Afghanistan - 29th August 2021

Summary for Sunday, 29th August

• US officials say a missile targeted a suicide bomber in a vehicle who was aiming to carry out an attack at Kabul airport
  
• "We are confident we hit the target we were aiming for," a military official told the BBC's US partner network CBS
  
• A rocket is reported to have hit a house near the airport, but it is unclear if this is connected to the US strike
  
• US President Joe Biden had warned that another attack on Kabul airport was likely
  
• The US is continuing its final flights from the country - more than 110,000 people have been evacuated
  
• The last UK troops, along with diplomats and officials, have now left Kabul airport
  
• On Friday the US says it killed two "high profile" members of the Islamic State-K group in a drone strike
  
• IS-K said it carried out Thursday's bomb attack at Kabul airport that killed up to 170 people
  

Welcome to our coverage - the latest main points

Welcome to Sunday's live coverage of events in Afghanistan, as US forces enter the final phase of their pullout - and the Taliban prepare for full control.
Here at the latest main points:

• US troops at Kabul airport are in the final phase now, but an exact time for full departure has yet to be decided, officials say
  
• Only up to 1,000 civilians already at the airport remain to be flown out
  
• US President Joe Biden warned on Saturday that an another attack at the airport was likely
  
• The state department urged all US citizens to leave the area because of a "specific, credible threat"
  
• After the final UK withdrawal was completed, PM Boris Johnson said service personnel should feel pride, but acknowledged the fall of Kabul to the Taliban was hard for them to watch
  
• The Taliban say they are prepared to take over at the airport when given the "nod" from the Americans, and will announce an "inclusive" government within days
  

We're ready to take over airport - Taliban

Taliban technical experts and engineers are ready to take over Kabul airport as soon as US forces leave, the group that now controls Afghanistan says.
A Taliban official told Reuters: "We are waiting for the final nod from the Americans to secure full control."
The Taliban have also said they hope to announce a government for the country within a few days.
Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid admitted that the group's takeover of Kabul was "sudden" and "unanticipated" and spoke of "minor obstacles" in forming an administration.
He also said there had been an exchange of messages with anti-Taliban fighter in the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, and that the Taliban hoped differences would be settled through talks.

US evacuation operations enter final phase

US forces at Kabul airport are in the final phase of evacuations, bringing to an end 20 years of military presence.
A Western security official told Reuters the timing for the end of the operation had yet to be decided, with just over 1,000 civilians already at the airport remaining to be flown out.
Tuesday is the final possible day, under a deal agreed with the Taliban.
US President Joe Biden warned late on Saturday that another militant attack on the airport was highly likely and could come as early as Sunday.
The state department has urged all US citizens to leave the area near the airport because of a "specific, credible threat".
A suicide bombing near the airport on Thursday resulted in some 170 deaths.

British ambassador home as last UK troops leave

Sir Laurie Bristow, Britain's ambassador to Afghanistan, has arrived in the UK and the last British soldiers to leave Kabul are expected to touch down within hours.
The final flight left on Saturday, bringing to an end the UK's 20-year military involvement in Afghanistan.
More than 15,000 people have been evacuated by the UK since 14 August, including 5,000 British nationals and their families, along with 8,000 Afghans.
UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said he thought between 800 and 1,100 eligible Afghans would be left behind, along with around 100 to 150 Britons - although he said some of those were staying willingly.
Read more here.

We will talk but not surrender, say anti-Taliban forces

The Reuters news agency has been speaking to the anti-Taliban opposition in the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul. That's just about the only area left that is not under Taliban control - although they have surrounded it.
The agency interviewed Khalid Noor, the son of a once-powerful governor of Balkh province.
He said opposition figures were grouping together to "negotiate collectively" with the Taliban - and this included veteran ethnic Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum.
Just how united such factions would be remains unclear, and Mr Noor himself said there was a "huge risk" the talks would fail.
But if that happened, he said, surrender would be "out of the question" and that history had shown any attempt to rule Afghanistan by force was "impossible".
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has said talks are taking place, putting the chance of success at "60%".

Veteran Uzbek Abdul Rashid Dostum. Will he still have a role to play?

