International

Taliban supporters and senior figures held their first mass rally near Kabul yesterday, but the show of strength was overshadowed by a bomb blast targeting mourners inside the Afghan capital. No foreign government has yet recognised the Islamist former rebels’ rule, though their hold on power within the country is becoming stronger, seven weeks after they took Kabul. However, in a sign that the Taliban victory has not brought an end to violence after Afghanistan’s 20-year conflict, an explosion killed at least five and wounded several more outside Kabul’s Eid Gah mosque. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had said on Saturday that a prayer ceremony would be held at the mosque for his mother following her recent death. He made no reference to this yesterday as he tweeted that the blast had killed several civilians in the area. People in bloodied clothing were seen by AFP arriving at the nearby Kabul Emergency Hospital. A cultural commission official, who asked not to be named, told AFP that five people died and 11 were wounded, adding that the casualties included both civilians and Taliban members. “We have also arrested three people in connection with the blast,” he said. According to the official, the explosive device was placed at the entrance to the mosque and detonated as mourners were leaving after offering condolences to Mujahid and his family. Taliban fighters arriving at the hospital handed over their weapons and stripped off their body armour to go in to donate blood, and the hospital said on Twitter that four patients were being treated. The blast, which could be heard across the centre of the capital, came shortly after the new Taliban “interim government” staged a rally in Kohdaman township in the hilly outskirts of Kabul. “This is the day we waited for,” said Khalil Haqqani, the new minister for refugees, who in 2011 was labelled a terrorist by the United States with a $5mn bounty on his head. He is a prominent leader of the Haqqani militant network founded by his brother Jalaluddin. “We have achieved our goal, but it requires protection,” he told the gathering, with his rifle leaning against the lectern. “My advice to the world is that they leave Afghanistan to Afghanistan.” Flanked by armed Taliban fighters in combat gear, leading officials and commanders addressed an audience sat in rows of chairs under awnings, celebrating victory over the United States and praising suicide bombers. The United States, European nations and other powers that were major donors to the former Afghan government before the Taliban takeover have warned they will not recognise the new administration – made up largely of hardliners and no women – unless it becomes more inclusive. Afghanistan’s neighbour Pakistan has urged the world to engage with the Taliban, while stopping short of itself recognising the new regime. US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who will be in Islamabad next week, has pressed for an inclusive government in Kabul, and said that Washington looks to “Pakistan to play a critical role in enabling that outcome”.

More than 1,500 Taliban supporters attended a rally on Sunday in a vast field to the north of Kabul, in a show of strength as they consolidate their rule of Afghanistan. The crowd, exclusively men and boys, heard speeches by leading Taliban officials and commanders at Kohdaman township in the hilly outskirts of the capital. The rally was the first of its kind in the capital since the group seized control of the country seven weeks ago following a lightning offensive. Flanked by white and black Taliban standards and fighters in combat gear carrying assault rifles, the speakers addressed an audience sat in rows of chairs under awnings. As the event went on, more and more supporters arrived, leaving several hundred sitting to watch from chairs in the midday sun. Mawlawi Muslim Haqqani, the deputy minister of Hajj and Religious Affairs, hailed the hardliners' takeover, saying Christians and Westerners had been defeated. A string of men also railed against the United States, and one told the crowd to "respect elders" because they were the "mujahids who fought against the Soviets" in the 1980s. A speaker introduced as Rahmatullah, from nearby Mir Bacha Kot, said the Taliban's victory was "the result of those youths who stood in queues to register for suicide attacks". To kick off proceedings, a procession of fighters carrying flags and weapons -- including rocket launchers -- paraded around the crowd. Some of the mainly unarmed supporters waved homemade posters, while others sported red or white Taliban headbands. Tribal elders watched on cross-legged from the side of the stage. As people arrived, music honouring the Taliban's victories echoed around the site as dozens of heavily armed fighters in military combat fatigues stood guard. "America is defeated, impossible, impossible -- but possible!" one song said. Some chanted pro-Taliban slogans as they drove down the dusty road on pick-up trucks to the site. At the turn-off towards the township, about 10 armed fighters lined the road beneath a large banner honouring a deceased Taliban commander and professing the "support of the people of Kohdaman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in the action of liberating the country". Last Thursday, the Taliban had violently cracked down on a small women's rights demonstration in eastern Kabul, firing shots into the air to disperse protesters. Then, gunmen pushed back the women protesters as they tried to continue with the demonstration, while a foreign journalist was hit with a rifle and blocked from filming. Isolated anti-Taliban rallies -- with women at the forefront -- were staged in cities around the country after the group seized power, including in the western city of Herat where two people were shot dead. But protests have dwindled since the government issued an order banning demonstrations that did not have prior authorisation, warning of "severe legal action" for violators. The handful that have gone ahead have been criticised as carefully orchestrated publicity stunts, including a rally at a Kabul university where hundreds of fully veiled women professed support for the new regime.

The Taliban government in Afghanistan appealed on Sunday for international flights to be resumed, promising full cooperation with airlines and saying that problems at Kabul airport had been resolved. The statement from the foreign affairs ministry comes as the new administration has stepped up efforts to open up the country and gain international acceptance following the collapse of the Western-backed government last month. A limited number of aid and passenger flights have been operating from the airport. But normal commercial services have yet to resume since it was closed in the wake of the chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of foreigners and vulnerable Afghans that followed the Taliban's seizure of the capital. The airport, which was damaged during the evacuation, has since been reopened with the assistance of technical teams from Qatar and Turkey. While some airlines including Pakistan International Airlines have been offering limited services and some people have been able to get places on flights, prices have been reported to be many times higher than normal. Foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said the suspension of international flights had left many Afghans stranded abroad and also prevented people from travelling for work or study. "As the problems at Kabul International Airport have been resolved and the airport is fully operational for domestic and international flights, the IEA assures all airlines of its full cooperation," he said, using an abbreviation for Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban's term for their new government. Since taking power, the Taliban have grappled with a severe economic crisis and have faced pressure on issues ranging from girls' education to allegations of reprisals against former officials and others associated with the previous government.

