Image source, Reuters

The UK's Treasury must "urgently" arrange extra funding before local councils can start making offers to house Afghan refugees, a document seen by the BBC suggests.

It estimates the cost of helping those coming to the UK over the next 10 years could be more than £2.5bn and it suggests that there has been a shortfall in the cash committed by Whitehall so far.

The leaked document says just under £400m has been allocated so far to help resettle those who had fled the country, but an extra £557m could be needed over the next three years.

The UK has committed to taking in over 20,000 Afghan refugees, with an additional 5,000 due to arrive over the coming year.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

Fighters loyal to the deposed Afghan government have gathered in the Panjshir Valley under the banner of the National Resistance Front (NRF) - who are they?

Their leader is Ahmad Massoud - a 32-year-old graduate of Sandhurst Royal Military Academy, and son of legendary resistance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

His father, known as the “Lion of Panjshir”, famously defended the region against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and the Taliban regime in the 1990s. He was assassinated by an Al Qaeda suicide squad just two days before the 9/11 attacks, when Ahmad Massoud was a teenager.

After training in Britain as a foreign cadet at Sandhurst and doing a degree in War Studies at King’s College London, Ahmad Massoud returned to Afghanistan in 2016. He founded the anti-Taliban NRF last month.

"I would prefer to die than to surrender," Massoud said in his first interview since the Taliban took over Kabul. "I'm the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud. Surrender is not a word in my vocabulary."

He has been joined by the former Vice-President, Amrullah Saleh. Mr Saleh, a former director of the Afghan security services, has claimed to be the acting President of Afghanistan after his predecessor, Ashraf Ghani, fled the country.

He was a close adviser to Mr Massoud's father throughout the 1990s.

The pair now lead several thousand members of local militias and remnants of army and air force units, as well as a large number of Afghan special forces commandos.

But they have called for international support to help take on the Taliban in the wake of the US military withdrawal.

Read more here

Image source, Getty Images

The Afghan flag carrier, Ariana Airlines, has said that domestic flights from Kabul airport will resume from Friday.

Tamim Ahmadi, a senior official with the airline, told AFP: "We have received a green light from the Taliban and aviation authorities and plan to start flights today."

Qatar has been working with the Taliban to reopen the airport in recent days, with a technical team flying into the city on Wednesday.

The airport has been closed to normal traffic since the Taliban seized Kabul on 15 August. It has been closed to all traffic since the final US evacuation flight departed on Monday.

Image source, Getty Images

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is one of the four men who founded the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1994.

He became a linchpin of the insurgency after the Taliban were toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001.

But he was captured in a joint US-Pakistani operation in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in February 2010.

He remained in prison for eight years, until he was released as part of a plan to facilitate the Afghan peace process. He has been the head of the Taliban political office in Qatar since January 2019.

In 2020, Baradar became the first Taliban leader to communicate directly with a US president after having a telephone conversation with Donald Trump. Before that, Baradar signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US troops, on behalf of the Taliban.

Today, Baradar is the main political leader of the militant group and has returned to Afghanistan.

Read more here.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, Getty Images

The Islamic State group (IS) says the attacker who blew himself up at Kabul airport on 26 August had only recently walked free from an unidentified prison when the former Afghan government collapsed.

The devastating explosion in the middle of crowds trying to get into the airport killed as many as 170 people, including 13 US troops.

On 15 August the Taliban reportedly let out thousands of inmates from Kabul's Pul-e-Charkhi prison on the day they captured the city. Media reports said IS and al-Qaeda members were among those freed. The Taliban also freed prisoners from jails in other cities.

Offering new information, IS said in an online newsletter that the bomber Abdul-Rahman al-Logari and "a number of his brothers [IS members]" walked out of prison "as the forces of the former government fled".

It added that as soon as he was free, he "rushed to join his brothers [IS Khorasan province]" and enlisted in the group's suicide bomber squad.

Read more - Who are IS-K?

Barbara Plett Usher
BBC News, Virginia

America’s top diplomat crouched down in front of three children and introduced himself: “Welcome to America, my name is Tony,” Antony Blinken said, tapping his chest.

