The first seven days ...

'Limits to assistance'

Definitely advice not to be taken lightly.  I hope everyone will take heed.  This is serious (and not only for Afghanistan, but for countries in 'the West' also, and the world over...

'Two newborns among 24 killed as gunmen storm Kabul maternity hospital'

Two newborn babies are among the dead after gunmen stormed a maternity hospital in the city of Kabul, killing 24 people.

The horrific attack took place in the Afghan city on Tuesday of last week, at a maternity hospital where medical charity Doctors Without Borders run a clinic.

The victims were largely nurses, mothers and their babies.

Up to 100 women and newborn babies were evacuated from the hospital following the shooting rampage once it was deemed safe, according to the BBC.

A woman sits next to newborn babies who lost their mothers following an attack in a maternity hospital, in Kabul on May 13, 2020..(Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

It is understood that the mass murder was carried out by at least three men, who dressed as police officers to gain entrance to the hospital before throwing grenades and shooting indiscriminately.

An official told the BBC that Afghan special forces had killed the three attackers.

Reuters reports that one woman, who had been trying to conceive for seven years, lost her newborn child just four hours after he was born.

She had named him Omid, meaning 'Hope'.

Images from the brutal attack shows military officers carrying newborn children, swaddled in bloodstained blankets, to safety.

One such image, posted to Twitter by Lotfullah Najafizada of TOLOnews, bears the caption: "Born to see this? Time to rethink."

https://twitter.com/LNajafizada/status/1260200024950136833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1260200024950136833%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishpost.com%2Fnews%2Ftwo-newborns-among-24-killed-gunmen-storm-kabul-maternity-hospital-185303

No terrorist organisation has claimed responsibility for the attack, which Interior Ministry spokesperson Tareq Arian has called "an act against humanity and a war crime".

On the same day in the same city, a suicide bomber killed at least 24 more people who had gathered to pay respects at the funeral of a police commander, for which the so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility.

Fifteen trapped Irish nationals desperately seeking to escape Afghanistan

UK faces 'immediate danger' of terror attack and future 9/11 'spectacular', warn experts
The Afghanistan terror threat is a clear and present danger, security experts tell the Mirror tonight, with the return of the Taliban meaning the uk Al-Qaeda could use lawless state as a base for attacks on targets in West

The Mirror - 20 Aug 2021

Taliban fighters patrol in Kandahar (Image: STRINGER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Britain is now facing the threat of a terror attack on the same horrifying scale as the 9-11 assault on the US in 2001, intelligence and security experts fear.
The leader of the resistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan has warned his country will become the “ground zero of radical Islamist terrorism”.
Sandhurst-educated Ahmad Masood, commander of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, said: “The Taliban is not a problem for the Afghan people alone.
“Plots against democracies will be hatched here once again.”
From his mountain hideout north of Kabul, he said his fighters desperately needed support from the West.

Parading deadly weapons in Laghman province  (AFP via Getty Images)

He said: “There is still much you can do to aid the cause of freedom – you are our only remaining hope.”
Counter terror officers have feared a Taliban takeover for months, knowing it would give al-Qaeda back the “ungoverned spaces” in the deserts and mountains, the terror training grounds where Osama bin Laden plotted his 9-11 attacks.

Taliban rule will also allow Islamic State’s regional faction ISK to thrive.

The World Trade Center attack in 2001  (Image: Getty Images)

Chilling warnings have come from military chiefs, an ex-MI5 boss, intelligence experts and security officials, who fear the UK will face atrocities like the 2013 murder of soldier Lee Rigby, killed by extremists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale.

Former MI5 boss Lord Jonathan Evans said yesterday: “If they get the opportunity to put down infrastructure to train and to operate then that will pose a threat to the West.

“There’s also the psychological effect of the inspiration that some people will draw from the failure of Western power in Afghanistan. In practical terms and in terms of ungoverned space, but also in psychological terms, it probably means an increase in threat over the coming months and years.”

Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, told the Mirror: “There is the possibility of a 9-11 style spectacular, on government buildings, sports grounds, major targets.”

He said: “If they cannot get the US, the UK remains a large target. Freedom in Afghanistan, as we have seen with 9-11, will give them time and help to plan such an attack.”

He said there was also the risk of an attack by UK jihadists who trained in Afghanistan in how to launch an attack on their return.

But he also warned: “We face the danger of an attack right now from jihadists already here who are inspired by what they have witnessed of the Taliban victory in Afghanistan.

“This is happening right now – radicalised people are seeing this story unfold and being inspired by it. They are celebrating the rise of al-Qaeda once again and the threat from these people is immediate.”

