to use again following the weeks of chaos. 

Here are some of the scenes and images on the grounds from the Hamid Karzai International Airport, where garbage, cars and debris still litter the perimeter.

Check out The China Report, our new weekly newsletter. Subscribe here!

In a televised address to the nation, U.S. President Joe Biden defended the administration's withdrawal and evacuation from Afghanistan, calling the mission an "extraordinary success."

"We completed one of the biggest airlifts in history, with more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety. That number is more than double what most experts thought were possible," Biden said. 

With the war and the evacuation officially over, Biden said more than 5,500 Americans were evacuated. About 100 to 200 Americans remain, most of whom are dual citizens. But the U.S. will make arrangements for them to leave, if they choose to do so. 

Those evacuated by the U.S. also included locally employed staff and their families, as well as Afghan translators, interpreters and others.

While many criticize Biden for the withdrawal, chaotic evacuation and the rapid rise of the Taliban takeover, Biden stood firmly behind his decision, saying he "was not going to extend the forever war" and "I was not going to extend the forever exit."

Biden argued, no matter the circumstances, ending the decades-long war was going to be difficult. And he thanked the U.S. military, diplomats and others who helped evacuate thousands.

Biden also assured that although troops are no longer on the ground, the U.S. will continue to support the Afghan people, work toward diplomacy and help humanitarian aid reach the region.

Check out The China Report, our new weekly newsletter. Subscribe here!

Colombia will receive a few thousand Afghans who were evacuated from Kabul. It is supposed to be a stop-over as the U.S. examines their paperwork.

Check out The China Report, our new weekly newsletter. Subscribe here!

The Taliban says "independence" has been restored to Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrew its last troops, ending a 20-year war in the country.

On Tuesday, Taliban fighters fanned across the tarmac of Kabul's international airport. The group took full control of it overnight as celebratory fireworks and gunfire were heard across the capital.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Afghanistan wants to forge strong relations with the international community.

"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, on behalf of its people, wants to have good diplomatic relations with the whole world, including the United States," Mujahid said.

It is a stark turn around for the group's fortunes. As U.S. forces left the country, the Taliban captured province after province, in many cases provincial leaders handed over control to the group without a battle.

Meanwhile, thousands of Afghans are attempting to flee into neighboring countries such as Pakistan. But with the borders closed, refugees are depending on people smugglers to provide passage.

READ MORE:

The volunteers who tackled Greek wildfires

EU advises ban on non-essential U.S. travel

Special report: How conflict drives poverty

Other Afghans who had worked with U.S.-led forces during the war are being granted humanitarian visas to settle in countries around the world.

Mujahid says the U.S should never have invaded after the 2001 terrorist attack on the U.S..

"The U.S. aggression was a reckless act from the beginning. We told the U.S. at the time that they should not invade our territory. They should have talked to us about the problems that happened in 2001 and there was no need for war," he said.

"Unfortunately, the U.S. officials used arrogance at the time. They did not consider the outcome of their work and the result was that now they were defeated and the Afghan people won the battlefield and liberated their country."

However, the security situation in Afghanistan is increasingly dangerous and volatile.

Last week, a suicide bomber from the so-called Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) killed 13 U.S. troops and more than 170 Afghan civilians in a blast at Kabul airport.

The UK says it warned people not to go to there and rejected U.S. claims that Britain had insisted a gate at the airport be kept open.

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: "We did everything we could once we were alerted to the threat to mitigate the risk. That included warning people not to come to the airport, warning people who were in the crowd to leave."

Meanwhile, a close aide of deceased al-Qaeda terrorist group founder Osama bin Laden has returned to Nangarhar province in Afghanistan. Amin ul-Haq was a top al-Qaeda arms supplier, who was in charge of bin Laden's security in the Tora Bora cave complex.

His appearance in Afghanistan has reignited concern about the resurgence of extremism and terrorism in the country.

The UK has denied reports it pushed for a gate to be left open at Kabul Airport last week hours before a deadly suicide attack at the facility.

