The UK's Foreign Secretary has urged G7 nations to work together to provide safe passage for eligible people out of Afghanistan.

Dominic Raab said that while the Taliban had promised that those with authorisation would be allowed to leave the country unharmed, the group would have to be judged on its actions.

British troops have now arrived back in the UK, but the government says it will still help those eligible for resettlement.

Mr Raab's comments came at a US-chaired virtual meeting of the G7 - including the US, Canada, Japan, Germany, France and Italy - as well as Nato and the EU.

Turkey and Qatar - often considered to have more influence over the Taliban than Western nations - also attended the conference.

Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent

The last day of August will mark the end of what some describe as the end of US-led military engagement in Afghanistan, but the Taliban will proclaim it as the end of foreign occupation.

On 1 September, Afghans will wake up and wait to see what this new chapter brings.

With every chapter in this 40-year war, Afghans dared to hope that the next chapter would be better than the last. I can say that of all the chapters I've witnessed over the last three decades, this is the most uncertain chapter yet.

The Taliban are promising to rule for all Afghans. They're promising to give Afghans the best education system in the world, to meet all of their needs.

It's a huge challenge to move from an insurgency to governing again. The world will be watching - but watching most closely of all will be Afghans, wondering and hoping against hope that they will have a life they can call their own, in a country they still feel a sense of belonging to.

Afghans tend to say they hold on to hope because it's the last thing they lose.

For the thousands who left, some of the best and brightest of this generation, who were educated, trained and prepared during this window of space provided by 20 years of international engagement - they have now not just left their country, they have lost their country.

They have lost their dreams, their hopes, everything they built up in the past 20 years. And it will be so, so painful for such a long time to come.

Image source, EPA

A number of UN committees have called on the Taliban to protect the rights of Afghan women and girls.

The two bodies, which deal with the rights of women and children, said in a statement issued on Monday that they were "alarmed by the restrictive practices and ongoing reports of targeted attacks on women and girls including academics, health workers, human rights defenders, media workers, civil servants and many others".

Since taking power two weeks ago, the Taliban has pledged to form an inclusive government and respect women's rights to work and education.

The committees urged the group "to honour their own commitments and not to let history repeat itself", but voiced their concern at the Taliban's caveat that women's activity within society would have to adhere to its strict interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.

During the Taliban's previous rule in the 1990s, girls were not allowed to go to school and women could only leave their homes if they wore the all-encompassing burka and were accompanied by a male chaperone.

Read more: Uncertain times ahead for Afghan women

The Global Coalition, external of 83 countries dedicated to eliminating Islamic State have pledged to defeat the "brutal terrorist organization", including the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) affiliate that claimed responsibility for attacks at Afghanistan's Kabul airport.

In a statement released by the US State Department, external, the group said: "We will draw on all elements of national power — military, intelligence, diplomatic, economic, law enforcement — to ensure the defeat of this brutal terrorist organization", adding that it would also "identify and bring their members to justice".

IS-K said it was behind an attempted rocket attack on Kabul airport on Monday, which America's anti-missile system intercepted.

The US military has said it is investigating reports that its drone strike on Sunday - which it says targeted a vehicle carrying at least one person associated with IS-K - killed civilians.

The civilians who were killed were 10 members of one family including six children, surviving relatives have told the BBC.

IS-K also claimed responsibility after a suicide bomber killed more than 170 Afghan civilians and 13 US troops, outside the airport last Thursday.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

A little earlier, we heard from Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, who warned US forces were at a “particularly dangerous” stage in their withdrawal. The final deadline is tomorrow (31 August).

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Kirby said that “the threat stream is still real, it’s still active, and in many cases, it’s still specific.”

While he declined to give details, Kirby said that the US military is “operating under the assumption that we need to be prepared for future potential threats.”

Kirby added that the US believes it still has the ability to protect and defend American and allied personnel at the airport even as the 31 August withdrawal looms.

Image source, Reuters

US forces were warned to prepare for an imminent “mass casualty event” less than 24 hours before last week’s deadly suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport, according to media reports.

Citing classified notes of a Pentagon meeting, Politico has reported that General Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told commanders that there was “significant” intelligence of an attack by IslamicState Khorasan Province, also known as IS-K.

The report added that US officials had been planning to close Abbey Gate, where the attack took place.

US forces kept the gate open longer than anticipated to allow the UK to safely evacuate personnel from the nearby Baron Hotel, Politico said.

