Category: World

Washington: President Joe Biden has vowed to “hunt” down the terrorists and make them “pay” for the deadly attacks outside the Kabul airport in which 13 US service members were killed and 18 others wounded.

Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport on Thursday, killing at least 60 Afghans and 13 US troops.

“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm notice, we will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Thursday.

The president said the ISIS-K was behind the gruesome attack at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul and at a hotel nearby.

“As you all know, the terrorist attacks that we’ve been talking about and worried about within the intelligence community, was an undertaking attack by a group known as ISIS-K,” Biden said.

“They took the lives of American service members standing guard at the airport and wounded several others seriously. They also wounded, a number of civilians, and civilians were killed as well,” he said.

Biden said he has ordered his commanders to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities.

“We will respond with force and precision at our time at the place we choose in a moment of our choosing…these ISIS terrorists will not win,” he said.

He asserted that the US is determined to continue with its mission to evacuate American nationals from Kabul and complete the mission by August 31.

August 31 is the cut-off date set by both the US and the Taliban for America’s pullout from the war-torn country.

“We can and we must complete this mission and we will. That’s what I’ve ordered them to do. We will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuation,” Biden said.

“We will complete our mission, and we will continue after our troops have withdrawn, to find means by which we can find any American who wishes to get out of Afghanistan. We will find them, and we will get them out,” he added. PTI

ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing attacks near Kabul airport that have killed over 70 civilians, 28 Taliban members and 13 US troops.

At least 60 Afghans and 13 US servicemen have been killed in a suicide bombing carried out by ISIS at the Kabul airport, US officials confirmed Thursday night.

The terror group ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the deadly double attack, the group’s Amaq News Agency said on its Telegram channel.

President Joe Biden, his voice breaking with emotion, vowed on Thursday the United States would hunt down those responsible for twin explosions at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan and said he asked the Pentagon to develop plans to strike back at them.

Biden spoke hours after the blasts killed at least a dozen American troops and scores of civilians, the worst day of casualties for US forces there in a decade.

“We will not forgive, we will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said in remarks at the White House.

He promised US evacuations would continue. He gave no indication of a change in next Tuesday’s US pullout target.

“I have also ordered my commanders to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities. We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose and the moment of our choosing,” Biden said.

Kabul: At least 40 people were killed and 120 injured in twin explosions near Kabul airport on Thursday, according to New York Times. The initial blast was reported near Abbey Gate of the airport while the second explosion occurred near Baron hotel.
Western nations had warned earlier in the day of a possible attack at the airport in the waning days of a massive airlift. Suspicion for any attack targeting the crowds would likely fall on the Islamic State group and not the Taliban, who have been deployed at the airport’s gates trying to control the mass of people.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry gave the first official casualty count, saying 13 people had died and 15 were wounded.
U.S. officials said that American personnel were wounded in the blast, without elaborating. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby also confirmed the blasts, saying one near an airport entrance was a complex attack and another was a short distance away by a hotel.
One explosion went off in a crowd of people waiting to enter the airport, according to Adam Khan, an Afghan waiting nearby. He said several people appeared to have been killed or wounded, including some who lost body parts.
Several countries urged people to avoid the airport earlier in the day, with one saying there was a threat of a suicide bombing. But just days or even hours for some nations before the evacuation effort ends, few appeared to heed the call.
Over the last week, the airport has been the scene of some of the most searing images of the chaotic end of America’s longest war and the Taliban’s takeover, as flight after flight took off carrying those who fear a return to the militants’ brutal rule.
Already, some countries have ended their evacuations and begun to withdraw their soldiers and diplomats, signaling the beginning of the end of one of history’s largest airlifts. The Taliban have pledged not to attack Western forces during the evacuation, but insist the foreign troops must be out by America’s self-imposed deadline of August 31.
Overnight, warnings emerged from Western capitals about a threat from Afghanistan’s Islamic State group affiliate, which likely has seen its ranks boosted by the Taliban’s freeing of prisoners during their blitz across the country.
British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey told the BBC early Thursday there was very, very credible reporting of an imminent attack at the airport, possibly within hours. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said his country had received information from the U.S. and other countries about the threat of suicide attacks on the mass of people.
The acting U.S. ambassador to Kabul, Ross Wilson, said the security threat at the Kabul airport overnight was clearly regarded as credible, as imminent, as compelling. But in an interview with ABC News, he would not give details and did not say whether the threat remained.
A while later, the blast was reported. U.S. President Joe Biden has been briefed on the explosion, the White House says.
Late Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy warned citizens at three airport gates to leave immediately due to an unspecified security threat. Australia, Britain and New Zealand also advised their citizens Thursday not to go to the airport, with Australia’s foreign minister saying there was a very high threat of a terrorist attack.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied that any attack was imminent in the wake of those warnings.

