Afghanistan news: Taliban says it 'wants no conflict' despite claims 'women & children being attacked' at Kabul airport
A TALIBAN leader claimed it would not seek revenge against Afghan Government supporters despite reports of brutal "beatings and whippings".
Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid yesterday appeared publicly for the first time in 20 years after the fanatics' lightning speed in defeating the Afghan Government.
Holding a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday afternoon, Mujahid, according to a translation by al Jazeera, told journalists: "We do not have any grudges against anybody. We have pardoned anyone, all those who have fought against us. We don't want to repeat any conflict, any war, again, and we want to do away with the factors for conflict.
"Therefore, the Islamic Emirate does not have any kind of hostility or animosity with anyone, animosities have come to an end, and we would like to live peacefully. We don't want any internal enemies and any external enemies."
However disturbing reports claim thugs attacked women and children before firing their guns amid chaos at Kabul airport.
Witnesses say Taliban militants used gun fire, whips, sticks and sharp objects to maintain the thousands of Afghans desperate to escape.
And there were reports of "death squads" marking the houses of prominent women with paint as several female anchors are axed from TV in a chilling crackdown.
Read our Afghanistan live blog below for the latest news & updates…
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AFGHANISTAN’S FIRST FEMALE MAYOR SAYS SHE IS ‘WAITING TO BE KILLED’
Zarifa Ghafari was first appointed mayor of Maidan Shahr in 2018.
The then-26-year-old made history as the first female – and youngest – mayor in Afghanistan’s history.
After her appointment Ghafari campaigned to improve women’s rights in the country but faced death threats from the Taliban and Isis for her work.
The 29-year-old told the i: “I’m sitting here waiting for them to come. There is no one to help me or my family. I’m just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for people like me and kill me. I can’t leave my family. And anyway, where would I go?”
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WHAT WILL THE UK PARLIAMENT DISCUSS THIS AFTERNOON?
Last night, the Government announced both Houses of Parliament would be recalled for a single day on Wednesday to discuss the response to the Afghan crisis.
The Government has insisted it will do anything it can to get British staff and Afghans who aided their mission over the past 20 years to safety.
But shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds has written to Priti Patel urging her to “live up to their obligations” to the Afghans.
He said: “We must now live up to our obligations, especially to those Afghan people who worked so bravely with British representatives in Afghanistan.
“Our resettlement scheme must, urgently, be expanded to ensure people to whom we owe a huge debt are not abandoned.”
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TALIBAN FIGHTERS CHANT ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’ AFTER KABUL FALLS AS PROTESTERS SCREAM ‘BIDEN YOU BETRAYED US’ AT WHITE HOUSE
THIS is the shocking moment Taliban fighters were heard chanting “Death to America” in Kabul while outside the White House protestors scream “Biden you betrayed us”.
It comes as President Biden has been blasted for “hiding out on vacation” at Camp David while the Taliban overran Afghanistan and seized control.
Read more here.
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APOCALYPSE NOW
The Taliban’s reign of terror has begun as fighters are reportedly going door-to-door with a kill list and women face torture & execution under brutal new rules.
Disturbing reports are already emerging from Afghanistan as the government collapsed and the Taliban seized power once again nearly 20 years after being driven out by the West.
Taliban forces have already pledged to reintroduce the twisted laws which saw them brutalise women and gay people when they ruled Afghanistan in the 90s.
And there have already been reports throughout their advance of women being shot dead and girls as young as 12 being dragged from their homes to be “married”.
It appears however their first mission is tick off victims who have made their way onto their “kill list” as they hunt down anyone who may have helped forces of the US, UK and other nations during the occupation.
- Joseph Gamp
INTERPRETER APPEALS TO UK GOVERNMENT TO HELP FAMILIES LEFT IN AFGHANISTAN
An Afghan interpreter has pleaded with the UK Government to help the families "who offered their sons when your sons needed help" in the fight against terror.
The 35-year-old man and his brother started helping British forces when he was just 17 before emigrating to the UK in 2011. Although he is now a British citizen, his brother and parents remain trapped in Kabul as the Taliban move to complete their lightning quick takeover of the country.
The interpreter, who gave his name only as Mr Hottak to protect his family's identity, is now planning a protest outside Parliament on Wednesday to demand the UK offer asylum to all interpreters and their families.
He told the PA news agency: "That nation (Afghanistan) had lost all hope when it was under the Taliban regime, they were only alive, they weren't living. But the international community came, they gave them hope, they gave them dreams, they started living with humanity, and then suddenly you pull out the rug from under their feet and leave them alone like that.
"To the audience here in the UK please, support these interpreters and their families, their parents, their siblings, those who have offered their sons when your sons needed help. We supported you in that war against terror, many of us carry mental and physical scars.
"Our parents and our families have supported us against all the odds and against all our relatives who were against aiding the Americans in that country."