The Secretary of State was taking a tour of a massive processing centre for Afghans outside Dulles Airport near Washington.

It has received more than 26,000 Afghans in the past 12 days, transitioning through to a new life in the US. Most are exhausted - falling asleep on row after row of cots in curtained off “rooms”, oblivious to the sound of crying babies.

In the intake area, a little girl and her brother snuggled under a blanket on the floor as people around them stood up and clapped, welcoming the newest load of refugees.

A medical doctor wearing blue scrubs intercepted the secretary to ask his help in getting someone out of Kabul. The two chatted for a while, then posed for a photo.

At the medical clinic, the unofficial mayor of this temporary village, State Department official Tressa Finerty, said “challenging maternity” situations were among the emergencies referred to hospital.

“We just welcomed triplets yesterday,” she said.

“We’ve spent a lot of time talking about a lot of numbers... of people coming out,” said Blinken. “What this brings home is that there is a human being behind each one of the numbers. This is about people.”

Panjshir, a short drive to the north of Kabul, is the base of the National Resistance Front, a multi-ethnic group made up of militias and former Afghan security force members.

One of Afghanistan's smallest provinces, it is home to somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 people, hidden behind mountain peaks that rise 9,800ft (3,000m) above the Panjshir River.

In peaceful years, people flocked to the valley, drawn by the stunning views and the safety it offered.

It is home to a range of people, with the largest group being ethnic Tajiks. The valley's residents have developed a reputation for bravery thanks to fighting off outsiders.

The valley - which historically was known for its gems and mining - has benefited from investment in recent years. In the past two decades, hydroelectric dams and a wind farm have been built, as well as roads and a radio tower.

Image source, EPA

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will visit Pakistan later as part of efforts to secure safe passage for Britons and others trying to leave Afghanistan.

Mr Raab will meet his Pakistani counterpart and other senior leaders on the latest leg of his regional tour.

It comes as the UK announced £30m ($40m) in aid to Afghanistan's neighbours, to help provide shelter and sanitation for the tens of thousands of refugees expected to flee the Taliban regime.

In his first visit to Pakistan as foreign secretary, which is due to last two days, Mr Raab will meet the country's foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, as well as other senior civilian and military figures.

They are expected to discuss how to encourage the Taliban to allow safe passage for refugees and prevent Afghanistan becoming a hub for terrorist groups.

Pakistan, which shares a border with Afghanistan, is a key player in the crisis and already hosts about three million Afghan refugees.

Mr Raab has been criticised by MPs for not focusing more on the country.

Read more here

The UN's World Food Programme has confirmed it is operating humanitarian aid flights from Islamabad in Pakistan to the Afghan cities of Mazar-i-Sharif and Kandahar.

A UN spokesman told reporters three flights had already landed in Mazar-i-Sharif since 29 August.

Those flights will enable 160 humanitarian organisations to continue their work in Afghanistan, he said.

Even before the Taliban takeover of the country, Afghanistan was already heavily aid-dependent - with 40% of the country's GDP drawn from foreign funding, AFP reports.

The Taliban offensive has sparked a new exodus; according to the UN refugee agency, over half a million Afghans have become internally displaced this year.

The country was already struggling with a prolonged drought and the coronavirus pandemic has brought new challenges.

Most aid organisations have said they aim to remain in Afghanistan to continue their work there, despite recent political upheavals.

International Committee of the Red Cross spokesman Florian Seriex said the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan had not changed the ICRC's relationship with the group and "the current situation doesn't change the way we seek to operate".