A report by Politico claims U.S. forces left the Abbey Gate open longer than they wanted to, to allow British personnel to speed up their evacuation efforts.

The gate was where a suicide bomber killed at least 170 civilians and 13 American troops last Thursday.

READ MORE:

The volunteers who tackled Greek wildfires

EU advises ban on non-essential U.S. travel

Special report: How conflict drives poverty

Speaking to Sky News, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who has faced strong criticism over his handling of the Afghanistan crisis, said it was "just not true ... that we were pushing to leave the gate open."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office put out a similar statement on Tuesday denying the reports as British officials seek to distance themselves from the claims.

UK nationals left behind

Like many Western nations involved in the 20-year Afghan war, the UK has been scrambling to evacuate thousands of its citizens and Afghan staff since mid-August.

Raab said more than 17,000 people had been taken out of Afghanistan but that some British nationals were left behind. He put the figure in the "low hundreds," according to the BBC.

Many of those are understood to be larger families, or those without the correct documentation.

But there are fears about the fate of those still in the country as the U.S. withdrew its final soldiers late on Monday.

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen tweeted to say Afghanistan had "gained full independence" following the departures.

But millions of people in the country and outside remain worried about what the future holds for a nation that has suffered more than four decades of conflict.

Many global powers are still weighing up how to deal with the Taliban, which after 20 years of war seems in a stronger position than it was before the U.S. invasion.

Johnson's spokesman said it was "too early to dictate if and how we would work with the Taliban going forward."

"A lot will depend on their actions from now," he added.

Aside from the political uncertainty, the United Nations has warned that Afghanistan is facing a humanitarian crisis and possible famine.

The events of the past few weeks have forced thousands to try to leave the country and severely damaged the Afghan economy, leading to long queues at banks and doubts about the Taliban's ability to access foreign reserves.

The Taliban held a three-day meeting of the leadership committee in Kandahar, under the chairmanship of the group's supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, said Taliban official Ahmadullah Wasiq on Tuesday.

The attendees at the meeting, which concluded on Monday, discussed the topics including the formation of a new government as well as political, social and security issues the country faces.

Earlier, the Russian Sputnik news agency, citing sources, reported that the Taliban will announce the formation of a new Afghan government on Friday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow is in favor of security and peace in Afghanistan and those decisions that exclude the use of the country by terrorists, according to RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday. 

Anas Haqqani, a senior Taliban official, spoke to CGTN at Kabul airport on August 31.

Pakistan's army says Pakistani Taliban militants shot two soldiers dead along the border with Afghanistan on Monday. Danial Khan explains the security situation at the border.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday that Afghanistan faces economic challenges and called on Afghan traders and investors to take part in addressing them.

Mujahid said that the new government will try to attract foreign investment, but such engagements should not influence Afghanistan’s sovereignty and should be based on mutual cooperation and interests.

The Taliban held the second press conference of the day at the Afghan National TV Station. Earlier, the group's spokesman addressed reporters at Kabul airport, congratulating the nation for gaining its independence and driving the Americans out. The last U.S. troops left Kabul airport on August 30 and celebratory gunfire erupted all over the Afghan capital. The Taliban are now in full control of Kabul's international airport and most of Afghanistan.

"We assure our neighbors that we always want friendly relationship," said Mufti Inamullah Samangani, a senior official in the Taliban's information and culture commission, at the press conference.

The region needs peace and stability. A united and stable Afghanistan is to the benefits of all and this region, he added.

The official has called on former government officials who fled from Afghanistan return to the country.

Mufti Enamullah Samangani of the Taliban Cultural Commission told CGTN that the presence of foreign troops was a pretext for some groups to launch attacks. Following their departure, there would be no more reason for such attacks.

The Taliban took over Kabul airport soon after the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country on August 31. They also seized a number of aircraft, weapons and equipment that the U.S. troops did not have time to take away.

China's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that a new page has been turned in Afghan history following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the war-torn country. 

