Afghanistan-Taliban crisis: live news updates
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Kabul [Afghanistan]: More than 18,000 people have been evacuated from Kabul airport since the Taliban took over the Afghanistan capital, a NATO official told Reuters on Friday.
The US alone evacuated 7,000 people from Afghanistan since the start of evacuation operations on August 14.
However, crowds continued to throng outside the airport, desperate to flee, said the official, who declined to be identified. The Taliban took over Kabul on Sunday.
U.S. President Joe Biden will give remarks on Friday at 1 p.m. ET (1700 GMT) on the evacuation operation in Afghanistan.
Live Updates
20 Aug 2021 5:51 AM GMTSecret cable shows Biden admin was warned of potential Taliban takeover, says report
Around two dozen officials from the US Embassy in Kabul gave the Biden administration the stark warning in a 13 July cable to the department’s “dissent channel”, according to The Wall Street Journal.
As per reports, the confidential cable sent through a so-called dissent channel was signed on July 13 and offered recommendations on ways to mitigate the crisis and accelerate an evacuation.
The administration has been criticized for leaving efforts to get American diplomats and other citizens, as well Afghan allies, out of the country, until after a Taliban takeover was well underway.
- 20 Aug 2021 4:53 AM GMT
Taliban 'intensifying' search for Afghans who helped US: UN
Despite Taliban vowing no revenge against its opponents, a confidential United Nations document says the militants are intensifying a search for people who worked with US and Nato forces.
The report -- provided by the UN's threat-assessment consultants -- says the group has "priority lists" of individuals it wants to arrest.
Most at risk are people who had central roles in the Afghan military, police and intelligence units, according to the document.
The Taliban have been conducting "targeted door-to-door visits" of individuals they want to apprehend and their family members, the report says.