Col Kemp believes the bond between the Taliban and al-Qaeda may have strengthened in the past 20 years.

He said: “They have been close comrades for some time and have similar doctrines, religious beliefs.

“They have campaigned and fought together for two decades and their links may be even greater than before.

“This could very well mean a far greater threat from al-Qaeda Mark II, a bigger danger to British citizens.”

One expert said “There is a long-term and spectacular threat to the UK of another 9-11.

“Would be jihadists who are inspired by what has happened may wish to harm British citizens right now – and it would be because of what has happened in Afghanistan.”

Thousands of terrorists and other hardened criminals have been freed from Afghanistan’s jails by the Taliban, many of them foreign fighters desperate to rejoin their jihadi comrades.

It is feared billions of pounds of military hardware has fallen into Taliban hands and could be used in al-Qaeda training camps and attacks. The Taliban victory may inspire UK jihadists who failed to reach Syria and Iraq, dubbed “frustrated travellers”, to fight.

Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda was allowed to stay in Afghanistan by the Taliban as their guests in jihad, even though the Afghan group had never had an interest in global jihad.

After the Taliban were ousted, the UK and Europe suffered waves of terror attacks but nothing as serious as 9-11 as it was believed keeping al-Qaeda and ISIS on the move stopped their planning.

The US-led coalition was bogged down in a 20-year war in Afghanistan against a constant stream of jihadists, which killed thousands of US troops and 457 Brits.

The US withdrawal means the UK faces an even bigger terrorism threat. Colonel Kemp said: “We could face a worse terror threat than even at the height of the ISIS campaign as they are emboldened.”

Afghanistan: The desperate scramble to escape

By Secunder Kermani
BBC News, Kabul


"Get back, get back," screamed the British soldier at a crowd gathered in front of the secure compound where those being evacuated by the UK embassy are taken before flying out.
In front of him, many frantically waved their British passports in the air, hoping to be allowed through but a group of Afghan security guards wielding rubber hoses tried to push them back.

Many in the crowd had not received any indication they would be evacuated, but had pitched up in any case, desperate for a route out of Afghanistan. Others, however, had received emails from the embassy telling them arrive here, and wait to be processed for a flight.

They include Helmand Khan, an Uber driver from west London, who had arrived with his young children in Afghanistan a few months back to visit relatives. He thrusts a handful of British passports towards me. "For the last three days I'm trying to go inside," he tells me in despair, with his two young sons by his side.
Also here is Khalid, a former interpreter for the British army. His wife gave birth to a child just two weeks ago, and he's terrified the baby could die in such scenes. "I've been here since the morning," he says, "the Taliban lashed me on the back on my way."

A short walk away is the main entrance to the compound. Thousands have turned up, the vast majority with no realistic prospect of being evacuated. British soldiers at times fired into the air to control the crowd. The only way to get inside is to somehow push your way through the crowd, and wave your documents in their faces, hoping they will allow you past. The situation seems even more chaotic at the airport gates manned by US soldiers, while in front of the main civilian entrance to the airport the Taliban have been regularly firing into the air and beating back crowds who try and surge inside.

I'm constantly bombarded with questions by the Afghans who are trying to enter the British controlled compound, and who are at a total loss as to what to do. "Can you help me?" "Will they let me in?" Many try to show me documents they've brought with them, proving they spent time working with international forces or foreign embassies.

• 'If they find me, they will kill me'
  
• Afghanistan: Danger lies on Kabul road to freedom
  

One young woman tells me she was an international basketball player. She has not had any contact with the British embassy, but says she's in fear for her life. She chokes up trying to describe her terror.

Thousands are attempting to escape

The Taliban insist all those linked to the government have been granted an amnesty. The group says it intends to establish an "inclusive" government, but many here are deeply anxious about the future.

Elsewhere in the city, things are far calmer. It feels like a different world. Shops and restaurants are opening up, though at a fruit and vegetable market stallholders tell me there are still significantly fewer people out and about. One man, selling cosmetic products, says there are far fewer women in particular, though it's not uncommon to see them on the streets.

The Taliban meanwhile are everywhere, patrolling in vehicles seized from the Afghan security forces. They say they're maintaining a presence to prevent looting and unrest, and some residents tell us they do feel more secure, not least because the militants are no longer carrying out targeted killings or bomb blasts.

Many are still trying to establish what life under Taliban rule will look like. One taxi driver tells me he ferried a group of fighters across the city whilst playing music from the car stereo. "They didn't say anything," he tells me whilst grinning, "they're not strict like they were before."

But other reports are emerging of the Taliban turning up at the homes of journalists or former government figures and questioning them. Many fear it's only a matter of time before they're targeted violently.