The U.S. withdrawal shows that the policy of arbitrary military intervention and imposition of one's values and social systems on other countries is doomed to fail, said the ministry's spokesperson Wang Wenbin. 

Read more: 

Special coverage on Afghan power shift after U.S. troop withdrawal

Wang said the U.S. and the international community need to work together to provide Afghanistan with urgently needed economic, livelihood and humanitarian assistance, help the new Afghan political structure maintain normal operation, social security and stability, curb currency devaluation and inflation, and embark on the path of peaceful reconstruction at an early date.  

"We always respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, uphold the principle of not to interfere in the country's internal affairs and stick to friendly policies for all Afghans," Wang said. 

Afghanistan's history and reality show that to realize peace, stability and economic development, the country needs to build an open and inclusive political system, pursue moderate and steady domestic and foreign policies and completely cut off ties with all terrorist organizations, he said. 

China will continue to maintain close communication with all parties in Afghanistan and the international community, provide support and assistance within its capacity to restore peace and economy, and combat all terrorist organizations, including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, Wang said.

(CGTN's Su Yuting also contributed to this story.)

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid held a press conference at Kabul airport following the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops on Tuesday. "Congratulations to Afghanistan... this victory belongs to us all," Mujahid said from the runway of the airport. "We want to have good relations with the U.S. and the world. We welcome good diplomatic relations with them all."  

Taliban took over the Kabul airport soon after the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country on Tuesday.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid gave a speech at the airport, saying the victory belongs to all Afghans and the Taliban want to develop friendly relations with all countries, including the U.S.

As the last U.S. military plane took off from Kabul's international airport on August 30, 20 years after a U.S.-led invasion of the country.

A U.S. Central Command announced the completion of the troops withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the mission to evacuate American citizens, third-country nationals and Afghans during a news conference held by the Department of Defense on Tuesday.

Since August 14, the day before the Taliban regained control of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, the U.S. and its NATO allies had hurried to evacuate as many people as possible before the pre-set deadline of August 31, by U.S. President Joe Biden.

Click here for more.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul suspended operations on Tuesday, the embassy's website said.

"While the U.S. government has withdrawn its personnel from Kabul, we will continue to assist U.S. citizens and their families in Afghanistan from Doha, Qatar," said the website.

The site said the state department "has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas."

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid held a press conference at the Kabul airport following the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops on Tuesday. 

"Congratulations to Afghanistan... this victory belongs to us all," Mujahid said from the runway of the airport. 

"We want to have good relations with the U.S. and the world. We welcome good diplomatic relations with them all," he added.

The Taliban's special forces have now taken control of the Kabul airport and will be responsible for securing it in the future, Taliban official Ahmadullah Wasiq said on Tuesday in an interview with a CMG reporter. 

Afghanistan has won its independence and freedom following the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops, Ahmadullah Wasiq said.

Kabul airport is without air traffic control services now that the U.S. military has withdrawn from Afghanistan, and U.S. civil aircraft are barred from operating over the country unless given prior authorization, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Monday.

In a statement, the FAA said that "due to both the lack of air traffic services and a functional civil aviation authority in Afghanistan, as well as ongoing security concerns, U.S. civil operators, pilots, and U.S.-registered civil aircraft are prohibited from operating at any altitude over much of Afghanistan."

Pentagon on Monday announced the completion of U.S.'s troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. "I'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan," said Commander of U.S. Central Command Kenneth McKenzie via video conference.

Shortly after, celebratory gunshots were heard near Kabul airport. According to China Media Group (CMG) reporter based in Kabul, local media confirmed that the Taliban fired shots to celebrate the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

The U.S. completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on Monday. Take a look at the timeline.

Taliban fighters fired their guns into the air outside Kabul airport to celebrate their victory after the U.S. officially ended its 20-year military presence in Afghanistan on Monday with the final flight out of Kabul.

Speaking on Monday evening, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the number of Americans remaining in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal is less than 200.

The Pentagon on Monday announced that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan has been completed.

Here's a recap of landmark events in the war-torn country since the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

Click for more.

