Live updates Seven Afghan civilians killed outside Kabul airport as Biden set to update on evacuations

Deadly chaos continued around Kabul’s international airport over the weekend, with a further seven Afghan civilians killed in swelling and disorderly crowds, the British military said on Sunday.

The seven deaths recorded on Saturday come as Taliban forces began imposing some semblance of order outside the airport Sunday morning, according to Reuters. People formed orderly lines outside the main gates and crowds were not allowed to gather at the airport perimeter, witnesses said.

On Saturday, the United States issued a security warning urging its citizens in Afghanistan to avoid traveling to Kabul airport without specific instruction, citing security risks. President Biden is expected to provide an update later on Sunday on the situation in Afghanistan and the evacuation of citizens and refugees, the White House said.

Here’s what to know

Afghans in airport hangars in Qatar and elsewhere begin to ponder next steps now they’re out of the country.

Abdul Ghani Baradar, considered the Taliban’s top political leader, arrived in Kabul on Saturday as the Islamist group eyes the formation of a new government.

President Biden met with his national security team Saturday to discuss evacuation logistics and security threats, including the Islamic State, according to a White House official.

How to help Afghan refugees and those trapped during the Taliban takeoverLink copied

As militants crowded Kabul streets, thousands of Afghans and people who support them have tried to board flights to escape Taliban rule â€" but not all have been successful.

The result has been a crisis marked by displacement within the country and abroad. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nearly 400,000 people have been forced from their homes since the beginning of the year.

As the situation has escalated, organizations have launched initiatives to aid refugees. Some are providing aid to those remaining in the country, while others are helping Afghans resettling in the United States. Here’s how you can help.

Tony Blair breaks silence, criticizes Afghan withdrawal as ‘dangerous’Link copied

Former British prime minister Tony Blair, a key figure in the war against terror and the conflict in Afghanistan in 2001, broke his silence on the U.S. withdrawal Sunday, calling the “abandonment” of the Afghan people “tragic, dangerous, unnecessary.”

As leader of Britain, he took the decision in 2001 to join the United States, under former president George W. Bush, to enter the war in Afghanistan, where more than 450 British forces have since died during the almost 20 year conflict. He left office in 2007.

“I know better than most how difficult the decisions of leadership are,” Blair wrote. “There is no doubt that in the years that followed we made mistakes, some serious.”

However, he went on to criticize the recent U.S.-led withdrawal of troops from the country, lambasting it for being motivated by politics instead of strategy.

“We didn’t need to do it. We chose to do it. We did it in obedience to an imbecilic political slogan about ending ‘the forever wars,’" he said, in an apparent jibe at the Biden administration.

Blair also warned that Russia, China and Iran could now take advantage of the fragile situation in Afghanistan, with other nations regarding commitments from Western leaders as “unstable currency.”

Taliban official warns that amnesty won’t apply to those threatening ‘law and order’By Haq Nawaz Khan5:40 a.m.Link copied

A senior member of the Taliban’s ruling council, or shura, on Sunday reiterated the militant group’s offer of amnesty to all those that worked for the previous government or U.S.-led coalition unless they were threatening security.

Muhammad Nabi Omari’s remarks came after scattered protests around the country against the Taliban, including cases where its white flag was pulled down in favor of Afghanistan’s national emblem.

“There is a general amnesty of all, except those elements who are creating law and order situations,” he said according to several Taliban-linked twitter accounts, following a visit to the western city of Khost where he met with local elders and clerics to assure them of Taliban intentions. Omari was part of the group that brokered a peace deal with the United States in 2020.

Since its lightning takeover of regional capitals around the country, the Taliban has been at pains to ensure its moderate intentions and plans to form an inclusive government.

There have been have reports, however, of door-to-door searches for those who worked for coalition forces, as well as the torture and persecution of ethnic minorities such as the Shiite Hazaras.

Soon after overrunning Kabul, the Taliban held a news conference in which it promised freedom of the press and protection of women’s rights within an Islamic framework.

The group is in negotiations with a number of members of the old government to form a new administration but said that no announcement would be made until U.S. troops, which are currently securing the airport, leave.

Seven Afghan civilians killed in airport chaos, says U.K. militaryLink copied

Seven Afghan civilians were killed on Saturday amid chaotic crowds scrambling to board planes out of the country, the British military said on Sunday.

Crowds have been thronging to the airport since the Taliban takeover of the country, one week ago, with at least 12 civilians killed in total in and around the airport, according to both NATO and Taliban officials.

“Our sincere thoughts are with the families of the seven Afghan civilians who have sadly died in crowds in Kabul,” a spokesperson for Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

“Conditions on the ground remain extremely challenging but we are doing everything we can to manage the situation as safely and securely as possible.”

The Pentagon on Saturday strongly hinted that U.S. troops may stage further operations outside the Kabul airport to help evacuate stranded American citizens and Afghans who aided the war effort, amid increased concerns about potential attacks by the Islamic State.

International troops are struggling to fly thousands out of Kabul, with significant bottlenecks, paper work and crushing crowds since the Taliban seized the capital city last Sunday, triggering a rush of fearful people desperate to leave.

Afghan woman goes into labor on U.S. military evacuation flight, gives birth moments after landingLink copied

An Afghan woman gave birth just moments after landing on an evacuation flight, the U.S. Air Mobility Command said early Sunday.

The unidentified woman delivered a baby girl in the cargo bay of a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft, shortly after landing at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

“The mother went into labor and began having complications. The aircraft commander decided to descend in altitude to increase air pressure in the aircraft, which helped stabilize and save the mother’s life,” Air Mobility Command said.

After landing in Germany, she was treated by medics who came aboard and delivered the child in the cargo bay of the aircraft.

The flight was carrying Afghans from an “intermediate staging base in the Middle East,” according to Air Mobility Command. Thousands of people have fled Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover of the country last week with many spending passing through the U.S. Al Udeid air base in the gulf country of Qatar.

The baby girl and mother are in a good condition, according to Air Mobility Command, and have been transported to a nearby medical facility.

Desperate to save their families, Afghans turn to members of Congress for urgent helpLink copied

From his home in Prince William County, he could hear the chaos through the phone as his wife approached the airport in Kabul. He heard gunfire, and screaming, and his wife’s voice on the other end of the line asking him with incredulity, “How can I get to the gate?”

She was a woman traveling alone in an overwhelmingly male crowd just feet away from the Taliban. She didn’t have a hijab covering her. She had just an email from the State Department telling her to be here.

“I said, ‘This is the one and only way you can save your life,’ ” her husband, Ahmad, an Afghan American who served the State Department and U.S. military in Afghanistan as a legal adviser and linguist for six years, recalled in an interview with The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of concern for his family’s safety.

Key updatePentagon hints at more rescues outside Kabul airport, amid new security concerns and evacuation bottleneckLink copied

The Pentagon on Saturday strongly hinted that U.S. troops may stage further operations outside the Kabul airport to help evacuate stranded American citizens and Afghans who aided the war effort, as the threat of violence in the capital grows amid the return of the Taliban’s top political leader and increased concern about potential attacks by the Islamic State.

The signal that U.S. troops could undertake enhanced efforts to rescue people outside the airport came as the Biden administration scrambles to fly thousands of people per day out of Afghanistan, and amid signs there were still significant bottlenecks to doing so. All gates at the Kabul airport were closed on Saturday, as crowds continued to swell inside and the U.S. government struggled to process people quickly enough to alleviate the issues.

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