Afghanistan is at risk of “imminent hunger” with winter approaching and services disrupted by the return to power of the Taliban, a UN official warned in an interview with AFP. Natalia Kanem, director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said via video that the situation in the country is dire. “It would not be an exaggeration to say” that at least one-third of Afghanistan’s population of around 33mn is affected by “imminent hunger”, she warned. Harsh winters, disrupting the ability to transport supplies to isolated areas of the mountainous country, plus the coronavirus pandemic will aggravate an already complicated situation, Kanem added. “There is a lot of anxiety over how we’re going to deliver health care, where the next meal is going to come from,” she told AFP from the UNFPA headquarters in New York. The doctor from Panama warned that women and girls would bear the worst of it. “It is urgent, for women and girls in particular who were already suffering. This is one of the countries with the highest death during childbirth and pregnancy rates,” she said. “We cannot underscore enough that even during a transitional period, women and girls have human rights and these are to be respected.” Kanem repeated calls made by the international community to the Taliban, who swept to power last month as the United States withdrew its last troops, ending Washington’s 20-year war there. “The women of Afghanistan have made clear over years that they want their education, they want their health care, and that they’re also ready, willing and able to design programs and to be able to lead in their communities,” she said. Taliban leaders have tried to portray the group as more moderate than when it last ran Afghanistan from 1996-2001. Then, women were banned from school or work and only allowed to leave home with a male chaperone. They have promised to change, saying they will respect women’s rights within the framework of Islamic sharia law, but many remain sceptical. However, not a single woman was appointed to the provisional government and the Islamists seem to be incrementally stripping away Afghans’ freedoms. Kanem notes that in a country ravaged by decades of conflict, many women, particularly in areas most affected by violence, are the sole breadwinners. “We’re all anxiously hoping that there will be regularity and ability of delivery of goods” to people in small communities where many of the UNPFA’s staff are women, she said. “We have said that we want to be able to maintain a functioning health system.” “(It’s) pretty challenging right now with the airport having been closed, with certain professionals who have left the country,” Kanem added. She warned that if the healthcare system breaks down, that’s going to spell “complete disaster”, but added that for the most part the agency’s family health centres have remained open. The UN on Wednesday released $45mn in emergency aid to support Afghanistan’s healthcare system. Malala pleads with world to protect Afghan girls Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by a Taliban gunman in Pakistan as she left school in 2012, pleaded with the world on Friday not to compromise on the protection of Afghan women’s rights following the Taliban takeover. As countries and organisations take the first steps to engage with the Islamist group, the 24-year-old Yousafzai said she is worried that the Taliban would act as they did when they were in power 20 years ago despite a sharp increase in work and education opportunities for Afghan women since then. “We cannot make compromises on the protection of women’s rights and the protection of human dignity,” she told a panel on girls’ education in Afghanistan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. “Now is the time that we stick to that commitment and ensure that the rights of Afghan women are protected. And one of those important rights is the right to education,” said Yousafzai, who joined the panel by video. – Reuters

The Taliban said on Tuesday Afghan girls will be allowed to return to school "as soon as possible", after their movement faced shock and fury over their effective exclusion of women and girls from public life. The spokesman meanwhile announced the remaining members of Afghanistan's new all-male government, weeks after the militants seized Kabul in an offensive that shocked the world.  The Taliban were notorious for their brutal, oppressive rule from 1996 to 2001, when women were largely barred from work and school, including being banned from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative. One month after seizing power and pledging a softer version of their previous regime, the Islamists have incrementally stripped away at Afghans' freedoms. During the weekend, the education ministry issued a diktat ordering male teachers and students back to secondary school -- but made no mention of the country's women educators and girl pupils. At a press conference in Kabul, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said of the return of girls to school: "We are finalising things... it will happen as soon as possible." He added that "a safe learning environment" needed to be established beforehand.   - No female ministers -   The Taliban announced their new leadership earlier in September, drawn up exclusively from loyalist ranks. Announcing the final line-up on Tuesday, Mujahid made no reference to the now closed women's affairs ministry. No female ministers were named. The Taliban now face the colossal task of ruling Afghanistan, an aid-dependent country whose economic troubles have only deepened since the Islamists seized power and outside funding was frozen.  Many government employees have not been paid for months, with food prices soaring.  "We have the funds but need time to get the process working," Mujahid said.  The Taliban have also slashed women's access to work, with officials previously telling them to stay at home for their own security until segregation under the group's restrictive interpretation of sharia law can be implemented. While the country's new rulers have not issued a formal policy outright banning women from working, directives by individual officials have amounted to their exclusion from the workplace. The acting mayor of the capital Kabul has said any municipal jobs currently held by women would be filled by men. Although still marginalised, Afghan women have fought for and gained basic rights in the past 20 years, becoming lawmakers, judges, pilots and police officers, though mostly limited to large cities.  Under the ousted US-backed government, hundreds of thousands of women entered the workforce -- with many becoming their families' sole breadwinners after becoming widowed, or when their husbands were maimed during decades of conflict.