The United States has suspended diplomatic presence in Afghanistan and will move operations to Qatar, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday.

The U.S. Central Command announced Monday that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan has been completed, 20 years after a U.S.-led invasion of the country. 
  
"I'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the mission to evacuate American citizens, third country nationals and vulnerable Afghans," Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, announced during a news conference held by the Department of Defense. 
  
"The last C-17 lifted off from Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 30, this afternoon, at 3:29 p.m. East coast time, and the last manned aircraft is now clearing the space above Afghanistan," McKenzie said. 

Read more:

Live updates: U.S. completes withdrawal from Afghanistan

Afghanistan in transition

The withdrawal came after the fraught final days of a frantic mission to evacuate tens of thousands of Americans and Afghans who had helped the U.S.-led war effort – and which left scores of Afghans and 13 U.S. troops dead in a suicide bombing attack last week.  

The evacuation flights have taken more than 123,000 people out of Kabul airport, according to McKenzie, but he admitted not everyone who wanted to leave was able to, and that the "diplomatic mission" to allow others to leave will continue.

"There's a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure. We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out," he said. "But I think if we'd stayed another 10 days, we wouldn't have gotten everybody out." 

The withdrawal came before August 31, the deadline set by U.S. President Joe Biden to call time on America's longest war – one that ultimately claimed the lives of more than 2,400 U.S. service members. Biden said he would address the nation on Tuesday in Washington. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that the country embarked on a "new" chapter regarding Afghanistan and shifted its diplomatic operations to Qatar. 

"As of today, we've suspended our diplomatic presence in Kabul and transferred our operations to Doha, Qatar," Blinken said. 

He said less than 200 Americans were believed to have remained in Afghanistan and vowed to keep up "relentless" efforts to help Americans, Afghans and others leave the country if they choose to do so. 

Read more: 

Chart of the Day: The Afghanistan exodus by the numbers

Return of Taliban and the future of Afghanistan

Celebratory gunfire echoed across Kabul as Taliban fighters took control of the airport before dawn on Tuesday. The group welcomed the U.S. withdrawal, hailing the "complete independence" of Afghanistan.  

"In this way, our country became completely free and independent," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on Twitter. 

"Congratulations to Afghanistan ... this victory belongs to us all," Mujahid told reporters hours later from the runway of the airport, describing the Taliban's victory as a "lesson for other invaders." 

"We want to have good relations with the U.S. and the world. We welcome good diplomatic relations with them all," he added. 

Read more: 

The 20-year war in Afghanistan: What happened and what's next?

Ambassador: China has evacuated most nationals from Afghanistan

U.S.-led foreign forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and overthrew the then Taliban administration. The group took control of Kabul again on August 15 after a blitz against West-backed government forces amid the withdrawal of foreign troops. 

The U.S. had spent approximately $2.26 trillion on the war in Afghanistan over the past two decades, or an average of over $300 million per day, according to the Costs of War Project run by the Watson Institute of Brown University. 

As of April, an estimated 241,000 people had lost their lives as a direct result of the war in Afghanistan, including tens of thousands of civilians, the project showed. 

A recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research said roughly two-thirds of Americans did not think the war was worth fighting. 

In a global survey conducted by the CGTN Think Tank on social media platforms, 84.6 percent of the respondents believe the U.S. war in Afghanistan has failed. 

Yue Xiaoyong, the special envoy for Afghan affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said in mid-August that the situation in Afghanistan was a military, political and reputational "fiasco" for the United States. 

Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said at a Security Council emergency meeting on Monday that relevant countries can realize that withdrawal is not the end of responsibility, but the beginning of reflection and correction.  

Geng urged relevant countries to learn from the lesson and earnestly respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, and the right of the Afghan people to independently determine their own future and destiny. 

(With input from agencies)

(Cover: Taliban fighters celebrate before storming into Hamid Karzai International Airport, wielding American supplied weapons, equipment and uniforms after the U.S. military completed their withdrawal, in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 31, 2021. /Getty)

The U.S. has carried out a drone attack in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, a day after an attack outside Kabul’s airport.

