Afghanistan

05 Sep 2021; MEMO: Ariana Afghan Airlines resumed some flights in Afghanistan between Kabul and three major provincial cities on Saturday, the carrier said, after a technical team from Qatar reopened the capital's airport for aid and domestic services, reports Reuters.

Flights between Kabul and the western city of Herat, Mazar-i Sharif in northern Afghanistan, and Kandahar in the south have started, the airline said in a statement on its Facebook page.

Sept 4 (Reuters) - Taliban and opposition forces were fighting on Saturday for control of the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, the last province in Afghanistan holding out against the Islamist group, according to reports.

Taliban sources said on Friday its fighters had taken the valley, although the resistance denied it had fallen.

The Taliban have so far issued no public declaration that they had taken the valley, which resisted their rule when they were last in power in Kabul from 1996 to 2001.

KABUL, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Taliban military chief on Saturday ordered Taliban members to avoid aerial gun firing after two people were killed and 10 wounded on Friday night in Kabul, a Taliban media official confirmed.

Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, military chief of Taliban movement, have instructed all provincial governors and police chiefs to strictly control and avoid aerial firing, Ahmadullah Muttaqi, chief of Multimedia Branch of Taliban's Cultural Commission said in a statement.

Sept 3 (Reuters) - Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar will lead a new Afghan government set to be announced shortly, sources in the Islamist group said on Friday, as its fighters battled forces loyal to the vanquished republic in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul.

The new government's most immediate priority, however, should be to stave off the collapse of an economy grappling with drought and the ravages of a conflict that killed an estimated 240,000 Afghans.

TASS, September 2: The Taliban radical militant group (outlawed in Russia) decided to launch a military operation against the resistance in the Afghan province of Panjshir, the Al Jazeera TV channel reported on Thursday citing Taliban sources.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Even in the final days of Washington’s chaotic airlift in Afghanistan, Javed Habibi was getting phone calls from the U.S. government promising that the green card holder from Richmond, Virginia, his wife and their four daughters would not be left behind.

He was told to stay home and not worry, that they would be evacuated.

Late Monday, however, his heart sank as he heard that the final U.S. flights had left Kabul’s airport, followed by the blistering staccato sound of Taliban gunfire, celebrating what they saw as their victory over America.

Sept 1 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers struggled to keep the country functioning on Wednesday after the final withdrawal of U.S. forces, with foreign donors alarmed about an impending humanitarian crisis.

Two weeks since the Taliban's sweep into the capital Kabul brought a chaotic end to 20 years of warfare, the Islamist militant group has yet to name a new government or reveal how they intend to govern.

In an administrative vacuum, prices have soared and crowds have gathered at banks to withdraw cash.

31 Aug 2021; MEMO: Almost 33,000 children have been killed and maimed in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, an average of one child every five hours, Save the Children said as the last of the international military forces pulled out of Kabul today.

The aid organisation said the numbers were a devastating insight into the deadly cost of war on children.

Kabul, Aug 31 (AP-PTI) The Taliban triumphantly marched into Kabul's international airport on Tuesday, hours after the final U.S. troop withdrawal that ended America's longest war. Standing on the tarmac, Taliban leaders pledged to secure the country, quickly reopen the airport and grant amnesty to former opponents.

In a show of control, turbaned Taliban leaders were flanked by the insurgents' elite Badri unit as they walked across the tarmac. The commandos in camouflage uniforms proudly posed for photos.

30 Aug 2021; MEMO: Turkey is ready to help Afghanistan recover from years of conflict and strife if the nation also looks out for its own unity and solidarity, the president said, reports Anadolu Agency.

"What concerns us as Turkey is that Afghanistan should recover swiftly … We are ready to provide all kinds of support for the unity and solidarity of Afghanistan as long as we get the same approach from it,"