Earlier Thursday, the Taliban sprayed a water cannon at those gathered at one airport gate to try to drive the crowd away, as someone launched tear gas canisters elsewhere.
Nadia Sadat, a 27-year-old Afghan, carried her 2-year-old daughter with her outside the airport. She and her husband, who had worked with coalition forces, missed a call from a number they believed was the State Department and were trying to get into the airport without any luck. Her husband had pressed ahead in the crowd to try to get them inside.
We have to find a way to evacuate because our lives are in danger, Sadat said. “My husband received several threatening messages from unknown sources. We have no chance except escaping.
Gunshots later echoed in the area as Sadat waited. There is anarchy because of immense crowds,” she said, blaming the U.S. for the chaos.
Aman Karimi, 50, escorted his daughter and her family to the airport, fearful the Taliban would target her because of her husband’s work with NATO.
The Taliban have already begun seeking those who have worked with NATO,” he said. They are looking for them house-by-house at night.
Many Afghans share those fears. The hard-line Islamic group wrested back control of the country nearly 20 years after being ousted in a U.S.-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks, which al-Qaida orchestrated while being sheltered by the group.
Senior U.S. officials said Wednesday’s warning from the embassy was related to specific threats involving the Islamic State group and potential vehicle bombs. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss ongoing military operations.
The Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan grew out of disaffected Taliban members who hold an even more extreme view of Islam. The Sunni extremists have carried out a series of brutal attacks, mainly targeting Afghanistan’s Shiite Muslim minority, including a 2020 assault on a maternity hospital in Kabul in which they killed women and infants.
The Taliban have fought against Islamic State militants in Afghanistan. But IS fighters were likely freed from prisons along with other inmates during the Taliban’s rapid advance. Extremists may have seized heavy weapons and equipment abandoned by Afghan troops. AP

The photos of Syed Ahmad Sadat, Afghanistan’s former communication and technology minister, were posted on Twitter by Al Jazeera Arabia recently. He quit the job in 2020 and went to Germany. Sadat holds two master’s degrees in communications and electronic engineering from Oxford University.

Saleh blamed the Imran Khan govt 4 helping the Taliban fool the international community by participating in Doha talks. He said “entire Pakistan govt was at the service to Taliban.

WASHINGTON: America’s top spy held a secret meeting with the Taliban’s de facto leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul on Monday in the highest-level face-to-face encounter between the two sides since the militant group seized the Afghan capital, a media report said on Tuesday.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on August 15, two weeks before the US was set to complete its troop withdrawal after a costly two-decade war.

This forced Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country to the UAE.

CIA Director William J. Burns held a secret meeting in Kabul on Monday with Baradar in the highest-level face-to-face encounter between the Taliban and the Biden administration since the militants seized the Afghan capital, the Washington Post reported, citing unnamed US officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, President Joe Biden’s decision to dispatch his top spy, a veteran of the foreign service, comes amid a frantic effort to evacuate people from Kabul international airport in what the president has called “one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history,” the paper said.

The CIA declined to comment on the Taliban meeting but the discussions likely involved the impending August 31 deadline for the US military to conclude its airlift of US citizens and Afghan allies, it added.

The Biden administration is under pressure from some allies to keep US forces in the country beyond August 31 deadline in order to assist the evacuation of tens of thousands of citizens of the US and Western countries as well as Afghan allies desperate to escape Taliban rule.

However, a Taliban spokesman on Monday warned that there will be “consequences” if the US and UK sought an extension to the August 31 deadline for the US-led troop withdrawal from the war-torn country.

Baradar, who spent eight years in Pakistani prison before his release in 2018, has served as the Taliban’s chief negotiator in peace talks with the US in Qatar that resulted in an agreement with the Trump administration on the withdrawal of US forces.

In November 2020, he posed for a photo in front of gold-rimmed chairs with then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

A close friend of the Taliban’s founding supreme leader Muhammad Omar, Baradar is believed to hold significant influence over the Taliban rank-and-file, the paper said.

He fought Soviet forces during their occupation of Afghanistan and was the governor of several provinces in the 1990s when the Taliban last ruled the country.

Since the Taliban’s takeover of the country, he has struck a conciliatory tone, saying the militant group is seeking “an Islamic system in which all people of the nation can participate without discrimination and live harmoniously with each other in an atmosphere of brotherhood.”

In his meeting with Burns on Monday, Baradar faced one of America’s most seasoned diplomats, a former deputy secretary of state who has also served as US ambassador to Russia, the Post said.

In April, Burns made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan as concerns mounted about the Afghan government’s ability to fend off the Taliban after the US withdrawal, the paper said.

As director, Burns oversees a spy agency that trained elite Afghan special forces units who had been viewed as a potent force in the country, but were also implicated in extrajudicial killings and human rights violations.