CGTN’s reporter visited there and found that most of the villagers were still hiding in their homes to avoid the air strikes by the U.S.

Local residents told us that the deceased was accused by the U.S. as an extremist.  They say he was not involved in any military activities or had any connection with extremist organizations.

However, the U.S. military declared in a statement issued on the 28th that there were no reports of civilian casualties in this operation.

Meanwhile, Taliban accused the United States of infringing on Afghan territories and violating previously signed peace agreements.

Check out The China Report, our new weekly newsletter. Subscribe here!

The United States completed its military withdrawal from Afghanistan on Monday as the last plane carrying troops flew out of Kabul airport. While the U.S. is still evacuating Afghan allies and civilians, the departure of its last contingent of service members marks an end to the 20 year military presence that is officially being recognized as the longest war in U.S. history.

The U.S. spent its last day of withdrawal mourning the service members that were killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport by IS-K, the Islamic State group's Afghan affiliate. The U.S. had counter attacked IS-K forces with a drone strike in Kabul, but the strike reportedly killed 10 Afghan civilians, including six children. The strike and the civilian casualties are currently under investigation.

With U.S. forces officially withdrawn from the nation, the Taliban, which took control of Afghanistan on August 15th, declared Afghanistan "fully independent". With thousands of Afghan civilians displaced or on the run from Taliban rule, the country now faces a humanitarian crisis as well as a turbulent economy. Families crowded into refugee camps and lined up to receive food and other resources donated by humanitarian aid groups.

Banks reopened in Afghanistan with restrictions placed on the amount of cash that could be withdrawn as thousands of Afghan civilians were lining up outside the bank to withdraw their money amid an uncertain future for the country.

Check out The China Report, our new weekly newsletter. Subscribe here!

On August 30, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting and voted on the draft resolution on Afghanistan.

Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, said during the meeting that the recent chaos in Afghanistan is directly related to the hasty and disorderly withdrawal of foreign troops.

He hoped that relevant countries realize that withdrawal is not the end of responsibility, but the beginning of reflection and correction.

Geng said that they should learn the lesson and earnestly respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan and the right of the Afghan people to independently determine their own future and destiny. Wantonly slapping sanctions and exerting pressure solves no problem and will only be counterproductive, he said.

Read more: 

UN Security Council adopts resolution on Afghanistan after Taliban takeover

Live: Special coverage on Afghan power shift after U.S. troop withdrawal

He also said the actions of foreign forces in Afghanistan in the past 20 years, including the criminal responsibility of the U.S. and Australian forces for the indiscriminate killing of civilians, must not be completely written off and must continue to be held accountable.

The U.S. military recent retaliatory attacks against ISIS in Afghanistan caused innocent civilian casualties. China calls on the U.S. to refrain from indiscriminate bombing of civilian clusters in Afghanistan.

Geng emphasized that China has always attached importance to Afghanistan's fight against terrorism and strongly condemned the recent terrorist attacks in Kabul.

He also said China hopes that the safety of Kabul airport can be guaranteed, the evacuation of relevant personnel can proceed smoothly and smoothly, and all parties concerned can strengthen coordination and jointly prevent new terrorist attacks.

"All countries should fulfill their obligations in accordance with international law and Security Council resolutions, work with each other in combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and take resolute actions to prevent terrorist organizations from taking advantage of this chaos in Afghanistan," Geng said.

Check out The China Report, our new weekly newsletter. Subscribe here!

After the deadly suicide blast which killed some 170 Afghan people and 13 U.S. soldiers at the Kabul airport on Thursday, some survivors have raised the possibility that a number of Afghan people were actually killed by American fire amid the chaos and confusion instead of by bombing.

Lying on a hospital bed on Monday, an injured Afghan man who only gave his name as Kamyab told Xinhua about his ordeal at the Hamid Karzai international airport on Thursday night. "The blast was followed by gunshots and due to the firing, my hand was injured outside the airport," he recalled.