- Joseph Gamp
20,000 AFGHAN REFUGEES TO BE GIVEN SANCTUARY IN THE UK
Some 20,000 Afghans are to be welcomed to the UK in coming years as the Government unveiled the details of a scheme to provide sanctuary for those most at risk of persecution by the Taliban.
Fears have been building for those who worked against the Taliban in Afghanistan since the fall of Kabul to the militants on Sunday, with increasing calls for ministers to step up to rescue those who wish to leave the country.
Boris Johnson has promised that up to 5,000 Afghans can find refuge in the UK this year, with up to 20,000 in the longer term.
The Prime Minister, who will address MPs on Wednesday on the crisis in Afghanistan, said: "We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years.
"Many of them, particularly women, are now in urgent need of our help. I am proud that the UK has been able to put in place this route to help them and their families live safely in the UK."
- Joseph Gamp
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SAYS AFGHAN 'DRACONIAN' ASYLUM MEASURES MAY 'VILIFY' REFUGEES WHO MAKE OWN WAY TO UK
Steve Valdez-Symonds, refugee and migrant rights director at Amnesty International UK, said the announcement on Tuesday evening was welcome but was "unforgivably slow or just not focused on the most immediate emergency for people at risk in the country".
He said: "And what, meanwhile, about Afghans who make their own way to the UK to seek asylum or who are already here? Will they still be vilified and criminalised by the Government's draconian new asylum measures?"
- Joseph Gamp
BORIS JOHNSON TELLS JOE BIDEN WE MUST NOT ‘LOSE THE GAINS OF PAST 20 YEARS’ AS THE LEADERS FINALLY TALK ON AFGHANISTAN
BORIS Johnson tonight held a late night call with US President Joe Biden as they thrashed out a strategy for the Afghanistan crisis.
The PM told the US Commander in Chief about Britain’s plans to increase aid in the region and how the nation will resettle thousands of refugees. Both agreed to hold further talks at a virtual meeting of G7 leaders later this week.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: "The prime minister spoke to US President Biden this evening about the current situation in Afghanistan. The leaders welcomed US and UK cooperation in recent days to help evacuate our nationals, current and former staff, and others from Afghanistan. They resolved to continue working closely together on this in the days and weeks ahead to allow as many people as possible to leave the country.
“The prime minister and President Biden agreed on the need for the global community to come together to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. The prime minister outlined UK plans including increased humanitarian aid to the region and resettlement of refugees.
“The prime minister stressed the importance of not losing the gains made in Afghanistan over the last twenty years, of protecting ourselves against any emerging threat from terrorism and of continuing to support the people of Afghanistan. The prime minister and president looked forward to discussing this issue further at a virtual meeting of G7 leaders in the coming days.”
- Joseph Gamp
WHAT DID HARRY & MEGHAN SAY IN THEIR SPEECH?
The former royal couple – using their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles – wrote in their 218-word essay: "As we all feel the many layers of pain due to the situation in Afghanistan, we are left speechless.
"As we all watch the growing humanitarian disaster in Haiti, and the threat of it worsening after last weekend's earthquake, we are left heartbroken.
"And as we all witness the continuing global health crisis, exacerbated by new variants and constant misinformation, we are left scared.
"When any person or community suffers, a piece of each of us does so with them, whether we realize it or not. And though we are not meant to live in a state of suffering, we, as a people, are being conditioned to accept it.
- Joseph Gamp
TALKRADIO HOST SLAMS HARRY & MEGHAN STATEMENT ON AFGHANISTAN
TalkRADIO presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer also said: "Thank god 'speechless' Harry and Meghan have spoken on the terrible state of the world, so now we all know what we are supposed to feel, say and do.
"We’d never have known if it weren’t for them being so… y’know… speechless."
- Joseph Gamp
TALIBAN TELLS BORIS JOHNSON TO ‘RESPECT THE ASPIRATION’ OF AFGHANISTAN & IT IS HIS ‘MORAL OBLIGATION’ TO REBUILD COUNTRY
THE Taliban has told Boris Johnson to "respect the aspiration" of Afghanistan and that it's his "moral obligation" to help rebuild the country.
This is a "new chapter" of "peace and co-existence" in Afghanistan – and world leaders need to get on board with the new way of life, the group said today.
Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban's spokesman told Sky News tonight: “The UK Prime Minister and all leaders of the world, they should respect the aspirations of the people of Afghanistan.
“The people of Afghanistan fought for their freedom with their lives and their equipment and money – everything they had for the last 20 years.
“Now they want to open a new chapter. A new chapter of peace and co-existence, reconstruction of Afghanistan."
- Joseph Gamp
AFGHANISTAN’S FIRST FEMALE MAYOR SAYS SHE IS ‘WAITING TO BE KILLED’
Zarifa Ghafari was first appointed mayor of Maidan Shahr in 2018.
