The United States is pressing the Taliban to let Afghans flee through the US-controlled airport after violations of their promises, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said today.
"We have seen reports that the Taliban, contrary to their public statements and their commitments to our government, are blocking Afghans who wish to leave the country from reaching the airport," Ms Sherman told reporters.
She also said that former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani is "no longer a figure" in Afghanistan, after he fled the country and was granted asylum in the United Arab Emirates.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said that American forces would evacuate as many people as possible from the Kabul airport as thousands pressed to leave after the Taliban takeover of the country.
"We are going to evacuate everybody that we can physically, possibly evacuate, and will conduct this process for as long as we possibly can," Mr Austin said in his first public comments after the fall of Kabul to the insurgents.
He said officials on the ground have spoken to Taliban officials to "emphasise that people who are trying to get to the airport and have the right credentials need to be allowed through right now".
The US Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley said that the Taliban are allowing US citizens in Afghanistan to travel to the airport in Kabul in order to leave the country.
"The Taliban are facilitating the safe passage to the airport for American citizens. That is US passport holders," Mr Milley said.
He also said there had been nothing to predict the speed with which the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan as the US pulled out its forces.
"The Afghan security forces had the capacity and by that I mean they had the training, the size, the capability to defend their country. This comes down to an issue of will and leadership," he added.
US President Joe Biden has said that "chaos" was inevitable once the United States decided to leave Afghanistan after two decades of war.
At least three people were killed in anti-Taliban protests in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, witnesses said, as the militant group moved to set up a government and Western countries stepped up evacuations of diplomats and civilians.
There were also more than a dozen people injured after Taliban militants opened fire on protesters in the eastern city, two witnesses and a former police official told Reuters.
The deaths mar the Taliban's efforts to consolidate Islamist rule and their promises of peace following their sweep into Kabul. They have said they will not take revenge against old enemies and will respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.
The witnesses said the deaths took place when local residents tried to install Afghanistan's national flag at a square in Jalalabad, some 150km from the capital on the main road to Pakistan.
Taliban spokesmen were not immediately reachable for comment.
Ghani speaks
Mr Ghani said today he hopes to return home, after fleeing to the United Arab Emirates in the face of the Taliban's rapid advance, and said he supported talks between the Taliban and top former officials.
"For now, I am in the Emirates so that bloodshed and chaos is stopped," he said in a video message - his first appearance since leaving the capital on Sunday. He noted he had "no intention" to remain in exile.
"I am currently in talks to return to Afghanistan."
The United Arab Emirates announced earlier in the day that it was hosting Ghani "on humanitarian grounds".
In his message posted to Facebook, Ghani added that he supports talks between the Taliban and top former government officials, after it emerged that Taliban members had met with former president Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, who headed the failed peace process.
Taliban leaders have said they have "pardoned all former government officials", according to the monitoring group SITE.
Ghani succeeded Karzai as leader of Afghanistan in 2014.
Evacuations
One of the Taliban's leaders and co-founders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, returned to Afghanistan for the first time in more than ten years and a Taliban official said the leaders would show themselves to the world, unlike in the past when they lived in secret.
"Slowly, gradually, the world will see all our leaders," the senior Taliban official told Reuters.
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But thousands of Afghans, many of whom helped US-led foreign forces over two decades, are desperate to leave the country.
About 5,000 diplomats, security staff, aid workers and Afghans have been evacuated from Kabul in the last 24 hours, a Western official told Reuters.
The evacuations by military flights will continue around the clock, he said, adding that clearing the chaos outside the airport was a challenge.
The Taliban's first news briefing since their return to Kabul suggested they would impose their laws more softly than during their harsh 1996-2001 rule.
Women would be allowed to work and study and "will be very active in society but within the framework of Islam", Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban's main spokesman said.
During their rule, also guided by Sharia religious law, women were prevented from working, girls were not allowed to go to school and women had to wear all-enveloping burqas to go out.
Mujahid said the Taliban would not seek retribution against former soldiers and government officials, and were granting an amnesty for ex-soldiers as well as contractors and translators who worked for international forces.
"Nobody is going to harm you, nobody is going to knock on your doors," he said, adding that there was a "huge difference" between the Taliban now and 20 years ago.
The Taliban seized Kabul on Sunday as Western forces withdrew under a deal that included a Taliban promise not to attack them as they leave.
Joe Biden, who has faced a barrage of criticism about the withdrawal, has said he had to decide between asking US forces to fight endlessly or follow through on the withdrawal deal of his predecessor Donald Trump.
US forces running the airport initially had to stop evacuation flights after thousands of frightened Afghans swamped the airfield. Flights resumed yesterday as the situation came under control.
Britain's ambassador to Afghanistan said his team had evacuated about 700 people yesterday and hoped to scale up the operation in coming days.
Asked whether Britain hoped to take 1,000 people out of Afghanistan a day, Mr Johnson's spokesman said they were aiming to operate at that capacity.
Germany has flown 130 people out, France said it had moved out 25 of its nationals and 184 Afghans, and Australia said 26 people had arrived on its first flight back from Kabul.
Denmark said it had evacuated 84 people on a military plane.
The first Dutch evacuation flight left Kabul without a single Dutch or Afghan national on board after passengers were blocked by US troops.
The US military allowed the Dutch jet to stay on the tarmac in the Afghan capital for just 30 minutes before ordering it to take off, foreign minister Sigrid Kaag said.
Around 40 people were able to board the plane but none were Dutch or Afghan, with many people unable to get to the plane on time as they were stuck outside the US-guarded gates to the airport.
