Taliban box

Half a million Afghans can flee: UNHCR

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Geneva: Up to half a million Afghans could flee their homeland by year-end, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday, appealing to all neighbouring countries to keep their borders open for those seeking safety. As a crisis unfolds in the country, a few thousand Afghans have been recorded as entering Iran daily, while traders continue going back and forth from Afghanistan to Pakistan, said Kelly Clements, Deputy UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Reuters

US officials gave Taliban target list: Report

US officials in Afghanistan naively handed the Taliban a “kill list” to target Afghans who aided the US forces in the country, according to a media report. Following the Taliban takeover of Kabul, US officials there gave the militant group a list of names of US citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies so they could be allowed to enter the Taliban-controlled perimeter around the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, according to Politico. PTI

Shocked at Kabul attacks: China

Beijing: China Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Friday expressed shock at the deadly suicide attacks at Kabul airport, saying the security situation in Afghanistan remained “complicated and severe” and that Beijing will work with the international community to cope with terrorist threats and prevent the war-ravaged country from becoming a hotbed of terrorism. PTI

Kabul hospital staff exhausted

Kabul: Medical staff at Kabul’s Emergency Hospital worked exhaustively through the night into Friday treating casualties from the twin blasts. “Everybody is concerned at this moment in Kabul, nobody knows what to expect in the coming hours,” said Rossella Miccio, president of the Italian aid group that runs the hospital. She said staff in its three operating theatres had worked into the early hours of the morning to handle several patients. Reuters