On Monday, before details of the secret meeting emerged, State Department spokesman Ned Price was asked about why senior US officials hadn’t engaged with Baradar given the stakes in Afghanistan.

Price said “our discussions with the Taliban have been operational, tactical, they have been focused largely on our near-term operations and near-term goals … what is going on at the airport compound … that is what we’re focused on at the moment.” PTI

London: Ahead of an emergency G7 meeting on Afghanistan, the Taliban on Monday warned that there will be “consequences” if the US and UK sought an extension to the August 31 deadline for the US-led troop withdrawal from the war-torn country.

Speaking to Sky News’ in Doha, Qatar, Taliban spokesperson Dr Suhail Shaheen stated that the month-end deadline was a “red line”, as any extension would imply an extended occupation of the country.

He said the timeline had been laid out by US President Joe Biden and threatened “consequences” if the US and UK sought an extension to that deadline.

“It’s a red line. President Biden announced that on 31 August they would withdraw all their military forces. So if they extend it that means they are extending occupation while there is no need for that,” Shaheen said.

“If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations the answer is no. Or there would be consequences. It will create mistrust between us. If they are intent on continuing the occupation it will provoke a reaction,” he said.

The warning came as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson convened an emergency G7 meeting on Tuesday in his role as current Chair of the Group of Seven countries Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the UK. On the agenda for the world leaders is expected to be a push for the US to seek an extension of the August 31 deadline, as time is running out for the evacuation of foreign nationals from the Taliban controlled region.

On the issue of desperate scenes at Kabul airport as people risk their lives to flee the country for fear of Taliban reprisals, the spokesperson termed it as economic migration.

“I assure you it is not about being worried or scared. They want to reside in Western countries and that is a kind of economic migration because Afghanistan is a poor country and 70 per cent of the people of Afghanistan live under the line of poverty so everyone wants to resettle in Western countries to have a prosperous life. It is not about [being] scared,” claimed Shaheen.

And, on reports of door to door knocks to seek out former government workers, he added: “All fake news. I can assure you there are many reports by our opponents claiming what is not based on realities.”

On the issue of women’s rights, the spokesperson claimed that women under Taliban rule would have the same rights as elsewhere as long as they wear a hijab.

“Women are required to have the same rights as you have in your country but with a hijab,” he was quoted as saying.

“Now, women teachers have resumed work. Lost nothing. Female journalists they have resumed their work. Lost nothing,” he claimed.

There have been widespread fears of reprisals and attacks in Afghanistan on those perceived as supporting the US-led NATO operation in the country and a regression in women’s rights under the Taliban, which believe in upholding a very strict interpretation of Islam. PTI

China on Monday hinted at stepping up financial assistance to the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, saying it will play a positive role in helping the war-ravaged country amid global pushback to stop funding to Kabul until the Afghan militant group modified its hardline religious policies.

In his media briefing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin hit out at the US saying it is “main perpetrator” for the Afghan crisis and Washington cannot leave without doing anything for Afghanistan’s reconstruction.

Asked for his reaction to comments by Afghanistan’s exiled central bank chief stating that the Taliban may go to China and Pakistan to replace the US for financial assistance, Wang said, “I want to stress that the US is the main perpetrator and biggest external factor for the Afghan issue. It cannot leave the mess without doing anything.”

“We hope the US will match its words with deeds and shoulder its responsibility to honour its own commitments in humanitarian assistance and reconstruction,” he said.

Despite the chaotic end to its presence in Afghanistan, the US still has control over billions of dollars belonging to the Afghan central bank, money that Washington is making sure remains out of the reach of the Taliban, the New York Times reported last week.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York held about USD seven billion of Afghanistan’s central bank’s USD nine billion in foreign reserves and the Biden administration has already moved to block access to that money.

The Taliban’s access to the other money could also be restricted by the long reach of American sanctions and influence.

The International Monetary Fund said earlier that it would block Afghanistan’s access to about USD 460 million in emergency reserves. The decision followed pressure from the Biden administration to ensure that the reserves did not reach the Taliban, the NYT report said.

Money from an agreement reached in November among more than 60 countries to provide USD 12 billion to Afghanistan over the next four years is also in doubt, it said.

Earlier, Germany said it would not provide grants to Afghanistan if the Taliban took over and introduced Sariah law and the EU said no payments were going to Afghanistan until officials “clarify the situation.”

Wang said, “China always adopts a friendly policy towards entire Afghan people” and provided substantial assistance to socio- economic development to Afghanistan.

“We hope there will be an early end to the chaos and wars in the country, it can resume financial order at an early date. China will also play a positive role in helping the country in self capacity building, peace, reconstruction and improvement of peoples’ livelihoods, he said.

About Taliban’s statement that it will soon announce a political framework for Afghanistan, Wang said, “we noted these report”.