Relatives of the victims of a US drone strike that wiped out 10 members of an Afghan family in a “tragic mistake” demanded a face-to-face apology and compensation yesterday. Ezmarai Ahmadi was wrongly identified as an Islamic State (IS) militant by US intelligence, which tracked his white Toyota for eight hours on August 29 before targeting the car with a missile, killing seven children and three adults. A top general admitted the attack was an error, and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin apologised to the relatives of those killed. However, Ahmadi’s 22-year-old nephew, Farshad Haidari, said that was not enough. “They must come here and apologise to us face-to-face,” he told AFP in a bombed-out, modest house in Kwaja Burga, a densely populated neighbourhood in the northwest of the Afghan capital. Haidari, whose brother Naser and young cousins also died, said the US had made no direct contact with the family. “They must come and compensate,” he said. “They were not terrorists, and now it is clear for them and all the world to see,” Haidari said of his relatives. He added that he wanted officials to “capture and prosecute” those responsible for firing the missile. “Most of them had worked with Americans,” Haidari said. “Naser had worked with Americans for about 10 years. My uncle had also worked with international organisations.” At the time of his death Ahmadi was working for a US aid group. Haidari said all the victims had received evacuation papers and had hoped to go to the United States soon, like many Afghans eager to flee newly Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. On the night of the strike, Ahmadi pulled his car into his driveway before youngsters piled into the vehicle – pretending the parking routine was an adventure – while he watched from the side. A missile then came screeching down onto the car – obliterating the lives of 10 people in an instant. The wreckage of the vehicle was still in the courtyard of the house yesterday, alongside another burned-out vehicle. Broken glass was strewn across the ground and the tiny sandals of the young victims had been placed on the mangled chassis. US Central Command commander General Kenneth McKenzie said American intelligence had seen the vehicle at a site in Kabul that had been identified as a location from which IS operatives were believed to be preparing attacks on the Kabul airport. Three days earlier an Islamic State-Khorasan (ISKP) suicide bomber had killed scores at the airport, including 13 US service members. “We selected this car based on its movement at a known target area of interest to us,” McKenzie said. “Clearly our intelligence was wrong on this particular white Toyota.” Defence secretary Austin said that Ahmadi’s activities that day were “completely harmless”, and that the man was “just as innocent a victim as were the others tragically killed”. “We now know that there was no connection between Mr Ahmadi and ISIS-Khorasan,” said Austin. Ahmadi’s brother Aimal, whose three-year-old daughter Maleka died in the attack, said: “America must compensate.” “Today it was good news for us that United States officially admitted that they had attacked innocent civilians,” he said. “Our innocence has been proven.” “We demand justice from international institutions ... Then we want compensation.” McKenzie said the US government is studying how payments for damages could be made to the families of those killed.

Players from Afghanistan’s female youth soccer teams have arrived in Pakistan and will seek political asylum in third countries amid concern over the status of female athletes under the new Taliban government in Kabul. Some 81 people, including female players of several youth teams, their coaches and family members reached Pakistan through the Torkham border crossing, Umar Zia, a senior Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) official, said yesterday. The group of junior players and their coaches and families had tried to escape the country last month but a devastating bomb attack at Kabul airport left them stranded, someone close to the team told AFP. “I received a request for their rescue from another England-based NGO, so I wrote to Prime Minister Imran Khan who issued clearance for them to land in Pakistan,” said Sardar Naveed Haider, an ambassador for global development NGO Football for Peace, based in London. The girls, who played for the under-14, under-16 and under-18 teams, crossed the land border dressed in burqas, Haider said, before they later changed into headscarves. Prime Minister Khan is a former international cricketing star and sports hero among Pakistanis. The PFF’s Zia said that a further 34 will arrive today. It was not clear when they actually crossed the border. Officials gave them garlands of red flowers as they stepped off a bus at the PFF office in Lahore yesterday. They will stay there under tight security before applying for asylum in third countries, Zia told Reuters. “They will go to some other country after 30 days as several international organisations are working towards settling them in any other country, including the UK, US and Australia,” he said. The Football for Peace international organisation helped to arrange their departure from Afghanistan and arrival in Pakistan. Their flight is part of a broader exodus of Afghan intellectuals and public figures, especially women, since the Taliban took over the country a month ago. When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, girls were not allowed to attend school and women were banned from work and education. Women were barred from sports and that is likely to continue in this government as well. A Taliban representative told Australian broadcaster SBS on September 8 that he did not think women would be allowed to play cricket because it was “not necessary” and would be against Islam. “Islam and the Islamic Emirate do not allow women to play cricket or play the kind of sports where they get exposed,” SBS quoted the deputy head of the Taliban’s cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, as saying. However, on Tuesday, Bashir Ahmad Rustamzai, Afghanistan’s new director general for sports, said top-level Taliban leaders were still deciding. Several former and current women football players fled the country following the Taliban takeover, while a former captain of the team urged players still in Afghanistan to burn their sports gear and delete their social media accounts to avoid reprisals. The sport’s governing body FIFA said last month it was working to evacuate those remaining in the country.

Iran on Wednesday resumed commercial flights to neighbouring Afghanistan, where the Taliban took control last month. "Today Mahan Air carried passengers between Mashhad and Kabul airport," Fars news agency reported, referring to Iran's second-largest city, in the northeast, and the Afghan capital. "At present, this airliner is returning to Mashhad with passengers."  It was the first such flight between the two countries since the return of the Taliban to power on August 15.  The Iranian civil aviation agency had announced the interruption of flights to Kabul on August 16 for security reasons.  Previously, Mahan Air had operated two flights per week between Mashhad and Kabul.  Mahan Air, the second largest Iranian airline after the state-owned Iran Air, has been on the blacklist of entities targeted by US sanctions against Iran since 2011.  According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Islamic republic hosts more than 3.46 million Afghans, most of them refugees or illegal immigrants, representing more than four percent of Iran's population. 