Back close to the airport, and Khalid, the former interpreter with a young baby finally manages to make it into the holding compound.

Others are still struggling though and one British Afghan pleads with me to help. "How can I take my children through this crowd," he asks? Many others, not eligible for evacuation but desperate to leave, will be left behind to face a deeply uncertain future.

"You've seen my British passport, these are my children"

Afghanistan: British family's ordeal escaping Taliban and securing passage home
The group had flown to Kabul from Heathrow in late July for a double wedding in the Afghan capital which took place in early August.

Jason Farrell - Sky News
Saturday 21 August 2021 23:56, UK

Threatened, held at gunpoint, and beaten up by the Taliban; a family of thirteen from London have spoken of their desperate bid to get out of Kabul, having now reached safety.
Sky News exclusively followed their plight as they lived through the uncertainty and trauma of being trapped in the Afghan city.

Sabrallah Zahiri, from Hounslow, told Sky News: "We are so happy now we got out and looking forward to getting back to the UK. Everyone wants to run away from this country. They all hate this country; in my opinion this country is finished it's never going to be like it was before."

 
Taliban: Who are they and what do they want?

Mr Zahiri and twelve other family members are now safe at Kabul airport and waiting for an RAF flight home.
The group had flown to Kabul from Heathrow in late July for a double wedding in the Afghan capital which took place in early August.
They'd travelled with children aged two and eight. Their flight was due back last Monday but was cancelled.
We first spoke to them on Tuesday when their world was caving in after members of the Taliban mustered outside their apartment and confiscated their car.
Mr Zahiri explains: "They said 'you have to give me the key'. I said 'why, it's my own car not the government's car?' and they said, 'we don't care' and they put a gun to my head, and I said 'okay, take it'."
The family got in touch with the British consulate and was told to wait for a call to go to the airport.
They filmed the Taliban from their window and family members can be heard getting increasingly upset as gunmen climb over fences towards them.
On Wednesday, several armed members of the Taliban came into the apartment and threatened the man who was housing them.
Mr Zahiri says: "The Taliban came to the house and said: 'why are you keeping these guys in your home' they came from the United Kingdom and 'you should kick them out.'"

The homeowner, Ajmil Hibibi, Mr Zahiri's uncle, refused to kick them out. He also made it to the safety of the NATO controlled compound, but the journey was full of peril. Between his home and the airport was a gauntlet of checkpoints.
The family had watched videos of people being forced back from the airport perimeter fence by soldiers shooting over heads. It was hardly a journey anyone would choose for a large family.
On Thursday they received a call from the embassy to go and set out. The roads were clogged with others trying to reach the airport and the sound of traffic sometimes punctured with gunfire. On route they were stopped by the Taliban.
Mr Zahiri's brother, Abdul Wajed, told Sky News: "We tried to go for the flight, but the Taliban attacked us, and they hit me with a gun, with AK47 in the middle of my chest and I fell to the floor. They hit my uncle as well."
They returned to the apartment, disheartened, and scared of what would happen next.
 
Afghanistan: Anti-Taliban militia vows to fight 'to the death'

They knew even if they got past the Taliban the crush outside the airport was another hazard. But on Friday night, they risked another journey, this time getting past the Taliban, reaching the concrete walls around the airport.
They spent hours overnight with tired and tearful children waiting in darkness, working through the crowds until finally they reached the front of the queue early on Saturday morning, relieved to be able to show their passports to members of the British Army.
They had navigated the most dangerous journey of their lives - and were overwhelmed by the contrast between the horrific treatment of the Taliban and the kindness of the British soldiers who gave them food and water.
They came through the British army checkpoint just hours before several people were fatally crushed at the gates. The entrance closed behind them. For once luck was on their side - but many others are still waiting, still calculating how to make it through.

US Warns of Islamic State attack risk at Kabul Airport
Sunday 22 August 2021, 9:54am

The US has warned its citizens in Afghanistan not to travel to Kabul airport due to potential threats from the Islamic State.
A security warning on Saturday told American evacuees to stay away unless they receive individual instruction from a US government representative.
A US official said small groups of Americans and possibly other civilians will be given specific instructions on what to do, including movement to transit points where they can be gathered up by the military. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.
Officials declined to provide more specifics about the IS threat but described it as significant. They said there have been no confirmed attacks as of yet.
Time is running out ahead of President Joe Biden’s August 31 deadline to withdraw most remaining US troops. In his remarks on the situation on Friday, Biden did not commit to extending it, though he did issue a new pledge to evacuate not only all Americans in Afghanistan, but also the tens of thousands of Afghans who have aided the war effort since September 11 2001. That promise would dramatically expand the number of people the US evacuates.