Image source, Getty Images

We are back to bring you the latest developments in Afghanistan. Here's what's been happening:

• Heavy fighting has been reported between the Taliban and resistance fighters in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley. Panjshir is the only province that has not fallen to the Islamist group and thousands of opposition fighters are believed to have massed there
• The Taliban will announce a government on Saturday at the earliest, a spokesman has told AFP

• US President Joe Biden has visited troops who were injured in a devastating bomb attack at Kabul airport as they helped to evacuate Americans and Afghans from the country. Thirteen US soldiers were among some 170 people killed
• The World Food Programme has confirmed it is operating humanitarian aid flights from Islamabad in Pakistan to the Afghan cities of Mazar-i-Sharif and Kandahar
• UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is due to visit Pakistan later as part of efforts to secure safe passage for Britons and others trying to leave the country

We are pausing our live coverage for the day - thank you all for following. Here's a reminder of the main developments:

• Taliban militatns are fighting with opposition groups and Afghan army remnants in the Panjshir Valley north of the capital, Kabul. They have called on the rebels to surrender. Rebels say they want a decentralised state with power shared between different ethnic groups
• UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said the UK government will "not be recognising the Taliban any time in the foreseeable future". But he added that "we do see the need for direct engagement" and that co-operation on border crossings was an "important first test"
• Western Union is resuming money-transfer services to Afghanistan, a senior executive told Reuters news agency on Thursday, after the firm suspended operations two weeks ago. And the US treasury department says financial institutions may process personal remittances to Afghanistan. The Afghan economy relies heavily on remittances.

Stay with us. You can always follow the latest news here.

Image source, Getty Images

US financial institutions can now process personal remittances to Afghanistan, the US treasury says - a move that could help some cash-strapped Afghans access funds.

Some 4% of Afghanistan's GDP is made up of remittances - that is, family members living outside the country sending money home from abroad.

But in response to the Taliban's takeover, many firms suspended their services to Afghanistan - effectively cutting off the supply of family money from abroad.

As we reported earlier, Western Union - the world's biggest money transfer firm - has now resumed its services.

• Read more here: Afghanistan's economy in crisis after Taliban take-over

Afghans from Panjshir - where fighting is raging between Taliban and rebel forces - have been telling the BBC what life is like in the region.

Mohammed (not his real name) says his cousin has been arrested by the Taliban after going to Panjshir to fight.

"We are hoping that he will be alive," Mohammed told BBC World Service radio.

He says people in the in the 60-mile (100km) valley are being mobilised to fight the Taliban.

"From woman to man, from child to elder man they are ready to fight. Everyone is a fighter, everyone is fighting, everyone is ready to fight against the Taliban," he says the OS programme.

"If someone is attacking you, you have to defend yourself, you have to defend your hometown."

George Wright
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Asel and many of her international team-mates are in hiding. Asel isn't her real name. In Kabul members of the Taliban have already come looking for Afghanistan's women's cricket team.

"Every woman playing cricket or other sports is not safe right now," she says. "The situation is very bad in Kabul.

"We have a group on WhatsApp and every night we are talking about our problems and sharing plans about what we should do. We are all hopeless."

Asel has barely stepped outside her home since the Taliban entered Kabul in mid-August and has locked her cricket kit away. She explains how one of her team-mates was targeted in the city.

"The village where they play cricket, some people who knew them are working with the Taliban. When the Taliban came here and took Kabul they threatened them, saying, 'We may come and kill you if you try to play cricket again,'" Asel says.

For Asel and the rest of the Afghanistan women's cricket team, their dreams may well have come to an end.

When just under a year ago there seemed to be so much hope, now they fear for their safety and feel abandoned by the sporting authorities they believe can help.

Read the story in full here.

Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent

A five-year-old Afghan boy evacuated from Kabul who became critically ill after eating poisonous wild mushrooms at his migrant centre in Poland has died, health ministry spokesman, Wojciech Andrusiewicz said on Thursday.

His six-year-old brother, who had a liver transplant on Wednesday, has shown signs of severe damage to his brain during the previous 24 hours and his prognosis is not good, the spokesman told a news conference.

The five-year-old boy had suffered irreversible brain damage and was unable to have a transplant. The brothers were taken to a Warsaw children’s hospital in a critical condition after they mistakenly ate the mushrooms last week while staying in a migrants’ centre in a forested area outside Warsaw.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to help both boys,” said the hospital’s director, Dr Marek Migdal.