'Lots of tears' as Afghan Paralympians reach Tokyo

Zakia Khudadadi will take part in the taekwondo competition

Two Afghan Paralympic athletes have arrived to compete in the Tokyo Games after a "major global operation" to get them from Kabul.
Zakia Khudadadi and Hossain Rasouli were welcomed to the athletes' village by a party including IPC president Andrew Parsons.
International Paralympic Committee spokesman Craig Spence said: "As you can imagine, the meeting was extremely emotional.
"There were lots of tears from everyone in the room. It really was a remarkable meeting."
He said their participation sent out "a very strong message of hope".
Khudadadi and Rasouli were among thousands of people unable to leave Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power before the pair were evacuated.
"We never gave up hope," said Parsons.
Khudadadi, the first woman to represent Afghanistan at the Paralympics, will compete on Thursday in the women's K44 -49kg weight taekwondo category.
Rasouli is set for the men's T47 long jump and 400m T47 event.
The flag of Afghanistan was held by a volunteer at the opening ceremony.

We've had to leave for now - UK ambassador

Britain's ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, has praised "the extraordinary intense effort" by the Foreign Office, military and Border Force to evacuate more than 15,000 people from Afghanistan to the UK "in under two weeks".
The ambassador posted a video on Twitter soon after touching down at RAF Brize Norton on Sunday.
He confirmed the embassy would temporarily move to Qatar, but stressed it would reopen as soon as possible - adding that the British government would continue to put pressure on the Taliban "to allow safe passage" to Afghans and British nationals in the country.
"We'll do everything we can to protect the gains of the last 20 years - and, above all, to help the Afghan people achieve the peace and the security that they deserve."

Far fewer planes at Kabul airport - reporter

There are not many reports about Kabul airport so far today, with fewer journalists there, tighter Taliban security and fears of fresh attacks.
Al Jazeera's Charlotte Bellis, who is still in Kabul, reports: "This morning... there isn’t even a single US plane on the ground at Kabul airport, and there have been far fewer in the air than there were even yesterday."
She said hundreds of people were still attempting to get out and had now taken to buses in co-ordination with the Taliban, to try to get through to the airport without lingering outside.

Taliban checks have tightened on the approach to the airport

More on Biden's airport attack warning

We reported earlier that US President Joe Biden had warned another attack at the airport in Kabul is highly likely.
About 170 people were killed in a suicide bombing near the airport on Thursday, which was carried out by a branch of the Islamic State group.
The state department has urged all US citizens to leave the area because of a "specific, credible threat", adding that the attack could happen today.
"This strike was not the last," Biden said, referring to the attack on Thursday. "We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay."
White House officials add that the next few days of the US evacuation operation are likely to be the most dangerous since it began.

13:52

Explosion heard near Kabul airport

There have been multiple reports of a loud explosion heard near Kabul airport.
Some images posted on social media show black clouds of smoke rising into the air above buildings.
A health ministry official has confirmed that a blast has occurred in the area.
It is not clear what caused the explosion and the BBC is seeking further details.

Blast may have been rocket attack - official

A health ministry official has told the BBC the recent blast was caused by a rocket that struck a house near to the airport.
The airport was not hit directly, the source said.
It is not yet known if there are any casualties.
The BBC is seeking further confirmation and more details will follow.

Video appears to show aftermath of blast

Footage shared on Twitter appears to show the aftermath of the explosion that occurred earlier near Kabul airport.
The video was posted by freelance journalist Shafi Karimi.
The BBC has not independently verified the footage. We'll bring you more details as we get them.

US 'carries out military strike in Kabul' - Reuters

The US has reportedly carried out a military strike in the Afghan capital Kabul today.
The strike targeted members of the Afghan branch of the Islamic State group, IS-K, Reuters news agency reports, citing US officials.
No further details of the US operation have been released and it is unclear if it is related to the rocket strike on a property near the airport reported earlier.

About 300 US citizens still in Afghanistan - Blinken

There are still about 300 US citizens still waiting to be evacuated from Afghanistan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says.
"We are down to a population of 300 or fewer Americans who are still on the ground there, and we are working actively in these hours and these days to get those folks out," he told US broadcaster ABC.
Some Americans have chosen to stay beyond the 31 August deadline, Blinken says, but he adds that "they are not going to be stuck in Afghanistan".
The US, he says, has "a mechanism to get them out".

'Boys and girls no longer able to study together' - reports

Journalists in Afghanistan are reporting that the Taliban have announced a ban on co-education.
Ziar Khan Yaad - a journalist for Afghan news channel Tolo News - said the acting minister of education had announced boys and girls would no longer be able to study together in universities "and will continue to study in separate classes in accordance with Islamic law".
In addition, freelance journalist Bashir Ahmad Gwakh tweeted that the Taliban Higher Education Minister had officially banned men from teaching women.
Since the Taliban takeover earlier this month, there has been widespread concern that women and girls in the country will once again be denied their human right to work and study, as was the case previously under Taliban rule.