"No other armed men except the American soldiers were in the area when the shooting took place," he said. "Under a rain of bullets, everyone was trying to escape the tragic scene."

Some injured claimed on condition of anonymity that U.S.-made bullets had been extracted from some wounded people.

On Saturday, a BBC reporter named Secunder Kermani posted a video on Twitter, in which Afghan civilians were interviewed at the Kabul airport. "Many we spoke to, including eyewitnesses, said significant numbers of those killed were shot dead by U.S. forces in the panic after the blast," Kermani said.

In the video, a brother of a London taxi driver called Mohammed Niazi said Mohammed was at the airport with his wife and two daughters to help his family evacuate from Afghanistan, yet the couple lost their lives in the attack, and their two daughters went missing.

"Somehow, I saw an American soldier and beside him there were Turkish soldiers," the brother said, adding that "The fire came from the bridges, like the towers."

"From the soldiers?" Kermani asked. "Yeah, from the soldiers," the interviewee said, nodding.

Nouma Hamid was another man killed in the attack. "The guy has served the U.S. army for years and (this is) the reason he lost his life," said a friend showing Hamid's ID card. "He wasn't killed by (the) Taliban, he wasn't killed by ISIS. (The) U.S. army started shelling."

When asked why he was so sure that Hamid was killed by U.S. fire instead of the bombing, the man said, "The bullet went inside his head, near to his ear."

Kermani said in a following tweet that the U.S. Department of Defense has given no response to the BBC's question about the firing.

Echoing the bullet trajectory theory, an Afghan online channel called Faisal of Kabul Lovers posted a video which was retweeted with English subtitles by Sangar Paykhar of Podcast Afghan Eye on Saturday. In the video, an Afghan medical worker at an emergency hospital in Kabul said that many victims from the airport were shot from an upper-front angle, "striking sculls, necks and chests."

"No bullet holes from this area below," said the Podcast host, pointing to below the chest. "All victims were killed by American bullets except maybe 20 people out of 100. They (the others) were struck by the suicide bombing, they were blown into pieces."

At least 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. soldiers were killed and about 200 people wounded in the blast that hit an eastern gate of the airport on Thursday, when huge crowds were awaiting evacuation flights. ISIS-K, a local affiliate of the Islamic State group, claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The Pentagon said there was firing from "ISIS gunmen" after the bombing, and called the gunfire at the airport gate "a complex attack." However, there were doubts about how the ISIS-K fighters could launch such a massive attack at the heavily-fortified airport area and why no dead bodies of the fighters have been found, as well as about the bullets' suspicious trajectories.

U.S. President Joe Biden has vowed to avenge the deaths of the U.S. soldiers. U.S. military forces launched drone strikes against ISIS-K suspects in the eastern Nangarhar province on Friday and a neighborhood west of the airport on Sunday.

The Taliban said the U.S. air strikes have caused civilian casualties and violated the U.S.-Taliban peace deal signed in Doha last year.

The United States airlifted about 1,200 people from Kabul on Sunday, the White House said on Monday, as the massive evacuation from Afghanistan enters its final day.

The final U.S. departure from Kabul airport is underway and "core diplomatic staff" have departed, a U.S. official who left Kabul earlier on Monday told Reuters.

A second official confirmed that the bulk of diplomats had pulled out. The officials did not say whether they included top envoy Ross Wilson, expected to be among the last to leave.

Turkey cannot take on the burden of housing refugees from Afghanistan, the country's foreign minister has said – as the European Union's interior minister plans to release a statement saying the bloc will prevent an increase in migration into the EU. 

Turkey currently houses 300,000 Afghan refugees and 3.7 million Syrians after a deal between it and the EU in 2016 allowed Turkey to become a host for migrants in exchange for billions of dollars for refugee projects. 

"We have sufficiently carried out our moral and humanitarian responsibilities regarding migration," said Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu during a joint press conference with his German counterpart.

"It is out of the question for us to take an additional refugee burden."

According to an estimate by the UN refugee agency UNHCR, around half a million Afghan citizens could leave the country by the end of the year because of the recent Taliban takeover.

