Afghanistan latest news live: Taliban claim to have taken Panjshir Valley

The Taliban stated they’ve taken during the last insurgent province of Afghanistan, the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul.

“By the grace of Allah Almighty, we’re accountable for all the Afghanistan. The troublemakers have been defeated and Panjshir is now underneath our command,” Reuters reported one Taliban commander as saying.

A resistance chief denied that insurgent forces had misplaced the valley, the place 1000’s of fighters from regional militias and remnants of the previous authorities’s forces had massed.

“There isn’t a doubt we’re in a tough scenario. We’re underneath invasion by the Taliban. We’ve got held the bottom, we have now resisted,” stated former vice chairman Amrullah Saleh.

Although sources have been unable to confirm the Taliban declare, if true it could give them full management of Afghanistan, one thing they didn’t obtain after they first dominated the nation between 1996 and 2001.

“Information of Panjshir conquests is circulating on Pakistani media. It is a lie,” stated Ahmad Massoud, chief of the Panjshir Valley rebels.

Amrullah Saleh, one other insurgent chief who was vice chairman in Ashraf Ghani’s authorities, additionally denied the claims, in a video message despatched to the BBC.

The federal government has refused an asylum amnesty for greater than three,000 Afghans who’ve already reached the UK and are awaiting choices on their claims, writes Lizzie Dearden.

Critics have accused ministers of leaving them in a “nightmarish limbo”, whereas pledging to help individuals fleeing the nation by way of a separate resettlement scheme.

The House Workplace advised The Unbiased it had frozen the consideration of purposes from Afghan asylum seekers who’re already within the UK, having deleted key steering utilized by decision-makers.

Chief of the UN, Antonio Guterres, will convene a ministerial assembly in Geneva on Monday 13 September to hunt extra funding to handle the rising humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, the place practically half the nation’s 38 million individuals want help.

The secretary-general may even enchantment “for full and unimpeded humanitarian entry to ensure Afghans proceed to get the important companies they want,” the UN spokesman stated on Friday.

“Afghanistan faces a looming humanitarian disaster,” the spokesman stated. “One in three Afghans have no idea the place their subsequent meal will come from. Almost half of all kids underneath the age of 5 are predicted to be acutely malnourished within the subsequent 12 months.”

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, says he’ll journey to Qatar and Germany to go to US diplomats and troops together with Afghans who had been evacuated from Kabul.

The State Division says Blinken has no plans to fulfill representatives of the Taliban whereas in Doha, the Qatari capital, the place the group that now controls Afghanistan has an workplace.

Blinken stated he may even go to the US navy base in Ramstein, Germany, to thank personnel for his or her work in finishing the evacuation.

An official at Emergency Hospital in Kabul advised the Related Press that two individuals have been killed and 12 wounded after Taliban fighters within the capital fired their weapons into the air in celebration.

Taliban in Kabul fired into the air Friday night time to rejoice territorial beneficial properties in Panjshir, which they declare to have received from rebels.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, on Twitter referred to as on the militants to instantly put a cease the apply of firing into the air.

Dozens of younger gamers from the Afghan Women Nationwide Youth Soccer Crew and their households are at the moment trapped in hiding in Afghanistan, The Unbiased revealed.

A letter, seen by The Unbiased, requested Pakistan’s prime minister to urgently permit 32 women to enter the nation – warning “time is working out” and the ladies are susceptible to “grave threats” from the Taliban and “disintegrating safety”.

Campaigners advised The Unbiased the younger girls, lots of whom are of their teenagers, are in hiding in locations with waning assets as bomb threats surge and as stories floor of the Taliban looking out accommodations in a bid to trace down girls who’ve disobeyed the edict to stay residence.

Full report from Maya Oppenheim right here:

The US authorities expects to confess greater than 50,000 individuals into the nation from the Afghanistan evacuation, in response to the US secretary of homeland safety.

Alejandro Mayorkas urged greater than that might finally are available what he referred to as an unprecedented evacuation. He stated final month greater than 40,000 individuals had come to the US after the autumn of Kabul.

A few quarter of those that have come to date are US residents or everlasting residents.

The At this time programme earlier broadcast a message from a person in Kabul who needs to flee Taliban rule however has to date been unable.

The sound of gunfire within the background was fixed within the audio clip as he defined how he and his spouse had been trapped of their residence in worry.

He advised Radio four: “You possibly can hear the sound. There’s gunfire throughout Kabul and you realize what’s the cause.

“I’m so badly frightened, I can’t clarify to you. It’s not simple on this situation.”

He stated he and his spouse had been consistently afraid and had been dwelling on a weight loss plan of rice and water as they may not depart the home.

“I’ll lose my life right here in Kabul, in my residence. They may undoubtedly come in the future to my residence and so they’ll get me, and you realize what they are going to do with me.

At the very least 17 individuals have been killed in celebratory gunfire in Kabul, stories stated, after the Taliban claimed to have taken Panjshir Valley from insurgent forces.

The Shamshad information company stated “aerial capturing” in Kabul on Friday killed 17 individuals and wounded 41. Tolo information company gave an analogous toll.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, rebuked militants and referred to as on them to cease firing into the air.

“Keep away from capturing within the air and thank God as an alternative,” Mr Mujahid tweeted. “Bullets can hurt civilians, so do not shoot unnecessarily.”