Afghan crisis: Russia plans for new era with Taliban rule
By Petr Kozlov & Anna Rynda
BBC Russian, Moscow
21 Aug, 2021

When US and European governments raced to get their citizens and Afghan colleagues out of Kabul this week, Russia was one of very few countries not visibly alarmed by the Taliban takeover.
Russian diplomats described the new men in town as "normal guys" and argued that the capital was safer now than before. President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the Taliban's takeover was a reality they had to work with.
It is all a far cry from the disastrous nine-year war in Afghanistan that many Russians remember from propping up Kabul's communist government in the 1980s.

Warm words for Taliban

Unlike most foreign embassies in the capital, Russia says its diplomatic mission remains open and it's had warm words for the new rulers. Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov met a Taliban representative within 48 hours of the takeover and said he had seen no evidence of reprisals or violence.
Moscow's UN representative Vassily Nebenzia spoke of a bright future of national reconciliation, with law and order returning to the streets and of "the ending of many years of bloodshed".

Russia's special Afghanistan envoy (R) has been talking to Taliban leaders for some years

President Putin's special envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, even said the Taliban were easier to negotiate with than the old "puppet government" of exiled President Ashraf Ghani.
Moscow has had little time for Mr Ghani: its diplomats claimed this week he had fled with four cars and a helicopter full of cash - accusations he dismissed as lies.

Charting Russia's improving ties

Russia is not racing to recognise the Taliban as Afghanistan's rulers, but there has been an apparent softening of rhetoric. State news agency Tass this week replaced the term "terrorist" with "radical" in its reports on the Taliban.
Moscow has been building contacts with the Taliban for some time. Even though the Taliban have been on Russia's list of terrorist and banned organisations since 2003, the group's representatives have been coming to Moscow for talks since 2018.

Russia has not yet recognised the Taliban as Afghanistan's new government

The former Western-backed Afghan government accused Russia's presidential envoy of being an open supporter of the Taliban and of excluding the official government from three years of Moscow talks.
Mr Kabulov denied that and said they were ungrateful. But as far back as 2015 he said Russia's interests coincided with the Taliban when it came to fighting Islamic State (IS) jihadists.
That did not go unnoticed in Washington. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accused Russia in August 2017 of supplying arms to the Taliban, a remark that Moscow rejected and described as "perplexing".
The foreign ministry in Moscow said it had "asked our American colleagues to provide evidence, but to no avail… we do not provide any support to the Taliban".
In February this year, Mr Kabulov angered the Afghan government by praising the Taliban for fulfilling its side of the Doha agreements "immaculately" while accusing Kabul of sabotaging them.

Focus on regional security

Despite its closer ties with the Taliban, Moscow is for now staying pragmatic, watching developments and not removing the group from its terror list just yet. President Putin said he hoped the Taliban would make good on its promises to restore order. "It's important not to allow terrorists to spill into neighbouring countries," he said.
The key factors shaping Russia's policy are regional stability and its own painful history in Afghanistan. It wants secure borders for its Central Asian allies and to prevent the spread of terrorism and drug trafficking.
When the US targeted the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks and set up bases in former Soviet states in the region, Russia initially welcomed the move. But relations soon grew strained.
Earlier this month Russia held military exercises in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, aimed at reassuring Central Asian countries, some of which are military allies of Moscow.
Last month Russia obtained Taliban assurances that any Afghan gains wouldn't threaten its regional allies and that they would continue to fight IS militants.

• Danger lies on Kabul road to freedom
  

Russia's bitter memory of war

Russia stresses it has no interest in sending troops to Afghanistan, and it is not hard to see why. It fought a bloody and, many would argue, pointless war there in the latter years of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

What began as a 1979 invasion to prop up a friendly regime lasted nine years and cost the lives of 15,000 Soviet personnel.
It turned the USSR into an international pariah, with many countries boycotting the 1980 Moscow Olympics. It became a massive burden on the crumbling Soviet economy.
While the Soviet Union installed a government in Kabul led by Babrak Karmal, the US, Pakistan, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia supplied money and arms to the mujahideen, who fought the Soviet troops and their Afghan allies.

The Soviets were eventually forced to leave Afghanistan after a guerrilla campaign by mujahideen

Many of those killed were teenage Soviet army conscripts, and the war drove home a realisation of just how little the Soviet authorities cared about their own people. The war is widely thought to have hastened the end of the Soviet Union, at least in part, by stirring disillusionment with its rulers.

The war ended with an ignominious military withdrawal in February 1989.

