Afghanistan live news: US says Kabul airport has reopened as Biden defends withdrawal

Taliban fighters have taken over checkpoints across Kabul, and militants with rifles slung over their shoulders walked through the streets of the Green Zone, the heavily fortified district that houses most embassies and international organisations, AFP reports.

The Taliban sought to reassure the international community that Afghans should not fear them, with co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar saying the militants needed to show that they could “serve our nation and ensure security”.

China was the first major nation to flag support for the Taliban, stating it was ready for “friendly relations”. Both Russia and Iran also made diplomatic overtures.

The State Department said any US ties with a Taliban government would depend on their respect of human rights and rejection of extremism.

Biden issued a stern warning to the insurgents, saying any threats to US interests would be met with a “devastating” military response.

Here is a summary of Biden’s comments earlier this evening in Washington.

The US president broke days of silence Monday on the chaotic American pullout from Afghanistan, doubling down on his decision as he fired scorching criticism at the country’s former Western-backed leadership for failing to resist the Taliban.

“I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces,” he said in a televised address from the White House.

As images of chaos and desperation beamed in from Kabul, where American soldiers were trying to mount an evacuation from the airport while Taliban fighters flooded the city, Biden said: “The buck stops with me.”

Brushing off criticism that the evacuation is a debacle, Biden said the priority is to stop a war that had expanded far beyond its initially modest goals of punishing the Taliban for links to Al-Qaeda after 9/11.

“The mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to be nation-building,” he said, vowing that despite the departure of US troops anti-terrorism operations would continue.

Biden said “thousands” of US citizens and Afghans who had worked with American forces are to be evacuated over the coming days. He threatened a “devastating” military response if the Taliban launch attacks in the meantime.

Underlining his insistence that he is on the right course, Biden was due to leave the White House soon after the speech to return to his weekend retreat at Camp David. He had just flown in from Camp David hours earlier to give the speech after coming under pressure to address the nation.

In case you missed this earlier: Afghan president Ashraf Ghani destroyed the opportunity for a two-week ceasefire when he fled Afghanistan, Bloomberg is reporting.

The agreement had been brokered by government and Taliban negotiators and depended on Ghani resigning from his position and the opening of talks on a transitional government.

According to the report, his departure, which he said was to prevent a bloodbath, surprised his own negotiators and aides, as well as the Americans.

Kabul’s airport reopened early Tuesday Afghanistan time after being closed for hours by US forces following a breakdown in security on the tarmac that interrupted evacuation operations, a US general said.

The airport reopened at 19.35 GMT Monday, said Major General Hank Taylor, a logistics specialist on the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Taylor said the United States was “in charge of air traffic control” for military and commercial flights. He added that there were currently about 2,500 US troops in Kabul to help organise the evacuation Americans and Afghans who worked for them as translators and in other jobs.

By the end of Monday, US time, he said there could be 3,000 to 3,500 on the ground.

“Our focus right now is to maintain security at HKIA, to continue to expedite flight operations while safeguarding Americans and Afghan civilians,” he said.

The airport was shut down Monday after crowds of civilians surged onto the runways, the Pentagon said.

Seven people died in the desperate rush for flights out of the country. Two were killed when they fell from a US military plane that they had tried to cling to as it took off from Kabul. Others appear to have died in the crush on the tarmac.

US president Joe Biden has tweeted following his appearance earlier, during which he defended his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Biden reiterated this message, saying “I know my decision on Afghanistan will be criticized. But I would rather take all that criticism than pass this responsibility on to yet another president. It’s the right one for our people, for the brave servicemembers who risk their lives serving our nation, and for America.”

Hi, I’m Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest from Afghanistan as Kabul airport is reopened after being closed by US forces following what a US general described as a breakdown in security on the tarmac.

The chaotic and heartbreaking scenes at Kabul airport yesterday included people climbing up the outside of passenger stairs to aircraft and running alongside planes that were trying to take off.

Seven people died. Two were killed when they fell from a US military plane that they had tried to cling to as it took off from Kabul. Others appear to have died in the crush on the tarmac.

