The Latest: US general says Taliban ‘helpful’ in evacuation

WASHINGTON — The U.S. general who oversaw the final evacuation and withdrawal from Afghanistan says the Taliban was “significantly helpful” in enabling the airlift of Afghans, Americans and others.

The U.S. military spent most of the past two decades fighting the Taliban, but now are adjusting to the fact that the militants have taken control of the country.

Gen. Frank McKenzie is head of U.S. Central Command. He also said at a Pentagon news conference Monday that he thinks the Taliban will have difficulty securing Kabul in the coming days, not least because of the threat they face from the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate.

McKenzie says Taliban fighters in recent days have freed IS fighters from prisons, swelling their ranks to an estimated 2,000. In his words, “Now they are going to be able to reap what they sowed.”

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MORE ON AFGHANISTAN:

— Rockets fired at Kabul airport amid US withdrawal hit homes

— Qatar emerges as key player in Afghanistan after US pullout

— Afghans killed outside airport were seeking new lives abroad

— White House: US has capacity to evacuate remaining Americans

— Slain Marine who cradled baby at Kabul airport loved her job

— Evacuated Afghan activist dreams of going back home one day

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— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

UNITED NATIONS — A divided U.N. Security Council is pressing the Taliban to live up to pledges to let people leave Afghanistan after the U.S. withdraws its forces. But China and Russia have refused to back the resolution, which they portray as diverting blame for the chaos surrounding the U.S. pullout.

French Deputy Ambassador Nathalie Broadhurst, said after Monday’s vote that “this lack of unity is a disappointment for us” and for Afghans. Russia and China abstained from the vote and did not veto the measure.

France sponsored the resolution along with Britain and the U.S. It also calls for letting humanitarian aid flow, upholding human rights and combating terrorism.

The vote came shortly before the U.S. moved its last troops out of Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war.

The resolution says that the Security Council “expects that the Taliban will adhere to” commitments about letting Afghans and foreigners depart safely.

The Taliban have said they will allow normal travel after assuming control of the Kabul airport following the U.S. withdrawal.

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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says that some Americans who wanted to leave Afghanistan were unable to make it to the Kabul airport to board U.S. evacuation flights before the complete evacuation of U.S. forces.

Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters that the U.S. believes it was able to evacuate the “vast majority” of Americans in the country who wanted to leave, but that it was aware of some who were couldn’t depart.

McKenzie says that in the final American flights out of Afghanistan, “We were not able to bring any Americans out.” The last American civilians were evacuated about 12 hours before U.S. forces left.

McKenzie says the effort to bring out Americans will now fall on diplomatic channels.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden pledged that the U.S. would remain in Afghanistan until it was able to get all of its citizens out of the country. “If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out,” he told ABC News.

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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon says it remains prepared to airlift more Americans from the Kabul airport, even as the evacuation winds down.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Monday “there is still time” for remaining Americans to get out. He would not be more specific about the state of the evacuation. He said a total of 5,400 Americans have been airlifted thus far.

President Joe Biden has set Tuesday as a deadline for completing the evacuation.

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DOHA, Qatar — The Taliban have called on all employees of private and state universities in Afghanistan to resume their work starting Tuesday.

A spokesman for the insurgent group’s political office in Doha, Qatar tweeted a statement, which calls on both male and female employees to return to work.

The statement says the Ministry of Higher Education calls on rectors, deans, professors and administrative staff to report to their jobs Tuesday “and resume their administrative and academic works including making due preparations for starting classes.”

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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s interior minister says his country has not granted refugee status to a single person from Afghanistan since the Taliban took control in Kabul this month.

Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Monday that Pakistan is helping to facilitate the evacuation of those foreigners desiring to leave Afghanistan. However, he said so far there has not been any influx of foreigners from Afghanistan, as was feared last week following the attack at the Kabul airport.

Pakistani authorities have repeatedly said they cannot accommodate any new influx of Afghan refugees.

About 2 million Afghans are already living as refugees in Pakistan, some for more than 40 years reflecting Afghanistan’s decades of violence.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Qatar is in talks about providing civilian technical assistance to the Taliban at Kabul’s international airport once the U.S. military withdrawal is complete on Tuesday.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry confirmed to The Associated Press on Monday that the country has been taking part in negotiations about the operations of Kabul airport with Afghan and international parties, mainly the United States and Turkey.

Qatar’s Assistant Foreign Minister Lolwa al-Khater said in a statement Qatar’s main priority is restoring regular operations while preserving safety and security at the airport facilities.