More than 170 Afghan civilians and 13 members of the US military were killed in the attack.

To date, a total of 122,000 people have been evacuated from Kabul, including 5,400 US citizens.

At a Monday briefing, the Pentagon said that 17 flights are expected to bring 3,700 people - mostly Afghans - to Washington DC and Philadelphia.

The Pentagon added that it remains confident that the withdrawal will be completed by the 31 August deadline.

Press secretary John Kirby added that the remaining hours of the evacuation are a "particularly dangerous time".

Rajini Vaidyanathan
BBC South Asia Correspondent

An Afghan who was unable to make his flight to the UK because of the crowds at Kabul airport has pleaded with the British government to help his and other families leave Afghanistan before it’s too late.

The UK ended evacuations at the weekend, but many who were eligible to leave have been left behind. The man, who was promised safe passage to the UK with his young family, shared his story:

I’m currently in hell right now. I’m moving from safe house to safe house with my family, the Taliban are trying to find me.

Nowadays when there’s a knock on the door, it’s the first thing that enters my mind.

My heart stops beating because I think: 'Is this the Taliban, have they found me and my family?'

It’s not just me, it’s hundreds of people who’ve worked for the government, the media, NGOs, human rights defenders - everyone is currently hiding in different places waiting to see when their turn will come.

The situation is really bad for us.

My message to the UK government is this: We are fighting to stay alive - it’s not a matter of hours, not a matter of days - it’s a matter of seconds. Please help us find a way out.

The Pentagon briefing has now finished. Spokesman John Kirby fielded several questions on the timings for ending evacuations, but often refused to comment.

He would not say when exactly on 31 August airlifts would end - or if the US would co-ordinate with Taliban about future drone strikes against Islamic State.

"The president has made it very clear that we will maintain robust over-the-horizon counter-terrorism capabilities - the kind of capabilities you have seen us use over the last 24, 36 hours," said Kirby.

"I don't think it's helpful for us to talk about what over-the-horizon counter-terrorism capabilities will look like going forward, and how we're going to execute it," he added.

Kirby said the US was speaking with Taliban leaders to "deconflict" and prevent misunderstandings during current operations.

Ex-Royal Marine Paul "Pen" Farthing has said his emotions "got the better" of him when he left an expletive-laden message for a government aide as he tried to get his staff and animals out of Afghanistan.

Farthing, who founded the animal welfare charity Nowzad, mounted a high-profile campaign, Operation Ark, to get his employees and rescue animals out of Kabul.

Having been caught up in Thursday's bomb attack at the airport, he landed at Heathrow airport on a private charter flight on Sunday with some 240 rescue animals, but his staff remained in Afghanistan.

On Saturday, The Times , externalreported it had a recording of Farthing berating a special adviser to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace in which he accused him of "blocking" efforts to arrange an evacuation flight.

Wallace previously complained Mr Farthing's campaign was distracting from the evacuation of people most at threat from the Taliban and that Ministry of Defence staff had faced abuse from the ex-marine's supporters.

Farthing told ITV's Good Morning Britain, external: "I'm incredibly embarrassed about my language, I do apologise to everybody who's listened to that."

You can read more here.

The Pentagon press secretary was asked how the US will determine whether there were civilian casualties in the weekend's drone strike, in light of the troop withdrawal.

"We're looking at a variety of means of information - and we're obviously collecting open press reporting and we're doing the best we can to try to understand the situation locally," he says.

"And that would include discussions with the Taliban about what they might be seeing."

He also notes that the military's initial statement on the strike had said that there were no indication of civilian casualties but that assessments were under way.

Both the press secretary and Gen Taylor are asked whether there were any alternatives to the use of an airstrike.

"When you have an imminent threat - and we believed this to be an imminent threat - we took the action that we belived was most necessary at the best opportunity to thwart that attack," John Kirby says.

Gen Taylor adds: "Commanders will always minimise collateral damage... This strike prevented a high-profile attack against both coalition US forces and other Afghan civilians."

Pentagon spokesperson John F. Kirby refused to say how many gates are still open around Kabul's airport - if any.

"This has always been a dangerous operation, but we're in a particularly dangerous time right now," he told reporters.

But he insisted the US still has "the capability to conduct evacuation operations even while we are working to complete the retrograde of US forces".

He would not say if more airlifts would happen on 31 August, the deadline for US withdrawal.

The Pentagon's press secretary also addressed the reports of civilian casualties.