Fears for the future

Russia may have given the impression of being prepared for the Taliban's sweep to power, but some experts believe Moscow was taken by surprise as much as everyone else.
"We cannot talk about any strategy from Moscow," says Andrey Serenko from the Russian Centre for Contemporary Afghanistan Study who sees decision being made on the hoof. "Moscow is worried about being late to the reshaping of the regional architecture."
Others in Moscow are wary of what Taliban rule might bring.
Andrei Kortunov, head of the Russian International Affairs Council think tank, believes they will struggle to control the entire country, especially the north, and that could threaten Russia and its neighbours.
"Perhaps, some cells of al-Qaeda, perhaps of Isis, based in Afghanistan, would instigate some actions in Central Asia," he says.
He also fears a sharp deterioration in the Afghan economy, which could in turn prompt further instability.

What's the latest?

• Ex-UK Prime Minister Tony Blair - who led the UK when it invaded Afghanistan alongside the US in 2001 - has criticised the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and stressed the situation puts the Afghan people and the security of the West at risk
  
• The Pentagon has announced that US commercial planes will be drafted in to help move people evacuated from Afghanistan on to other countries
  
• The military alliance Nato says at least 20 people have died in and around Kabul international airport in the last week amid chaotic scenes as thousands desperately try to flee the Taliban. Earlier, the UK Ministry of Defence said seven Afghan civilians had died outside the airport
  
• Efforts to evacuate Britons and eligible Afghans from Kabul are improving, with more than 1,700 people airlifted out in the past 24 hours, the armed forces minister has said
  
• Former chief of the defence staff General Lord Richards called for troops to stay beyond the 31 August deadline to help evacuations and save lives; alongside a properly coordinated international strategy
  

Seven days that rocked Afghanistan

• The Taliban seize control of the capital Kabul, and take over the presidential palace
  
• President Ashraf Ghani flees the country, saying he wanted "to prevent bloodshed"
  

• Scenes of panic at Kabul’s international airport as thousands desperately try to leave
  

• There are noticeably fewer women out and about, local journalists report
  

• US President Joe Biden cuts his vacation short and defends his decision to pull out his troops
  

• Several Taliban leaders arrive in Afghanistan from exile in Qatar
  
• The militants hold their first news conference since taking control, promising freedom for women and the media “within the framework of Islamic law”
  

• President Ghani reveals he is in the United Arab Emirates
  
• Witnesses say militants shot dead three protesters and hurt others in anti-Taliban protests in Jalalabad
  

• President Biden says the “chaos was inevitable” and that US troops may stay in Afghanistan beyond the planned 31 August withdrawal date to help evacuate Americans
  

• Afghan protesters mark Independence Day by waving the Afghan national flag
  
• Vision emerges of young children being handed over a wall to soldiers at Kabul airport, in a desperate attempt by their parents to get them to safety
  

• An intelligence report says the Taliban are going door-to-door searching for people who worked for Nato forces or the previous Afghan government, and threatening their family members
  
• Taliban fighters looking for a journalist who works for the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) shoot dead one of his close relatives
  
• Seven people are killed in an attack on the Afghan ministry of information in Kabul. The Taliban says it is not behind the attack
  

• The US says it is worried about potential attacks by the Islamic State (IS) group
  
• Foreign governments tell their citizens to stay away from the airport because of the chaos, unless they are told to go there for a flight
  

• EU and UK officials say it will be impossible to evacuate everyone by the end of the month
  

Afghans leave with one suitcase and the clothes on their backs

UN urges countries to remember millions of Afghans outside Kabul

Putin takes aim at western nations over taking in refugees

Several thousand Americans still in Afghanistan - US advisor

'Everything is over' - Afghan Sikh MP

Afghanistan must never again shelter terrorists, Muslim-majority countries say

Under pressure Biden due to address nation

Re-cap and goodbye

• US President Joe Biden is preparing to address the nation later amid ongoing criticism of his handling of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan
  
• Several thousands US nationals remain in the country, according to the White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan
  
• A senior Taliban official has blamed the US for the "evacuation drama" following the group's takeover of Kabul
  
• Former British prime minister Tony Blair described the US withdrawal of military support as "tragic, dangerous and unnecessary" in his first intervention since the Taliban takeover
  
• There were calmer scenes at Kabul's airport on Sunday with reports Taliban fighters were firing into the air and using batons to force people into queues
  
• At least 20 people have died during chaos at the airport since last Sunday, a Nato official told Reuters
  
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticised Western countries for expecting central Asian nations to take in Afghan refugees
  

Today's live coverage was written by Penny Spiller, Mary O'Connor, Victoria Bisset, Tiffany Wertheimer, and George Bowden, and was edited by Flora Drury and Thom Poole.