The then-26-year-old made history as the first female – and youngest – mayor in Afghanistan’s history.
After her appointment Ghafari campaigned to improve women’s rights in the country but faced death threats from the Taliban and Isis for her work.
The 29-year-old told the i: “I’m sitting here waiting for them to come. There is no one to help me or my family. I’m just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for people like me and kill me. I can’t leave my family. And anyway, where would I go?”
- Joseph Gamp
LONDON COUNCILLOR OF AFGHAN ORIGIN HAS TALIBAN 'CANNOT BE TRUSTED'
A London councillor, who is believed to have been the first person of Afghan origin in the UK to be elected to public office, has said the Taliban cannot be trusted.
Peymana Assad, who was born in Kabul and came to the UK as a refugee with her parents at the age of three, arrived back on a flight from Afghanistan on Tuesday morning.
The Harrow councillor told Channel 4 News: "I don't believe the Taliban. I don't trust the Taliban.
"I think that… I was one of (the) people who supported peace negotiations and coming to a compromise. But what I don't believe in is the Taliban ruling by the force of a gun and not through the ballot."
She added: "So, they say one thing to the international media, but they do another thing on the ground."
- Joseph Gamp
US AIR FORCE SAYS HUMAN REMAINS WERE FOUND IN WHEEL WELL OF C-17 PLANE
The US Air Force says it is reviewing an incident of human remains being found in a wheel well
They were discovered in the wheel well of a C-17 military plane flying from Kabul to Qatar, Reuters reports.
The US Air Force said said the aircraft landed at Kabul's airport on Sunday and was surrounded by hundreds of Afghan civilians.
In a statement, it said: "Faced with a rapidly deteriorating security situation around the aircraft, the C-17 crew decided to depart the airfield as quickly as possible."
- Joseph Gamp
'MORE BANDWAGON-JUMPING'
Harry and Meghan didn't include any reference to Mr Biden in their statement. The pair suggested Americans vote for him ahead of last year's US election, while the Duke of Sussex is also a close friend of First Lady Jill.
The president returned early from Camp David to give a speech on the disaster yesterday.
But his address was condemned as "one of the most shameful in US history".
Mr Biden declared: “The buck stops with me" – after blaming Donald Trump, as well as the Afghan government, soldiers and people for the “gut-wrenching” scenes.
The president blasted the Afghan army for "giving up" and said it's right to leave – despite the Taliban seizing Kabul just a month after American troops quit the country.
- Joseph Gamp
WHO CONCERNED ABOUT AFGHANISTAN DECLINE IN COVID VACCINATIONS
The World Health Organization (WHO) is worried about the spread of the coronavirus in Afghanistan as the upheaval caused by the Taliban advance has slowed vaccinations, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.
WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic also told a U.N. briefing that the chaos at Kabul airport, where thousands of people are trying to flee the Taliban, was slowing deliveries of medical supplies.
- Joseph Gamp
MEGHAN MARKLE AND PRINCE HARRY SLAMMED FOR ‘PUBLICITY-SEEKING WORD SALAD’ AFTER ‘CLINGING TO’ AFGHAN CRISIS WITH POST
MEGHAN Markle and Prince Harry have been blasted online after saying they feel "layers of pain" amid the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan.
Royal biographer Angela Levin and presenters Piers Morgan and Julia Hartley-Brewer are among those who have hit out at the couple's "attention-seeking word salad".
Ms Levin, who wrote a biography on Harry, told Sun Online: "Who do they think they are?" It's as if we are all small children and now they are going to look after us," she said. "It's meaningless – completely meaningless."
And she claimed the couple are simply "posturing" rather than offering a way forward.
"It’s so grandiose and patronising," she said.
"This is another example of them telling us what to do – we mustn’t fly, we mustn’t have more than two children, we must be compassionate to those we know and those we don’t know – and they’re the least compassionate people you can imagine."
- Joseph Gamp
'MORAL OBLIGATION'
“Afghanistan's soil is not going to be used against anybody. We can assure the international community of that.” He also said there would not be retributions against the hardline group’s former foes.
"We want to make sure Afghanistan is no longer a battlefield of conflict," the spokesman said.
"We have pardoned all those who have fought against us. Animosities have come to an end. I would like to reassure all the compatriots, whether they were translators, whether they had military activities or whether they have been civilians, all of them have been pardoned.”
He insisted the Taliban is a changed organisation from when it ruled Afghanistan with extreme brutality 20 years ago.
“Our country is a Muslim nation, whether it was 20 years ago, or if it is now," Mujahid says. "But when it comes to experience and maturity and vision, of course there is a huge difference between us now and 20 years ago."
- Joseph Gamp
US LOOKING TO TALIBAN TO 'FOLLOW THROUGH'
US State Department spokesman Ned Price is now holding a news conference
He says the US has received assurances form the Taliban about the safe passage of people, adding: "These are the words of the Taliban.