"We are not in a position to dispute it," said John Kirby. "As the general said, we're assessing and we're investigating."

"Make no mistake, no military on the face of the earth works harder to avoid civilian casualties than the United States' military, and nobody wants to see innocent life taken.

"We take it very, very seriously and when we know that we have caused innocent life to be lost in the conduct of our operations, we're transparent about it."

But he also defended the intelligence about "what we believed to be a very real, a very specific and a very imminent threat" against Kabul airport and troops and civilians nearby.

General Taylor said the US was "assessing" reports of civilian deaths from a drone strike it carried out in Kabul on Sunday - saying it took the reports "very seriously."

Surviving relatives said 10 people had been killed in the strike.

Around 122,000 people have been evacuated since flights out of Afghanistan began on 14 August, Major General William D Taylor said.

Twenty-six military aircraft and two civilian flights departed on Sunday, he said, carrying around 1,200 people - including remaining coalition staff.

In a moment we're expecting an update from the Pentagon about the US efforts to evacuate its remaining civilians - we'll bring you the key comments as they happen.

A plane carrying medicines and other supplies from the World Health Organization has landed in Kabul for the first time since the city fell to the Taliban.

Ahmed Al Mandhari, WHO regional director for the Mediterranean, said that the organization has “been able to partially replenish stocks” at Afghan health facilities and ensure that WHO-supported health services can continue.

The WHO said that the 12.5 tonnes of supplies that arrived on Monday can cover the basic health needs of over 200,000 people, as well as 3,500 surgical procedures and 6,500 trauma patients.

On Friday, the WHO said that medical supplies were likely to run out in days. It hopes to establish an air bridge to northern Afghanistan with the help of Pakistan’s government.

The United Nations has warned of a looming “humanitarian catastrophe” in Afghanistan, with about one-third of Afghanistan’s population already at risk of severe or acute hunger.

The BBC has learned that a US drone strike yesterday in Kabul, targeting an alleged suicide bomber, killed 10 members of one family, including six children.

Ramin Yousufi, a relative of the victims, told the BBC that the children who were killed were between the ages of four and 12.

He said the family was known for their charitable work for the last two decades, and that they weren't associated with Islamic State.

"It's wrong, it is a brutal attack... and it's happened on wrong information," said Mr Yousufi.

"Why have they killed our family? Our children? They are so burned out we cannot identify their bodies, their faces," he added, tearfully.

Image source, Getty Images

Afghanistan's former prime minister Amrullah Saleh has written to German newspaper Der Spiegel, external, saying he does not recognise Taliban rule and has no plans to surrender.

Mr Saleh fled Kabul this month and is helping to lead anti-Taliban resistance in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley. After President Ashraf Ghani fled to the UAE earlier this month, Mr Saleh declared himself the country's new leader.

"Geographically we are isolated, but politically and morally Afghanistan is with us," he wrote.

The Taliban, he said, "never believed in political settlement."

"They exploited the naïveté, fatigue and short-sightedness of the White House, both under Trump and Biden."

He suggested that there is still a solution to the Taliban takeover: "Threaten Pakistan with specific sanctions, demand political settlement and gave recognition and political support to the National Resistance in the Panjshir."

Journalists in Afghanistan have called for international protection under Taliban rule.

In an open letter quoted by Afghanistan's Tolo News, journalists and photographers said their lives were in serious danger.

"Given the current problems and the growing threat to the lives, property and families of media workers, we call on the United Nations and supporting countries to work together to save our lives and the lives of our families," the statement said.

One journalist tweeted a photo of an Afghan news anchor working under the watch of a group of armed Taliban fighters, with the caption: "Do you think that in such circumstances it is possible to continue working as a journalist? This situation is not acceptable."

John Simpson
World Affairs Editor

Image source, AAMIR QURESHI

Across the globe, countries which have traditionally relied on American backing are suddenly starting to wonder if they should get themselves some re-insurance.

Taiwan, which is almost daily subject to threats of invasion from China, is particularly worried.

South Korea, Japan, Western Europe, and Britain are all wondering if the American commitment to them could evaporate as fast as the commitment to Afghanistan has.

Only four months ago, President Joe Biden sounded confident and reassuring: "We will not conduct a hasty rush to the exit. We'll do it responsibly, deliberately and safely. And we will do it in full co-ordination with our allies and partners."

That isn't what happened. And a country which depended on American and Western support for an entire generation has suddenly found itself abandoned.

You can read John's full analysis here.