A 17-year-old Afghan girl, who also ate poisonous mushrooms at the centre, has recovered and has been discharged from the hospital.

Poland has 12,000 species of fungi and more than 250 are poisonous, some of which can be deadly. The brothers were part of a family evacuated from Kabul by the Polish military.

Poland evacuated more than 1,000 Afghans who had worked with Nato forces in the country.

Employees of migrant centres have been instructed to warn all foreigners not to eat wild mushrooms. Collecting wild mushrooms in the autumn is very popular in Poland, and every year some Poles are hospitalised after eating poisonous varieties.

Image source, EPA

People who are fleeing the Taliban must be treated as asylum seekers, not migrants, the EU's foreign policy chief says.

More than 110,000 people were flown out of Kabul by Western forces last month, but there are still believed to be many thousands who wish to escape the militants' rule.

"We have to call them what they really are. They are not migrants, they are asylum seekers - there is a big difference," Josep Borrell said.

Speaking after a meeting of EU defence ministers in Slovenia, Mr Borrell said the countries wanted to help take "vulnerable people" out of Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Greece's foreign minister warned his country would not allow a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis, when more than a million migrants entered Europe during the Syrian civil war.

EU leaders reportedly want Afghanistan's neighbours to accept refugees fleeing the country.

"This is something we will not accept. We will not accept [it] this time," Nikolaos-Georgios Dendias said.

Image source, PA Media

The founder of an animal shelter in Afghanistan who rescued more than 100 dogs and cats says he's trying to get "terrified" staff members out of the country.

Paul "Pen" Farthing used a private charter flight to bring some 150 animals to the UK.

But his 68 staff members were left behind, prompting criticism he was prioritising pets over people.

The former marine told BBC Radio 5 Live he is working "every day to get them out".

"We are not giving up. People think I've got the animals out, that's it. It is not."

Image source, AFP

Let's take another look at the Panjshir Valley now, where there have been reports of Taliban forces and fighters loyal to a local resistance group clashing.

Panjshir is the last Afghan province opposing Taliban rule.

Each side has said it has inflicted heavy casualties, but the BBC has been unable to verify these claims.

"We started operations after negotiation with the local armed group failed," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said, according to the Reuters news agency.

Taliban fighters had entered Panjshir and taken control of some territory, he said.

But a spokesman for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA) rebel group said it had complete control and had driven back the Taliban.

The remote valley has a long history of resistance having been a stronghold against Soviet forces in the 1980s and the Taliban in the '90s.

Read more here: The 'undefeated' Panjshir Valley - an hour from Kabul

As we reported earlier, an executive at Western Union has told Reuters that it's restarting money-transfer services to Afghanistan - a move that will bring relief to families who rely on funds sent home by migrant workers overseas.

But more broadly, one of the biggest challenges facing the Taliban now is how to get the Afghan economy moving again.

While economic problems in the country are hardly new, the return of the hardline Islamists has made things worse. The prices of rice, fuel, cooking oil and flour are rising, and there are huge queues at the banks.

Afghanistan's economy is expected to collapse by 9.7% this financial year and 5.2% next year, according to the Fitch credit rating agency.

Meanwhile on the streets of Kabul, our correspondent Secunder Kermani captured salesmen trying to make a living selling car accessories and Taliban flags.

UK engagement with Taliban falls short of recognitionpublished at 15:21 British Summer Time 2 September 2021

15:21 BST 2 September 2021

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

Britain has a policy of not formally recognising new governments, and Dominic Raab said earlier today that would apply to the Taliban.

But he said the UK would still need “direct engagement” with the group.

British officials have begun talking to the Taliban in Qatar and they briefed the foreign secretary on the outcome.

Their talks have focused on how to ensure safe passage for those wishing to leave Afghanistan - and how to allow aid workers in to avoid a humanitarian crisis.

Crucial for that would be the reopening of Kabul airport, which Raab discussed with Qatari leaders.

The Gulf state has a technical team there and the foreign minister said he was hopeful flights could resume soon.

On the next step of a diplomatic tour that critics say has come too late, Raab will head now for Pakistan.