Members of Afghanistan's national girls' football team have fled across the border into Pakistan dressed in burqas, a month after the hardline Taliban swept back into power, officials said Wednesday. The group of junior players and their coaches and families had tried to escape the country last month but a devastating bomb attack at Kabul airport left them stranded, someone close to the team told AFP. "I received a request for their rescue from another England-based NGO, so I wrote to Prime Minister Imran Khan who issued clearance for them to land in Pakistan," said Sardar Naveed Haider, an ambassador of global development NGO Football for Peace, based in London. In total, more than 75 people crossed the northern border on Tuesday, before travelling south to the city of Lahore where they were greeted with flower garlands. The girls who played for the under-14, under-16 and under-18 teams crossed the land border dressed in burqas, Haider said, before they later changed into headscarves. Afghanistan's new rulers, which banned women from playing all sport during their first rule in the 1990s, have indicated that women and girls will face restrictions in playing sport. A senior Taliban official has told Australian media it was "not necessary" for women to play.  But on Tuesday, Bashir Ahmad Rustamzai, Afghanistan's new director general for sports said top-level Taliban leaders were still deciding.  Pakistan's federal minister for information Fawad Chaudhry welcomed the women players in a tweet early Wednesday morning. "We welcome Afghanistan Women football team they arrived at Torkham Border from Afghanistan. The players were in possession of valid Afghanistan Passport, Pakistan visa and were received by Nouman Nadeem of PFF," Chaudhry tweeted. Pakistan's prime minister is a former international cricketing star and sports hero among Pakistanis. Tens of thousands of Afghan nationals have fled the country since the Taliban seized power, fearing reprisal attacks or repression.

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane carrying a handful of passengers touched down at Kabul airport Monday, the first international commercial flight to land since the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan on August 15. "There was hardly anyone on the plane, around 10 people... maybe more staff than passengers," said an AFP journalist aboard the flight from Islamabad. A PIA spokesman said at the weekend that the airline was keen to resume regular commercial services, but it was too soon to say how frequently flights between the two capitals would operate. Kabul airport was severely damaged during a chaotic evacuation of more than 120,000 people that ended with the withdrawal of US forces on August 30. The Taliban have been scrambling to get it operating again with technical assistance from Qatar and other nations. Qatar Airways operated several charter flights out of Kabul last week, carrying mostly foreigners and Afghans who missed out on the evacuation. An Afghan airline resumed domestic services on September 3.

When hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Centre in the United States, Afghans were still reeling from their own Al-Qaeda tragedy.  Militants from the group had two days earlier assassinated Ahmad Shah Massoud -- the resistance icon who repelled both the Soviet military and the Taliban from his native Panjshir Valley. As Afghans grappled with his death, events were unfolding in the United States that were to dramatically change the course of their country's future.  But for some, the significance of the incident passed them by. "That evening I listened to the news... there was talk of an attack in America," Abdul Rahman, a retired government employee who was in his twenties at the time, told AFP. "I didn't care because there was always talk of attacks and war on the radio," he said.  In the coming days, however, as Afghans learnt that Al-Qaeda militants hiding in their own backyard had masterminded the attacks -- and their Taliban rulers were blamed for sheltering the group -- many realised their world was about to be transformed. "I did not think America would attack Afghanistan in revenge," said Abdul Rahman. "I thought America was very far away." Abdul Samad, a librarian in Kandahar, remembers seeing crowds gather around a newspaper stand, the pages covered with images of the twin towers attack. "It was almost two days after the incident," he told AFP. It was, however, the beginning of an "unacceptable occupation". "They had sought an excuse to come to Afghanistan. It was an excuse to occupy this land." When the Taliban refused to give up Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the US moved in -- overthrowing the hardline regime which had held power since 1996 in a matter of weeks.  But Qiyamuddin, a locksmith from Kandahar, said any hope he had of the American-led invasion healing decades of war and conflict in Afghanistan quickly evaporated.  "They made a mess by coming here,” he told AFP. As the war dragged on and the Taliban resurfaced, foreign troops were accused of disrespecting Afghan religion and traditions -- and civilian casualties mounted.  "People were optimistic and (Afghan) refugees from other countries like Pakistan and Iran came back," said Qiyamuddin.  "They were unaware we were going to face more troubles." Noorullah, a teacher, remembers watching news of the attack on a TV hidden in the basement of a relative's house -- the Taliban had banned the medium as un-Islamic.  "It looked horrible. They were repeatedly showing the towers on fire," he said A brief period of peace followed after the Taliban were ejected, but it would not last. "When the Taliban were gone, people were happy, they could at least breathe freedom," he said. But as time passed, he "started to believe the US had come to a wrong place. It was a trap for them".  "And 20 years later... I was right," he told AFP. "The Taliban are back. The same people, faces and attitude are back."

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will resume flights from Islamabad to Kabul next week, a spokesman told AFP Saturday, becoming the first foreign commercial service since the Taliban seized power last month. Kabul airport was severely damaged during a chaotic evacuation of over 120,000 people that ended with the withdrawal of US forces on August 30. The Taliban have been scrambling to get it operating again with Qatari technical assistance. "We have got all technical clearances for flight operations," PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez Khan told AFP. "Our first commercial plane... is scheduled to fly from Islamabad to Kabul on September 13." Khan said the service would depend on demand. "We have received 73 requests which is very encouraging... from humanitarian relief agencies and journalists," he said. In the last two days Qatar Airways has operated two charter flights out of Kabul, carrying mostly foreigners and Afghans who missed being taken out during the evacuation. An Afghan airline resumed domestic flights last week. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will resume flights from Islamabad to Kabul next week, a spokesman told AFP Saturday, becoming the first foreign commercial service since the Taliban seized power last month. Kabul airport was severely damaged during a chaotic evacuation of over 120,000 people that ended with the withdrawal of US forces on August 30. The Taliban have been scrambling to get it operating again with Qatari technical assistance. "We have got all technical clearances for flight operations," PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez Khan told AFP. "Our first commercial plane... is scheduled to fly from Islamabad to Kabul on September 13." Khan said the service would depend on demand. "We have received 73 requests which is very encouraging... from humanitarian relief agencies and journalists," he said. In the last two days Qatar Airways has operated two charter flights out of Kabul, carrying mostly foreigners and Afghans who missed being taken out during the evacuation. An Afghan airline resumed domestic flights last week.