We’ll have more on this shortly and analysis of Joe Biden’s address defending his administration’s decision to withdraw.

If you see news we may have missed, get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

In the meantime, here are the key recent developments:

US President Joe Biden said the US achieved its goals in Afghanistan. Speaking on Afghanistan for the first time in a week, Biden said the US had succeeded in weakening al-Qaida and that its goal was not to help establish democracy in Afghanistan. He also blamed former president Ashraf Ghani for fleeing the country and criticised the collapse of the Afghan military.
There are reports that Afghan president Ashraf Ghani destroyed the opportunity for a two-week ceasefire when he fled Afghanistan. The agreement had been brokered by government and Taliban negotiators and depended on Ghani resigning from his position and the opening of talks on a transitional government.According to the report, his departure, which he said was to prevent a bloodbath, surprised his own negotiators and aides, as well as the Americans.
French president Emmanuel Macron said the EU will launch an initiative to thwart the arrivals of Afghan refugees. In a speech laden with comments about security and terrorism, Macron said they would be attempting to stop the expected increased arrivals and would take down smuggling rings.
There were desperate scenes at Kabul airport as thousands attempt to flee following the Taliban takeover. Video footage appears to show Afghans falling to their deaths from a plane after takeoff. Other footage appears to show people clinging to moving US aircraft. Some aircraft did however manage to take off with hundreds aboard.

Unconfirmed reports are of up to seven people killed at the airport amid the chaos, according to witnesses.
A US official confirmed to Reuters that American forces at the airport were “forced to fire into the air to prevent Afghans running on to tarmac to board military flights”. The official said that military flights from Kabul are “only meant to ferry diplomats, foreign staff, and local embassy staff”.
British prime minister Boris Johnson will launch a scheme to resettle Afghans “most in need”, according to Downing Street. There have been repeated calls for western countries to evacuate Afghans who fear Taliban rule, especially those who worked with foreign governments and other sensitive areas, like journalism.
UK defence secretary Ben Wallace has admitted “some people will not get back” as Britain tries to evacuate Afghan allies from Kabul, along with its own citizens, with British forces aiming to repatriate more than 1,000 people a day.
Taliban spokesman: “The war is over in Afghanistan” The spokesman for the Taliban’s political office told Al-Jazeera Mubasher TV that the war is over in Afghanistan and that the type of rule and the form of regime will be clear soon.
Senior Taliban official: “Too early to say how we will take over governance.” A Taliban leader said on Monday that it was too soon to say how the insurgent group will take over governance in Afghanistan, Reuters reports. “We want all foreign forces to leave before we start restructuring governance,” the leader told Reuters by phone. He did not want to be named. He also said that Taliban fighters in Kabul had been warned not to scare civilians and to allow them to resume normal activities.
Russian ambassador to Afghanistan, Dmitry Zhirnov, will meet a Taliban representative on Tuesday to discuss security for the diplomatic mission. Russia will evacuate some of its embassy staff in Kabul “in order not to create too big a presence”, the Kremlin envoy to Afghanistan said on Monday. Zamir Kabulov told the Ekho Moskvy radio station that some of roughly 100 Russian embassy staff “will be placed on leave or evacuated in some other fashion just in order not to create too big a presence”.
Ben Wallace appeared to hold back tears as he spoke about the effort to repatriate Britons and process visas for Afghan interpreters and other staff. About 4,000 British nationals and eligible Afghans are thought to be in the capital in need of rescue.

Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood has compared chaotic scenes at Kabul airport to “Saigon 2.0”, referencing evacuations as the North Vietnamese army captured the southern capital and ended the Vietnam War.
European Union foreign ministers will hold emergency talks on Tuesday to discuss the crisis. The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in a tweet on Monday that he decided to convene the extraordinary video conference so the ministers can make “a first assessment” of developments.

Families of British soldiers who died on previous tours of Afghanistan have criticised the British and US governments’ handling of the withdrawal as the Taliban start to seize control.