Qatar has ties with both Washington and the Taliban, which took control over nearly all of Afghanistan in past weeks. The tiny Gulf Arab state is taking part in a meeting of key partners hosted by the United States on Monday to discuss next steps in Afghanistan.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A plane provided by the government of Pakistan has brought medicine and health supplies from the World Health Organization to Afghanistan.

WHO said Monday’s shipment was the first of medical supplies to land in Afghanistan since the country came under control of the Taliban two weeks ago.

The plane, which departed from Dubai, landed in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province, fell to the Taliban on Aug. 14, a day before Kabul.

WHO said the supplies included trauma kits and emergency health kits enough to cover the basic needs of more than 200,000 people, as well as treat 6,500 trauma patients. It said the supplies will be delivered to 40 health facilities in 29 provinces across Afghanistan.

The plane was loaded with supplies by WHO’s logistics team at the International Humanitarian City in Dubai. WHO said that “a reliable humanitarian air bridge is urgently required.”

“The demanding humanitarian work of meeting the needs of tens of millions of vulnerable Afghans who remain in the country is now beginning,” the agency added.

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CAIRO — The Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan has claimed responsibility for Monday’s rocket attack in Kabul, saying it fired at least six Katyusha rockets at the airport in the Afghan capital.

The rockets stuck a neighborhood close to the Kabul airport. The claim of responsibility was carried by the militant group’s media arm, the Aamaq news agency. It didn’t provide further details.

The U.S. military said five rockets targeted the airport on Monday morning and that U.S. forces on the airfield used a defensive system to intercept them.

The attack did not halt the steady stream of U.S. military C-17 cargo jets taking off and landing at Hamid Karzai International Airport.

It was the latest attack by the militants. The Islamic State group launched a devastating suicide bombing Thursday at one of the airport gates that killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. military says five rockets targeted the Kabul airport on Monday morning and U.S. forces on the airfield used a defensive system to intercept them.

Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for the U.S. military’s Central Command, said there were no U.S. casualties. He said U.S. forces used a defensive weapon known by the acronym C-RAM — a Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar System — in response to the attack.

It targeted the rockets in a whirling hail of ammunition, Urban said. The system has a distinct, drill-like sound that echoed through the city at the time of the attack.

He said the Kabul airfield remains operational as the evacuation continued on Monday. Other details were not immediately available.

Meanwhile, Ross Wilson, the chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul now working out of the airport, insisted that evacuations remain ongoing Monday. He dismissed as false claims that American citizens have been turned away or were denied access to the Kabul airport by U.S. Embassy staff or American troops.

“This is a high-risk operation. Claims that American citizens have been turned away or denied access to HKIA by Embassy staff or US Forces are false,” he said in a message on Twitter, using the acronym for the Kabul airport. He did not elaborate.

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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul said on Monday that his country’s national carrier is setting up an airlift for medical supplies from the World Health Organization to Afghanistan’s northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

The diplomat, Mansoor Ahmad Khan, announced on Twitter that the state-run Pakistan International Airlines will serve as a humanitarian air bridge for essential supplies to Afghanistan, in coordination with international agencies.

He thanked PIA, as the carrier is known, for the supplies. It wasn’t immediately cleat when the airlift would begin.

The latest development comes days after WHO sought Pakistan’s help in airlifting medical supplies to Afghanistan following last week’s deadly attack on the Kabul airport.

Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province, fell to the Taliban on Aug. 14, a day before Kabul.

Later on Monday, Pakistan’s state-run news agency said the PIA plane landed in Mazar-e-Sharif after taking of from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

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TIRANA, Albania — Another plane carrying 150 Afghans who fled their homeland fearing the Taliban takeover arrived in Albania early on Monday, the Foreign Ministry said.

The new arrivals brought the total number of Afghans brought to this Balkan country to 607. A ministry statement said the plane had come from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Albania has accommodated most of the Afghans in hotels and some of them temporarily at the students’ campus in the capital of Tirana.

The government has said it may house up to 4,000 Afghans for at least a year before they move to the United States for final settlement.

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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s military says suspected militants fired across the border from Afghanistan at a military post in northwestern Pakistan, killing two soldiers.

The military says the cross-border attack took place on Sunday, in the district of Bajur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It said Pakistani troops returned fire “in a befitting manner,” killing some attackers and wounding others.

The military said Pakistan strongly condemns the use of Afghan soil by “terrorists for activities against Pakistan” and expects the current and future authorities in Afghanistan not to allow such activities.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack and the Pakistani military provided no further details. Pakistan and Afghanistan have long accused one another of harboring militants fighting against the other’s government.

The two share an internationally recognized border known as the Durand Line, which was drawn in the 19th century when the British dominated South Asia. Kabul has never recognized the boundary.

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