A new Taliban interim government drawn exclusively from loyalist ranks formally began work yesterday, with established hardliners in all key posts and no women – despite previous promises to form an inclusive administration for all Afghans. As they transition from militant force to governing power, the Taliban are already facing opposition to their rule, with scattered protests – many with women at the forefront – breaking out in cities across the country. After leading a virtual 20-nation ministerial meeting on the Afghan crisis, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said any international legitimacy for the Taliban government would have to be “earned”. In the capital Kabul, a small rally yesterday was quickly dispersed by armed Taliban security, while Afghan media reported a protest in the northeastern city of Faizabad was also broken up. Hundreds protested on Tuesday, both in the capital and in the city of Herat, where two people at the demonstration site were shot dead. Late yesterday the Taliban moved to snuff out further protests, issuing an order saying that prior authorisation will be needed from the justice ministry – and warning that violators “will face severe legal action”. And “for the time being”, demonstrations are not allowed – at all. The announcement of the government on Tuesday night was a key step in the Taliban’s consolidation of power over Afghanistan, following a stunning military victory that saw them oust the US-backed administration on August 15. Notorious for their brutal rule from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban had promised a more inclusive government this time. However, all the top positions were handed to key leaders from the movement and the Haqqani network – the most violent faction of the Taliban known for devastating attacks. None of the government appointees were women. “We will try to take people from other parts of the country,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said, adding that it was an interim government. The Taliban had made repeated pledges in recent days to rule with greater moderation than they did in their last stint in power. However, Zabihullah announced the reinstatement of the feared ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice – which from 1996 to 2001 was responsible for arresting and punishing people for failing to implement the movement’s interpretation of Shariah. Even as the Taliban consolidate power, they face the monumental task of ruling Afghanistan, which is wracked with economic woes and security challenges – including from the Islamic State group’s local chapter. In Germany, Blinken said the ministerial talks were the “starting point for international co-ordination” on how to deal with the Taliban. Among the countries that participated in the virtual meeting were European allies and historic Taliban backer Pakistan. “The Taliban seek international legitimacy. Any legitimacy – any support – will have to be earned,” Blinken told reporters. The European Union said the “caretaker” government failed to honour vows from the new rulers to include different groups. China meanwhile said it welcomed the end of “three weeks of anarchy”, adding it “attaches great importance” to the announcement of an interim government. Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China hoped the Taliban would “pursue moderate and steady domestic and foreign policies, resolutely crack down on all kinds of terrorist forces, and get along well with all countries, especially neighbouring countries”. Former president Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country on August 15 as the Taliban entered Kabul, apologised yesterday to the Afghan people for how his rule ended. Ghani said he left at the urging of the palace security in order to avoid the risk of bloody street fighting, and again denied stealing millions from the treasury. “I apologise to the Afghan people that I could not make it end differently,” he said on Twitter.

A new Taliban interim government drawn exclusively from loyalist ranks formally began work yesterday, with established hardliners in all key posts and no women – despite previous promises to form an inclusive administration for all Afghans. As they transition from militant force to governing power, the Taliban are already facing opposition to their rule, with scattered protests – many with women at the forefront – breaking out in cities across the country. After leading a virtual 20-nation ministerial meeting on the Afghan crisis, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said any international legitimacy for the Taliban government would have to be “earned”. In the capital Kabul, a small rally yesterday was quickly dispersed by armed Taliban security, while Afghan media reported a protest in the northeastern city of Faizabad was also broken up. Hundreds protested on Tuesday, both in the capital and in the city of Herat, where two people at the demonstration site were shot dead. Late yesterday the Taliban moved to snuff out further protests, issuing an order saying that prior authorisation will be needed from the justice ministry – and warning that violators “will face severe legal action”. And “for the time being”, demonstrations are not allowed – at all. The announcement of the government on Tuesday night was a key step in the Taliban’s consolidation of power over Afghanistan, following a stunning military victory that saw them oust the US-backed administration on August 15. Notorious for their brutal rule from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban had promised a more inclusive government this time. However, all the top positions were handed to key leaders from the movement and the Haqqani network – the most violent faction of the Taliban known for devastating attacks. None of the government appointees were women. “We will try to take people from other parts of the country,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said, adding that it was an interim government. The Taliban had made repeated pledges in recent days to rule with greater moderation than they did in their last stint in power. However, Zabihullah announced the reinstatement of the feared ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice – which from 1996 to 2001 was responsible for arresting and punishing people for failing to implement the movement’s interpretation of Shariah. Even as the Taliban consolidate power, they face the monumental task of ruling Afghanistan, which is wracked with economic woes and security challenges – including from the Islamic State group’s local chapter. In Germany, Blinken said the ministerial talks were the “starting point for international co-ordination” on how to deal with the Taliban. Among the countries that participated in the virtual meeting were European allies and historic Taliban backer Pakistan. “The Taliban seek international legitimacy. Any legitimacy – any support – will have to be earned,” Blinken told reporters. The European Union said the “caretaker” government failed to honour vows from the new rulers to include different groups. China meanwhile said it welcomed the end of “three weeks of anarchy”, adding it “attaches great importance” to the announcement of an interim government. Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China hoped the Taliban would “pursue moderate and steady domestic and foreign policies, resolutely crack down on all kinds of terrorist forces, and get along well with all countries, especially neighbouring countries”. Former president Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country on August 15 as the Taliban entered Kabul, apologised yesterday to the Afghan people for how his rule ended. Ghani said he left at the urging of the palace security in order to avoid the risk of bloody street fighting, and again denied stealing millions from the treasury. “I apologise to the Afghan people that I could not make it end differently,” he said on Twitter.