"We will of course be looking for one thing and one thing only – and that's follow through."
The US has now completed its drawn down to the core diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, according to the US State Department.
- Joseph Gamp
APOCALYPSE NOW
The Taliban’s reign of terror has begun as fighters are reportedly going door-to-door with a kill list and women face torture & execution under brutal new rules.
Disturbing reports are already emerging from Afghanistan as the government collapsed and the Taliban seized power once again nearly 20 years after being driven out by the West.
Taliban forces have already pledged to reintroduce the twisted laws which saw them brutalise women and gay people when they ruled Afghanistan in the 90s.
And there have already been reports throughout their advance of women being shot dead and girls as young as 12 being dragged from their homes to be “married”.
It appears however their first mission is tick off victims who have made their way onto their “kill list” as they hunt down anyone who may have helped forces of the US, UK and other nations during the occupation.
- Joseph Gamp
TERRIFYING MOMENT AFGHAN STOWAWAYS FILM THEMSELVES CLINGING TO US PLANE SECONDS BEFORE ‘THREE FELL TO THEIR DEATHS’
A HORRIFYING clip has emerged showing frantic Afghan stowaways clinging to a US plane moments before three are believed to have fallen hundreds of feet to their death.
The latest video apparently shows an Afghan civilian tethered to the wheels of the C-17 as it takes off from Kabul airport. It is impossible to know if he was alive or dead at the time the film was shot.
But his limbs can be seen helplessly thrown around by the extreme air currents after the military plane is airborne. It is unlikely the man survived the ordeal but his fate is unknown. The routing of the aircraft was not immediately clear.
The footage highlights the utter desperation of civilians fearing certain death if they are caught by the Taliban.
It follows several deeply distressing videos showing stowaways falling to their deaths soon after it was airborne.
- Joseph Gamp
WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE TALIBAN'S FIRST PRESS CONFERENCE FROM KABUL?
A Taliban leader declared their victory a “proud moment for the nation” and vowed to impose Sharia law on Afghanistan.
Zabihullah Mujahid appeared in public for the first time after 20 years in the shadows after the fanatics' stunning success in defeating the government.
Many had doubted he even existed but in an extraordinary moment he took to the stage to say "after 20 years of struggle we have emancipated our country and expelled foreigners".
The Taliban are now tightening their grip on power following their lightning victory that has shocked the world.
He went on to say Afghans have "given great sacrifices for the establishment of an Islamic government" and they have the “right to live under Sharia”. Different countries "have their own laws" and "Afghans have the rights to live under their own laws" he added.
- Joseph Gamp
BORIS JOHNSON 'SHOULD RESPECT THE ASPIRATION AND WILL' OF AFGHANS
The Taliban has said that Boris Johnson and other world leaders should "respect the aspirations and will" of Afghans and help to "rebuild the country and provide a prosperous economy."
The Taliban spokesperson added: "This is their obligation because they were behind the destruction of Afghanistan 20 years ago.
"Now it is their moral obligation to help the people start a new life in a new chapter.”
- Joseph Gamp
BORIS JOHNSION HAS 'MORAL OBLIGATION' TO HELP REBUILD COUNTRY, SAYS TALIBAN SPOKESMAN
THE Taliban has told Boris Johnson to "respect the aspiration" of Afghanistan and that it's his "moral obligation" to help rebuild the country.
This is a "new chapter" of "peace and co-existence" in Afghanistan – and world leaders need to get on board with the new way of life, the group said today.
Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban's spokesman told Sky News tonight: “The UK Prime Minister and all leaders of the world, they should respect the aspirations of the people of Afghanistan.
“The people of Afghanistan fought for their freedom with their lives and their equipment and money – everything they had for the last 20 years.
“Now they want to open a new chapter. A new chapter of peace and co-existence, reconstruction of Afghanistan."
- Joseph Gamp
'VERY WORRIED' WOMAN TELLS OF FEARS FOR HER ELDERLY PARENTS IN AFGHANISTAN
A woman has emotionally told of being "very worried" about her elderly parents who remain in Afghanistan after the Taliban took over. The militant group moved into Kabul on Sunday ending two decades of the UK and its allies trying to transform the country.
The 45-year-old woman was in tears at the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association (ACAA) in Feltham, west London, on Tuesday while saying her family needs "help".
Speaking with her four-year-old son, she said: "I want peace and justice for my country, I am worried about my country and my people and I am very sad. Today is one of the darkest days in the history of Afghanistan.
"I am very sad, my family is there, I spoke yesterday, I talk with them everyday, I ask about how difficult it is for them because they are my father and my mum. They are in Afghanistan, Kabul, they were worried and scared when the Taliban came, they were shocked.
"They see the Taliban going past in their cars on the road."
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