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2021-08-17 Afghanistan
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Deutsche Welle live updates: Military flights out of Kabul airport resume
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There’s a cute little map at the link from Long War Journal showing who controlled what parts of Afghanistan, as of yesterday. Most is under Talib control, some is merely claimed, and northeast of Kabul there are eight districts in Panjshir province still belonging to the resistance. [DW] Evacuation flights out of Kabul airport resumed early Tuesday as US troops secured the tarmac. American forces are also in charge of air traffic control. DW has the latest.
- Flights out of Kabul resumed at 2:35 a.m. local time
- Western leaders address the situation unfolding in Afghanistan
- The Indian Embassy is the latest to announce it is closing
This story was last updated at 14:50 UTC/GMT.
SALEH DECLARES HE IS THE 'CARETAKER PRESIDENT'
Afghan vice president Amrullah Saleh said on Twitter he is the "legitimate caretaker president" of Afghanistan.
Saleh said he had a security meeting last week with then President Ashraf Ghani. Saleh said that he was proud of the armed forces, and the government would do all it could to strengthen its resistance to the Taliban.
UK: TALIBAN COMPLIANT WITH EVACUATIONS
A British officer in charge of the UK's evacuation program, which is helping between 6,000 and 7,000 people leave Afghanistan, says Taliban commanders around Kabul airport have not sought to disrupt proceedings.
Royal Navy Vice Admiral Ben Key told the BBC that "pragmatic, tactical, low level" discussions have had to take place with the Taliban as they control entry points into the airport.
While conceding that it's only been a day and a half since the process got underway, Key told BBC Radio that the Taliban have been "acquiescent and understanding of what we're trying to achieve."
GERMANY WILL CONTINUE TO EVACUATE WHILE 'SECURITY SITUATION ALLOWS'
A German evacuation plane with "more than 120 people" on board left Kabul airport on Tuesday.
Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) said on Twitter that "Germans, Afghans and members of other nations" had been "airlifted" to safety. The process will continue as long as "the security situation allows," he added.
Later on Tuesday, Maas said humanitarian aid to Afghanistan had been frozen.
EU MINISTERS DISCUSS POSSIBLE ASYLUM INFLUX
Foreign ministers across the EU are in emergency talks over the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan amid concern that hardline Islamist rule will spark an exodus of people from the conflict-ravaged country.
Afghans are among the biggest group of migrants seeking sanctuary in Europe, after Syrians. According to EU estimates, around 570,000 Afghans have applied for asylum in Europe since 2015.
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron aired his concerns over an influx of refugees coming to the EU. Macron focused his comments on warning against "Islamist terrorism" and "irregular migratory flows" in the wake of the unfolding crisis, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was keen for a softer, more welcoming stance, as he called on all countries to accept refugees fleeing from the dangers of Taliban rule.
This story was last updated at 12:31 UTC/GMT.
CZECH REPUBLIC CONTINUES EVACUATION PROCESS
A second Czech plane left Kabul on Tuesday, evacuating Czechs and local staff, Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek confirmed.
The process of evacuating diplomats and civilians resumed earlier on Tuesday after the runway at Kabul airport was cleared of thousands of people desperate to flee.
The Czech Republic's first mission on Sunday evacuated 46 citizens and local workers, including family members. Tuesday's flight included the Czech ambassador to Afghanistan.
UZBEKISTAN ISSUES BORDER WARNING
Uzbekistan said it was in contact with the Taliban on Tuesday and warned it would "strictly suppress" any attempts to violate its borders after chaos from Afghanistan spilled over into Central Asia.
One of three Central Asian countries that has a border with Afghanistan, Uzbekistan released a statement after days of mayhem that saw Afghan troops illegally cross over into the republic while fleeing the Taliban.
The country's government said it was in talks with the Taliban "on issues of ensuring the protection of borders and maintaining calm in the border zone."
This story was last updated at 10:58 UTC/GMT.
GERMANY HALTS AID TO AFGHANISTAN
Gerd Müller, Germany's development minister, said Germany has suspended development aid to Afghanistan.
In an interview with Rheinische Post, Müller said: "We are working at pace to evacuate from Afghanistan, those local development officials and NGO workers who want to leave."
The €250 million ($296.4 million) earmarked for aid for Afghanistan this year has not been disbursed.
CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR FLEES
Ajmal Ahmady, Afghanistan's central bank governor, announced on Twitter that he fled Afghanistan for an unknown location. Ahmady is a former US Treasury and World Bank employee who had worked in private equity.
He detailed his escape from the country aboard a military aircraft and his final days on the job.
On Saturday, the day before the collapse of the central government, he said there was currency volatility and he held meetings "to reassure banks and money exchangers". He added, "I can't believe that was one day before Kabul fell."
By Sunday night, he was at the airport where he saw other senior government officials preparing to leave the country. He booked a last-minute commercial flight for that night, which was canceled, but was pushed onto a military aircraft by close colleagues.
Ahmady said, "It did not have to end this way." He added he was "disgusted by the lack of any planning" and that once Ghani's departure was announced, "I knew within minutes chaos would follow."
PROFESSOR: MANY IN AFGHAN ARMY KEPT CLOSE TALIBAN TIES
Amalendu Misra, an international politics professor at Lancaster University in the UK, told DW, "the nation building exercise of the international community was only skin deep" because Taliban controlled rural areas.
Misra said the Afghan National Army failed to defend the country because, "Many of them were from the Taliban."
While security forces personnel took money from the central government, they remained sympathetic to the Taliban and were on "many occasions" working "in cahoots with the Taliban." Many felt that foreigners would leave eventually whereas they would remain in Afghanistan along with the Taliban.
Misra noted, "there are two Talibans here, the Taliban that emerged in the 1990s, most of them came from refugee camps in Pakistan who are sort of educated in a very fundamentalist style education" and "the new ones we have are born and brought up in Afghanistan. So they're more committed to their own country."
INDIAN EMBASSY IN KABUL TO CLOSE
India is closing its embassy and recalling its ambassador.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Arindam Bagchi, wrote on Twitter, "In view of the prevailing circumstances, it has been decided that our ambassador in Kabul and his Indian staff will move to India immediately."
EVACUATION FLIGHTS OUT OF KABUL RESUME
Military evacuation flights for diplomats and civilians out of Afghanistan resumed on Tuesday after chaos enveloped Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport as thousands of Afghans desperate to flee flooded onto the tarmac.
A Western security official told Reuters, "Many people who were here yesterday have gone home."
Afghan people climb atop a plane in the hopes of fleeing Taliban rule
Thousands of Afghans crowded the runway on Monday in a desperate bid to get out of Afghanistan after the capital fell to the Taliban
Late Monday, the German Defense Ministry said an air force A400M transport aircraft was able to leave Kabul with German citizens and local Afghan employees on board. The Uzbek capital Tashkent is serving as Germany's evacuation hub with people being ferried there by military transport before catching commercial flights to Germany.
General Hank Taylor, a logistics specialist on the Pentagon's joint chiefs of staff told news agency AFP that US forces were running military and civilian air traffic control at the Kabul airport. He said 3,000 to 3,500 US troops were on the ground by the end of the day Monday Washington time to secure the airport.
General Taylor said flights out of Kabul resumed at 2:35 a.m. local time. 
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