The Taliban’s supreme leader yesterday told the newly appointed government to uphold Shariah law, in his first message since the movement swept to power. “I assure all the countrymen that the figures will work hard towards upholding Islamic rules and Shariah law in the country,” Hibatullah Akhundzada, who has never been seen in public, said in a statement released in English. Akhundzada told Afghans that the new leadership would ensure “lasting peace, prosperity and development”, adding that “people should not try to leave the country”. “The Islamic Emirate has no problem with anyone,” he said. “All will take part in strengthening the system and Afghanistan and in this way, we will rebuild our war-torn country.” Akhundzada’s public profile has largely been limited to the release of messages during Islamic holidays, but the group has shed some light on his whereabouts following its takeover of Afghanistan. “He is present in Kandahar,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said after they seized power. Another spokesman had said Akhundzada was due to make a public appearance “soon”. The Taliban announced their government yesterday, with a veteran of the movement in the top role, weeks after they swept to power. Mullah Mohamed Hassan Akhund – a senior minister during the Taliban’s reign in the 1990s – was appointed acting prime minister, a spokesman said at a press conference in Kabul. The Taliban had promised an inclusive government that would reflect the ethnic makeup of the country, but all the top positions were handed to key leaders from the movement and the Haqqani network. “We will try to take people from other parts of the country,” spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, adding that it was an interim government.  Mullah Yaqoob, the son of the Taliban founder and late supreme leader Mullah Omar, was named defence minister, while the position of interior minister was given to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network. Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar who oversaw the signing of the US withdrawal agreement will be a deputy to Hassan. “It’s not at all inclusive, and that’s no surprise whatsoever,” said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “The Taliban had never indicated that any of its cabinet ministers would include anyone other than themselves.” The Taliban now face the colossal task of ruling Afghanistan, which is wracked with economic woes and security challenges – including from the Islamic State group’s local chapter. A growing number of protests have emerged across the country over the past week. Hundreds gathered at several rallies in Kabul yesterday – a show of defiance unthinkable under the last regime. In Herat, hundreds of demonstrators marched, unfurling banners and waving the Afghan flag – a black, red and green vertical tricolour with the national emblem overlaid in white – with some chanting “freedom”. Demonstrations have also been held in smaller cities in recent days, where women have demanded to be part of a new government. The Kabul-based Afghan Independent Journalists Association said 14 journalists – Afghan and foreign – were detained briefly during the protests in Kabul before being released. At the press conference on Tuesday night, the Taliban spokesman warned the public against taking to the streets. “Until all the government offices have opened, and the laws for protests have been explained, no one should protest,” Mujahid said. Washington said it was in “no rush” to recognise the new government. “It’s really going to be dependent on what steps the Taliban takes,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said. “The world will be watching, the United States included.” Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Taliban had reiterated a pledge to allow Afghans to freely depart Afghanistan. US President Joe Biden has faced mounting pressure amid reports that several hundred people, including Americans, have been prevented for a week from flying out of an airport in northern Afghanistan. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid addresses a press conference in Kabul yesterday.  

Taliban fighters broke out into prayers as their banner fluttered from a flagpole in Panjshir yesterday, after the Islamist group announced the capture of the last pocket of resistance to their rule. In videos circulating on pro-Taliban social media, fighters passed underneath portraits venerating their old enemy, the late Panjshir resistance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud. Three weeks after seizing Kabul, the Taliban claimed to have conquered the rugged valley – a historic blow to the province. Under Massoud, the Panjshir fighters earned a legendary reputation for resistance, defending their mountain homes first from the Soviet military for a decade, then throughout a civil war, then the last Taliban regime from 1996-2001. “With this victory, our country is completely taken out of the quagmire of war,” the Taliban’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement. Soon after, in a photograph released by Taliban official Bilal Karimi, the same picture of Massoud is seen with his face ripped out. Taliban gunmen then stand posing in front of the ragged portrait. The National Resistance Front (NRF) – made up of anti-Taliban militia and former Afghan security forces – have admitted to suffering heavy losses, and have called for a ceasefire. On Sunday, the NRF said that spokesman Fahim Dashty – a well-known Afghan journalist – and a top commander, General Abdul Wudod Zara, had been killed. However, they also said that their fighters were still present in “strategic positions” across the valley, and that they were continuing the struggle. The Taliban completed a stunning two-week offensive across Afghanistan on August 15, taking the capital, Kabul, without a fight. Remnants of the Afghan army then retreated to the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, to create the NRF. The 115km-long (70-mile-long) valley surrounded by jagged snow-capped peaks offers defenders a natural military advantage, allowing them to use the high positions to ambush attacking forces below. However, they faced Internet shutdowns by the Taliban and supply roads were blocked. Previously, Panjshir’s fighters melted away in the face of advancing forces, hiding in canyons off the main valley, then launching guerilla raids. This time the Taliban have been emboldened by their sweeping victories across the rest of the country, where they seized an enormous arsenal of weapons and military kit that the now-departed US provided to the defeated Afghan army. The NRF is led by Ahmad Massoud – the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud – as well as ex-officials who fled to the valley from the toppled government, including former vice-president Amrullah Saleh, a fierce Taliban critic. It is unclear where those senior Panjshir leaders are now based. Massoud, in an audio message yesterday after the Taliban declarations of victory, called for Afghans to “rise up”. The Panjshir – mainly inhabited by ethnic Tajik people – has immense symbolic value in Afghanistan as the area that has resisted occupation by invaders in the past. The Taliban warned yesterday that anyone who “tries to start an insurgency” against them “will be hit hard”. The Taliban assured the people of the valley that there would be no “discriminatory act against them”. “They are our brothers and would work together for a joint purpose and welfare of the country,” chief spokesman Mujahid said. He said he had been told that Massoud and former vice president Saleh had escaped to neighbouring Tajikistan. Massoud’s message in reply was one of fighting bravado. “For those who want to take up arms, we are with you,” he said in a call for resistance. “For those who will resort to protest, we will stand next to you.” The Taliban have repeatedly sought to reassure Afghans and foreign countries that they will not reimpose the brutal rule of their last period in power, when they carried out violent public punishments and barred women and girls from public life. However, more than three weeks after they swept into Kabul, they have yet to announce a government or give details about the social restrictions they will now enforce. Mujahid denied there were any disagreements within the movement about the formation of a new government and said it would be announced soon, but he did not set a date. He also said women were back at work in the health and education sectors and “other fields will be provided, one by one, once the system has been established for them”.