The organization asked Afghanistan's neighboring countries to keep their borders open so people could leave Afghanistan safely.

And both Greece and Turkey have reinforced their own borders in anticipation of an increase in people trying to cross into Europe, with Greece constructing a 40km fence and a surveillance system. 

The European Union's interior ministers are also preparing to release a statement about the bloc's response to a possible influx of migration, according to a draft seen by Reuters, dated August 28.

"The EU and its member states stand determined to act jointly to prevent the recurrence of uncontrolled large-scale illegal migration movements faced in the past, by preparing a coordinated and orderly response," it said.

The document did not specify what the EU's response would be.

"The EU should also strengthen the support to the countries in Afghanistan's immediate neighborhood to ensure those in need receive adequate protection primarily in the region," it added.

The ministers will meet for an emergency meeting on Tuesday.

Those left behind 

Several European countries are negotiating with the Taliban to make sure people eligible for resettlement will be able to leave Afghanistan after the U.S. pulls out on August 31.

For example, there are reportedly between 800 and more than 1,000 Afghan citizens eligible for resettlement in the UK still in the country.

Germany, France and the UK are planning to propose creating a safe zone around Kabul's airport at an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Monday so that people will still be able to leave the country.

The Taliban has reportedly promised 100 countries that their nationals and Afghan citizens with valid travel documents will be able to leave Afghanistan.

The U.S. is also investigating if civilians were killed in an airstrike against a car reportedly carrying explosives to Kabul's airport, which it is guarding until it pulls out on August 31.

The airport is on high alert after an attack by the so-called Islamic State (ISIL) killed scores of people trying to leave the country last week.

But according to CNN, a family, including six children, were killed in the strike. Local media also reported the airstrike had killed civilians.

ISIL has claimed responsibility for firing six rockets at Kabul international airport on Monday.

The U.S. earlier said its anti-missile defenses have intercepted as many as five rockets fired at the airport.

At least 10 people, including six children, were killed in a U.S. air strike in Kabul on Sunday, a CMG reporter in the Afghan capital said on Monday. 

One of the dead was working for a foreign agency and was waiting to be evacuated at his home, the reporter added. 

There were no clear traces of a second explosion, the reporter said. U.S. military forces previously said there was no sign of a second explosion at the site.

The U.S. military said one ISIS-K member suspected of planning a suicide car bomb attack was killed. 

European Union interior ministers will say on Tuesday that they are determined to act to prevent more "uncontrolled large-scale illegal migration movements" from Afghanistan, Reuters reported on Monday citing a draft statement.

Ministers will gather for an emergency meeting on Tuesday in Brussels to discuss the fallout from the Afghanistan crisis.

A loud explosion has been heard on the road leading to Kabul airport in the Afghan capital, TOLO News reported on Monday, adding that no further information was yet available. 

Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is in Afghanistan's Kandahar and has met with top Taliban figures to discuss the formation of the future political system, Ariana news reported, citing sources.

Previously, two Taliban spokespersons revealed that Akhundzada was in Kandahar and due to make a public appearance. He has never appeared publicly before and his whereabouts have remained largely unknown.

U.S. President Joe Biden was briefed on the rocket attack at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Monday and was informed that operations at the airport were not interrupted, the White House has said in a statement.

"The President was informed that operations continue uninterrupted at HKIA, and has reconfirmed his order that commanders redouble their efforts to prioritize doing whatever is necessary to protect our forces on the ground."

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has condemned U.S. air strikes in Kabul, saying it's illegal to carry out "arbitrary attacks" in other countries.

"We condemn such attacks because it is illegal to carry out arbitrary attacks in other countries. If there was any potential threat, it should have been reported to us, not an arbitrary attack that has resulted in civilian casualties," Mujahid told CGTN in a written response to a question about the air strikes.

"Reports are that the Americans have launched a drone strike near Kabul airport on a car suspected to be carrying ISIS suicide bomber preparing to attack the airport. They have also launched drone attacks on a house in Kabul claiming to be ISIS safehouse, killing seven civilians," he added.