Biden to honour service members killed at Kabul airport

US President Joe Biden has travelled to the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to honour the 13 US service members killed in the suicide bomb attack on Kabul airport on Thursday.
Up to 170 people, most of them Afghan civilians, died in the attack, which Islamic State's Afghanistan branch said it carried out.
The president and First Lady Jill Biden will "meet the families of fallen American service members who gave their lives to save Americans, our partners, and our Afghan allies in Kabul," Mr Biden's schedule says.
They will then honour the transfer of the troops' remains from an aircraft flown to the base.
Evacuations are continuing at Kabul airport, ahead of a deadline of 31 August for the withdrawal of all foreign forces in now Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Mr Biden has already ordered one drone strike in retaliation for the suicide bombing.

US strike targeted suicide bomber - officials

An explosion near Kabul airport today sent smoke into the air above residential properties

More now on the reports that the US today carried out a military strike on suspected members of the Afghan branch of the Islamic State group, IS-K.
US officials have now said the operation - an air strike involving a drone - targeted a suicide bomber in a vehicle who was aiming to carry out an attack at Kabul airport.
"We are confident we hit the target we were aiming for," a military official told the BBC's US partner network CBS.
"Initial reports indicate there were no civilian casualties," the official said, adding: "Secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material."
A spokesman for the Taliban also said the US airstrike had targeted a suspected bomber travelling in a car, according to the Associated Press.
It comes after witnesses reported a rocket strike near the airport, although it is not clear if the two incidents are connected.
A bombing at Kabul airport last Thursday killed as many as 170 people, including 13 US troops.

We will carry out more strikes - US

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has said they will continue to carry out strikes in Afghanistan, after an attack at Kabul airport killed about 170 people.
"The president [Joe Biden] does not intend to start a new war in Afghanistan," he told CBS.
"That being said, he also is going to talk to his commanders about whatever set of tools and capabilities they need to get the people who attacked our troops at the Kabul airport and to make sure that we are degrading and debilitating the group, Isis-K, that conducted this attack.
"So yes, we will continue to take the kinds of over-the-horizon [remote] strikes like we did over the weekend against the Isis-K facilitators and plotters. And yes, we will consider other operations to go after these guys, to get them and to take them off the battlefield."
Isis-K, or IS-K, is the Afghanistan branch of the Islamic State jihadist group, which claimed the Kabul airport attack.
Sullivan also said they were "very closely tracking" the potential threat of attacks in the US: "What the intelligence community has assessed to date is that the relevant terrorist groups in Afghanistan do not possess advanced external plotting capabilities - but, of course, they could develop them."

Tory MP and former army officer condemns 'shameful' exit from Afghanistan

Former army officer Johnny Mercer recently joined a parliamentary debate on Afghanistan

Drone strike eliminated airport threat - US

The US says its drone strike in Kabul today was successful in "eliminating an imminent" threat to the airport, where evacuations are winding down.
Capt Bill Urban of US Central Command said he was "confident" that the target, a vehicle carrying at least one person associated with IS-K and a "substantial amount of explosive material", was destroyed.
"We are assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties, though we have no indications at this time," he said.
"We remain vigilant for potential future threats.”

Could Turkey operate Kabul airport?

The Taliban has asked Turkey to run Kabul airport providing it retains control of security there, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.
"What does the Taliban say with regard to the airport issue? They say 'give us the security but you operate it'," he said in comments published by the official Andalou news agency.
"How come we hand you over the security? Let's say you took over the security, but how would we explain to the world if another bloodbath took place there? It's not an easy job."
He added that he would make a decision about whether or not Turkey could run the airport "once calm prevails".
However it has seemed less and less likely that Turkey will agree to do so since Wednesday, when it began to withdraw its approximately 500 non-combat troops from Afghanistan.

Taliban haven't changed - former UK diplomats

Since taking Kabul on 15 August the Taliban have stressed that their attitudes towards women and their approach to violence has changed, in an attempt to present a new image to the international community.
But retired senior military and diplomatic figures from the UK say this is unlikely.
"I don't think they've changed," Sir Nicholas Kay told Times Radio. Sir Nicholas was the ambassador to Afghanistan from 2017 to 2019. "One of their strengths, if you like, is their single-mindedness and their strength of conviction and their faith in what they are doing and their cause."
General Lord Richard Dannatt, who was chief of the general staff from 2006 to 2009, also told the radio station: "I'm not optimistic that we're going to see a very different Taliban over time that that which we saw 20 years ago."
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted that the Taliban will be judged "not on the basis of what they say but what they do".