Students across Afghanistan have started returning to university for the first time since the Taliban stormed to power, and in some cases females have been separated from their male peers by curtains or boards down the middle of the classroom. What happens in universities and schools across the country is being closely watched by foreign powers, who want the Taliban to respect the rights of women in return for vital aid and diplomatic engagement. When it last ruled from 1996-2001, the group banned girls from school and women from university and work. Despite assurances in recent weeks that women’s rights would be honoured in accordance with Islamic law, it is unclear what that will mean in practice. Teachers and students at universities in Afghanistan’s largest cities – Kabul, Kandahar and Herat – told Reuters that female students were being segregated in class, taught separately or restricted to certain parts of the campus. “Putting up curtains is not acceptable,” Anjila, a 21-year-old student at Kabul University who returned to find her classroom partitioned, told Reuters by telephone. “I really felt terrible when I entered the class ... we are gradually going back to 20 years ago.” Even before the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Anjila said female students sat separately from males. However, classrooms were not physically divided. A document outlining guidelines for resuming class circulated by an association of private universities in Afghanistan listed measures such as the mandatory wearing of hijabs and separate entrances for female students. It also said female teachers should be hired to teach female students, and that females should be taught separately or, in smaller classes, segregated by a curtain. It was unclear if the document, seen by Reuters, represented official Taliban policy. The group’s spokesperson did not immediately comment on the document, on photographs of divided classrooms or on how universities would be run. “Our students don’t accept this and we will have to close the university,” said Noor Ali Rahmani, the director of Gharjistan University in Kabul, on an almost empty campus. “Our students wear the hijab, not the niqab,” he added, referring to a head scarf. 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. “We said we didn’t accept it because it will be difficult to do,” Rahmani told AFP. The Taliban said last week that schooling should resume but that males and females should be separated. A senior Taliban official told Reuters that classroom dividers such as curtains were “completely acceptable”, and that given Afghanistan’s “limited resources and manpower” it was best to “have the same teacher teaching both sides of a class”. Photographs shared by Avicenna University in Kabul, and widely circulated on social media, show a grey curtain running down the centre of the classroom, with female students wearing long robes and head coverings but their faces visible. Several teachers said there was uncertainty over what rules would be imposed under the Taliban, who have yet to form a government more than three weeks after they seized Kabul with barely a shot fired in anger. Their return to power has alarmed some women, who fear they will lose the rights they fought for in the last two decades, in the face of resistance from many families and officials in the deeply conservative Muslim country. A journalism professor at Herat University in the west of the country told Reuters that he decided to split his one-hour class into two halves, first teaching females and then males. Of 120 students enrolled for his course, less than a quarter showed up at school yesterday. A number of students and teachers have fled the country, and the fate of the country’s thriving private media sector has suddenly been thrown into doubt. “Students were very nervous today,” he said. “I told them to just keep coming and keep studying and in the coming days the new government will set the rules.” For some students, however, it was a relief that women would still be able to attend university at all under a new Taliban regime. Zuhra Bahman, who runs a scholarship programme for women in Afghanistan, said on social media that 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.” For 28-year-old computer science student Amir Hussein, “everything changed completely” after the Taliban takeover. “Many students are not interested anymore in studying because they don’t know what their future will be,” he said. “Most of them want to leave Afghanistan.”

Taliban and opposition forces battled yesterday to control the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, the last Afghan province holding out against the Islamist group, with both sides claiming to have the upper hand without producing conclusive evidence. The Taliban, which took power in the rest of the country three weeks ago, were never able to control the valley when they last ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001. Panjshir also held out for nearly a decade against the Soviet Union’s occupation. 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 centre (of the province),” he said on Twitter. However, the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), grouping forces loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, said it surrounded “thousands of terrorists” in Khawak pass and the Taliban had abandoned vehicles and equipment in the Dashte Rewak area. NRF fighters– made up of anti-Taliban militia and former Afghan security forces – are understood to have stockpiled a significant armoury in the valley, around 80km (50 miles) north of Kabul and guarded by a narrow gorge. Front spokesman Fahim Dashti added “heavy clashes” were going on. In a Facebook post, Massoud insisted Panjshir “continues to stand strongly”. Praising “our honourable sisters”, he said demonstrations by women in the western city of Herat calling for their rights showed that Afghans had not given up demands for justice and “they fear no threats”. Earlier, a Taliban source said the group’s advance was slowed by landmines placed on the road to the provincial capital, Bazarak. Emergency, an Italian medical aid organisation, said that during Friday night, Taliban forces had pushed further into the Panjshir Valley, reaching the village of Anabah where the group has a surgical centre and a maternity centre. “We have received a small number of wounded people at the Anabah Surgical Centre,” Emergency said in a statement, adding that many people fled from local villages 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. Former vice-president Amrullah Saleh, holed out alongside Ahmad Massoud – the son of legendary anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud – admitted the perilous position of the NRF. “The situation is difficult, we have been under invasion,” Saleh said in a video message. Usually known for his sharp Western suits, Saleh was filmed wearing a traditional shalwar kameez tunic and a flat woollen pakol cap favoured by Panjshiris. “The resistance is continuing and will continue,” he added. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s spy chief Lieutenant-General Faiz Hameed flew into Kabul yesterday. It was unclear what his agenda was, but a senior official in Pakistan said earlier in the week that Hameed, who heads the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, could help the Taliban reorganise the Afghan military. Washington has accused Pakistan and the ISI of backing the Taliban in the group’s two-decade fight against the US-backed government in Kabul, although Islamabad has denied the charges. In Kabul, Taliban fighters broke up a demonstration by about a dozen women to demand that the group respect women’s rights to education and jobs, according to private broadcaster Tolo news. Footage showed women confronted by armed militants covering their mouths and coughing, and one demonstrator said the fighters had used tear gas and tasers against the participants, who had been carrying banners and a bouquet of flowers. “They also hit women on the head with a gun magazine, and the women became bloody,” said a demonstrator who gave her name as Soraya. Social media clips showed Taliban fighters and officials attempting to disperse the demonstrators and stopping people from filming with mobile phones. The Taliban imposed violent punishments and barred women and older girls from school and work when previously in power, but have sought to present a more moderate face this time. The Taliban source also said the announcement of a new government would be pushed back to next week. Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, reported by some Taliban sources to be in line to lead the new government, said in remarks on Al Jazeera channel that the new administration will include all factions of Afghans. “We are doing our utmost efforts to improve their living conditions. The government will provide security, because it is necessary for economic development,” he said. The United Nations said it will convene an international aid conference on September 13 to help avert what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called a looming humanitarian catastrophe. Western powers say they are prepared to engage with the Taliban and send humanitarian aid, but that formal recognition of the government and broader economic assistance will depend on action – not just promises – to safeguard human rights. At least 17 killed in celebratory gunfire in Kabul: reports At least 17 people were killed in celebratory gunfire in Kabul, news agencies said yesterday, after Taliban sources said their fighters had seized control of Panjshir, the last province in Afghanistan holding out against the Islamist group. Leaders of opposition to the Taliban have denied that the province has fallen. The Shamshad news agency said “aerial shooting” in Kabul on Friday killed 17 people and wounded 41. Tolo news agency gave a similar toll. At least 14 people were injured in celebratory firing in Nangarhar province east of the capital, said Gulzada Sangar, spokesman for an area hospital in the provincial capital of Jalalabad. The gunfire drew a rebuke from the main Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid. “Avoid shooting in the air and thank God instead,” Mujahid said in a message posted on Twitter, adding: “Bullets can harm civilians, so don’t shoot unnecessarily.” – Reuters  