The U.S. Central Command said on Sunday that the U.S. military forces carried out a "self-defense" airstrike in Kabul against a suspected ISIS-K vehicle, which could pose an imminent threat to the airport.

Eyewitnesses in Kabul said some casualties of Thursday's airport attack were victims of gunfire by foreign forces, reported CMG reporter Obaidullah Musaferzada from Kabul.

"I was not injured by the explosion. American soldiers shot at us," said one of the injured.

"I don't remember much of what happened. It wasn't a lot of casualties (caused by the explosion). It was U.S. soldiers shooting and using tear gas that caused a lot of casualties," he told CMG reporter. 

U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday attended a ceremony at a military base in his home state of Delaware where the remains of 13 troops killed in Afghanistan last week were returned to the U.S. soil.

Biden was joined at Dover Air Force Base by first lady Jill Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley and other senior military officials. 

The president and first lady met privately with the families of the fallen before flag-draped cases carrying 11 service members' remains were loaded into vans. The sounds of crying could be heard and one woman collapsed and was taken to an ambulance. 

The remains of two other fallen U.S. service members were being brought home privately at the request of their families. 

The 13 U.S. troops were killed in a suicide bombing attack near the gates of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul last week as U.S. forces were working to evacuate Americans and allies from Afghanistan.

"The 13 service members that we lost were heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our highest American ideals and while saving the lives of others," Biden said in a statement Saturday. "Their bravery and selflessness has enabled more than 117,000 people at risk to reach safety thus far."

The White House said on Saturday that around 111,900 people had left Afghanistan since August 14. The U.S. pullout from Afghanistan is set to complete by August 31.

(With input from agencies) 

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has condemned U.S. air strikes in Kabul, saying it's illegal to carry out "arbitrary attacks" in other countries.

"We condemn such attacks because it is illegal to carry out arbitrary attacks in other countries. If there was any potential threat, it should have been reported to us, not an arbitrary attack that has resulted in civilian casualties," Mujahid told CGTN's guest reporter Zmaryali Abasin in a written response to the air strikes.

Earlier, Abdulhaq Wasiq, a member of the Taliban's political office, said Friday's strikes by the U.S. are against the Doha agreement, according to Tolo News TV.

The U.S. is exaggerating the presence of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, said Wasiq.

"We have signed an agreement with Americans in Doha regarding this and the attack is against the agreement. Based on the agreement, they are not allowed to interfere in Afghanistan affairs after their withdrawal," he added.

Read more:

Taliban 'ready to take over' as Western evacuation deadline approaches

The U.S. Central Command said on Sunday that the U.S. military forces carried out a "self-defense" airstrike in Kabul against a suspected ISIS-K vehicle, which could pose an imminent threat to the airport.

"U.S. military forces conducted a self-defense unmanned over-the-horizon airstrike today on a vehicle in Kabul, eliminating an imminent ISIS threat" to Hamid Karzai International airport, Bill Urban, spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, said in a statement, referring to a local affiliate of the Islamic State in Afghanistan.

"We are confident we successfully hit the target. Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material," Urban said.

It was the second U.S. military air strike in Afghanistan since a suicide bombing outside Kabul airport on Thursday killed 13 U.S. service members and some 170 Afghans. ISIS-K had claimed responsibility for the attack. U.S. President Joe Biden warned on Saturday that another terror attack against Kabul airport could be "highly likely in the next 24-36 hours."

(With input from Xinhua)

The Taliban will allow all foreign nationals and Afghan citizens with travel authorization from another country to leave Afghanistan, according to a joint statement issued by Britain, the United States and other countries.

"We have received assurances from the Taliban that all foreign nationals and any Afghan citizen with travel authorization from our countries will be allowed to proceed in a safe and orderly manner to points of departure and travel outside the country," they said in the statement.

The statement said the countries, which also included Australia, Japan, France, Spain and many others, would continue to issue travel documents to designated Afghans.