“China’s position on the Afghan issue is consistent and clear cut. We hope Afghanistan can form an inclusive open broad-based government which adopts a foreign and domestic policy that is prudent and moderate so as to echo and meet the aspiration and shared will of the international community and its own people, he said.

Asked about security of Chinese nationals in Afghanistan amid efforts by many countries to evacuate their nationals, Wang said China is closely following the security of the Chinese institutions and personnel in Afghanistan.

“Now our Embassy there is operating normally. Most Chinese nationals in Afghanistan have returned to China beforehand with the arrangement made by our embassy, he said.

“With regards to the few Chinese who stayed there, our embassy has stayed in close contact with them (and) given them guidelines on strengthening the awareness of safety and taken relevant measures coordinated with the Afghanistan side to offer security guarantees for them, he said.

Press Trust of India

She slams the Biden administration’s withdrawal policy from Afghanistan

Washington, August 23: The United States has “completely surrendered” to the Taliban and abandoned its allies in Afghanistan, Indian-American politician and former US envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Sunday.

“They’re not negotiating with the Taliban. They’ve completely surrendered to the Taliban. They surrendered Bagram Air Force Base, which was a major NATO hub. They surrendered $85 billion worth of equipment and weapons that we should have got out of there,” Haley told CBS News in an interview.

She slammed the Biden administration’s withdrawal policy from Afghanistan.

“They have surrendered the American people and actually withdrew our troops before they withdrew the American people. They have abandoned our Afghan allies who kept people like my husband safe while they were overseas deploying. So, no, there was no negotiating. This was a complete and total surrender and an embarrassing failure,” she said.

Haley, who is seen as a 2024 presidential aspirant, has been a vocal critic of the Afghan policies of the Biden Administration.

“This is an unbelievable scenario, where literally the Taliban has our Americans held hostage. It’s a scary time. And we have to make sure that we are working with our allies who literally won’t trust us at this point and think we’ve lost our minds. We have to figure out a way to get our Americans out and to get our allies out,” she said.

Haley said that under four years of Trump, Afghanistan was safe.

“We made sure that we kept terrorism at bay and that we came from a position of strength. What’s happened in the seven months of Biden is, we’ve completely surrendered and we’ve humiliated ourselves in the eyes of the world. The thing is, there are times where you have to negotiate with the devil, but you negotiate with the devil from a point of strength, you don’t do it from a point of weakness,” she said.

“We literally have no leverage right now with the Taliban. All we’re going to see them do is, they’re going to buy time and act like they’re going to be nice until August 31, and then all of those women, all of those girls, everything is going to go back to the way it was,” she said. PTI

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the UK’s diplomatic efforts to find a solution in Afghanistan remain ongoing, which leaves open the prospect of working with the Taliban “if necessary”.

Speaking to the media after an emergency Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBRA) meeting to discuss the crisis in the region on Friday, Johnson said “formidable” challenges remain around the evacuation of British nationals and supporters from Kabul airport but the situation was getting “slightly better”.

“What I want to assure people is that our political and diplomatic efforts to find a solution for Afghanistan, working with the Taliban, of course if necessary, will go on and our commitment to Afghanistan is lasting,” Johnson said.

“The situation is getting slightly better and we are seeing a stablisation at the airport. So yesterday [Thursday] we were able to get out about 1,000 people and today [Friday] another 1,000 people; a lot of those UK eligible persons coming back to this country and a lot of them people coming back under the Afghanistan Resettlement and Assistance Programme (ARAP) interpreters and others to whom we owe debts of gratitude and honour,” he said, adding that the operation will continue at a fast pace.

“So the operation is becoming faster, but I’m not going to pretend that it’s easy. The logistical challenges are formidable and they are doing an outstanding job in very difficult circumstances,” he said.

Johnson also defended his Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, who has come under fire from the Opposition over a missed phone call with his Afghan counterpart in the now fallen Ashraf Ghani government at the peak of the crisis last weekend.

Pressed on whether he believed suggestions from the new Taliban regime in charge that it may be more moderate in the future, Johnson said that it was important to take “people at face value”.

“We hope they mean what they say. But again, as I said in the House of Commons, and I think that this is the position of everybody from the President of the United States, President Macron of France, [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel, everybody that I talked to everybody is agreed that we will judge them on their actions, and that is the important thing,” he said.

Since last Saturday, the UK says has evacuated 1,615 people, including 399 British nationals and their dependants, 320 embassy staff, and 402 Afghan nationals who worked for the UK government in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the government has announced 5 million pounds for local councils in England, Scotland and Wales offering to house Afghans who have arrived under the ARAP programme.

Under the scheme, Afghans who face threats from the Taliban having worked for the UK in Afghanistan, have been allowed to come to Britain. PTI