The Taliban paraded yesterday some of the military hardware they captured during their takeover of Afghanistan. The Taliban – who have not yet announced their new government – are celebrating the US withdrawal as a historic victory after taking control of Afghanistan a fortnight before. Their arrival in Kabul capped an astonishing two-week offensive across the country, putting an end to their 20-year insurgency. Yesterday a long line of green Humvees and armoured fighting vehicles drove in single file along a highway outside Kandahar – the spiritual birthplace of the militant movement – many flying white-and-black Taliban flags, an AFP journalist saw. In footage posted on a pro-Taliban account of the build-up to the parade, a helicopter flew overhead trailing the Taliban’s standard as fighters wrapped in headscarves waved beneath. At least one Black Hawk helicopter has been seen flying over Kandahar in recent days, suggesting that someone from the former Afghan army was at the controls as the Taliban lack pilots. Word had spread that the Taliban’s secretive supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who the group has said is living in Kandahar, would make an appearance – but he did not show, leaving the city’s new governor to address the crowd. The scenes of Taliban triumph came hours after US President Joe Biden gave a defiant speech defending the decision to end America’s longest war, and the frenzied evacuation effort that ensued as the Afghan government collapsed. Leaving was “the best decision for America”, Biden said in an address to the nation in Washington on Tuesday, arguing that the only other option had been “escalating”. The president, who has been savaged by critics for his handling of the withdrawal which saw the US and its allies evacuate more than 122,000 in just over two weeks, hailed the operation as an “extraordinary success”. “No nation has ever done anything like it in all of history,” he said. Many thousands of Afghans who fear Taliban retribution were left behind, however. The president of the European Parliament warned yesterday that the European Union must prepare for the influx of Afghan migrants who are expected to flee the Taliban regime. “We cannot pretend that Afghanistan is not our business, because we participated in that mission,” David Sassoli told a conference in Slovenia. Many Afghans are terrified of a repeat of the Taliban’s initial rule from 1996-2001, which was infamous for their treatment of women and girls, as well as a brutal justice system. The group has repeatedly promised a more tolerant brand of governance this time around. Yesterday they even approved Afghanistan’s first cricket Test match since their takeover, raising hopes that international matches – long a bright spot for the country – will continue under the Islamists’ rule. Still, senior Taliban leader Sher Mohamed Abbas Stanikzai told BBC Pashto in an interview that while women could continue working, there “may not” be a place for them in the cabinet of any future government or any other top post. The US-led airlift began as the Taliban completed an astonishing rout of government forces and took over Kabul on August 15. The final withdrawal came just before the August 31 deadline set by Biden to end the war, which began with a US-led invasion that ousted the Taliban in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The conflict has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Afghans and more than 2,400 American service members.

Carrying his rifle down by his side, Major General Chris Donahue, commander of the storied 82nd Airborne Division, became the last US soldier to board the final flight out of Afghanistan a minute before midnight on Monday. Taken with a night vision device from a side window of the C-17 transport plane, the ghostly green and black image of the general striding toward the aircraft waiting on the tarmac at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai Airport was released by the Pentagon hours after the United States ended its 20-year military presence in Afghanistan. As a moment in history, the image of Donahue’s departure could be cast alongside that of a Soviet general, who led an armoured column across the Friendship Bridge to Uzbekistan, when the Red Army made its final exit from Afghanistan in 1989. Completing a military operation that with the help of allies succeeded in evacuating 123,000 civilians from Afghanistan, the last plane load of US troops left under cover of the night. Though it is a still image, Donahue appears to be moving briskly, his face expressionless. He is wearing full combat gear, with night vision goggles atop his helmet, and rifle by his side. He had yet to leave Afghanistan behind, and reach safety. The US-backed Afghan government had already capitulated and Kabul had fallen to the Taliban a little over two weeks before the August 31 deadline for US troops to depart. The final US evacuation of Kabul will be judged by how many people were brought out, and how many were left behind. But Donahue and his comrades will carry harrowing images from their chaotic last days in Kabul; parents passing babies to them across the razor wire, two young Afghans falling from a plane climbing high in the sky, and worst of all, the aftermath of an Islamic State suicide bomb attack outside the airport on August 26 that killed scores of Afghans and 13 of their own.