A country abandoned

By John Simpson, World Affairs Editor
Across the globe, countries which have traditionally relied on American backing are suddenly starting to wonder if they should get themselves some re-insurance.
Only four months ago, President Biden sounded confident and reassuring: "We will not conduct a hasty rush to the exit. We'll do it responsibly, deliberately and safely. And we will do it in full co-ordination with our allies and partners."
That isn't what happened. And a country which depended on American and Western support for an entire generation has suddenly found itself abandoned.
When the Taliban were thrown out in November 2001 by a coalition of moderate Afghan mujahideen, with Western support, an era of relative prosperity and personal freedom began.
By 2021, the war against the Taliban had dwindled to a security operation. A smallish Western force of around 2,500 kept the Taliban down and the country stable.
It was the announcement of the deadline for pulling out the Western troops that led to the sudden Taliban surge and the capture of Kabul.
Everything is uncertain now in Afghanistan.
President Biden's abrupt withdrawal means that peace, for the people of Afghanistan, is further away than ever.
Read more from John.

John Simpson reporting from Pul-e Khomri, Afghanistan, in September 2014

France and UK to propose Kabul 'safe zone'

France and Britain will submit a joint resolution to an emergency United Nations meeting on Monday, proposing the establishment of a safe zone in Kabul.
The safe zone would be under UN control and would offer shelter in the capital to people trying to leave Afghanistan.
"I cannot see who could oppose enabling the safety of humanitarian operations," French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on Sunday, during a visit to Mosul in Iraq.
The situation in Afghanistan will be the focal point of Monday's meeting between UN envoys for Britain, France, the US, China and Russia.
President Macron said on Saturday that France was holding preliminary discussions with the Taliban about the humanitarian situation and the possible evacuation of more people.
Like the UK, France is one of a number of countries in the West to have ended evacuations from Kabul.

Taliban 'not letting female doctors return to work'

BBC correspondent Rajini Vaidyanathan tweets that she's spoken to a young Afghan man, whose sister - a doctor - isn't being allowed to go back to her clinic.
This is despite the Taliban saying publicly that they have asked women in medical jobs to return to work.

On Friday, a Taliban spokesman said they wanted all women healthcare workers to return to work, as pressure was mounting on Afghanistan's health services.
"The Ministry of Public Health of the Islamic Emirate advises all women employees in teh centre and provinces that they should attend work regularly," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.
When the Taliban were last in government, before 2001, women were not allowed to work.

Afghan refugee gives birth at 30,000ft

George Bowden - BBC News
An Afghan refugee fleeing to the UK gave birth to a baby girl at 30,000ft while on an evacuation flight destined for Birmingham.
Soman Noori, 26, was on a flight from Dubai to Birmingham, having previously left Kabul, when she went into labour, Turkish Airlines said.
With no doctor on board, members of the cabin crew delivered the baby girl, named Havva, or Eve in English.
The airline said both mother and child are healthy.
You can read more here.

UN urges the West to 'keep supporting Afghanistan'

Many Afghans have tried to leave the country since the Taliban takeover

The United Nations has urged the international community "to keep supporting Afghanistan".
As countries including the UK and France complete their evacuation operations and pull out of the country, the UN said it was crucial "the outside world" continued to support the humanitarian effort.
"There's already a very serious humanitarian situation and that could get very much worse," said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN Commissioner for Human Rights.
He said much of the infrastructure had broken down in Afghanistan, meaning supplies of food and medicines must to be brought in to the country before the winter.
"So the outside world really needs to step up and keep in the game in Afghanistan," he told the BBC.

We're pausing our live coverage

We're pausing our live coverage for now - thanks for staying with us. Here are the main developments of the day so far:

• A loud blast near to Kabul airport was later confirmed to have been caused by a US missile. American officials said they targeted a suicide bomber who was planning to carry out an attack
  
• Capt Bill Urban, from US Central Command, said he was "confident" they had hit the target - a vehicle carrying at least one person associated with the Islamic State group and a "substantial amount of explosive material"
  
• A rocket is also reported to have hit a house near the airport, but it is still unclear whether or not this is connected to the American strike
  
• US President Joe Biden had warned that another attack on Kabul airport was highly likely, with White House officials saying it could happen as early as today
  
• The US is carrying out its final flights out of Afghanistan, ahead of a 31 August deadline. The last UK troops, along with diplomats and officials, have already left Kabul
  
• More than 110,000 people have now been evacuated
  
• Meanwhile, journalists in Afghanistan are reporting that the Taliban have announced a ban on co-education - with boys and girls to "study in separate classes in accordance with Islamic law"