NATO foreign ministers are due to hold an emergency videoconference on Friday to discuss the unfolding situation in Afghanistan and what steps they can take.
Tweeting on social media, the alliance’s chief Jens Stoltenberg said, “I have convened an extraordinary virtual meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers this Friday 20 August to continue our close coordination & discuss our common approach on Afghanistan.”
The session follows an extraordinary meeting of NATO envoys on Tuesday after which Stoltenberg admitted the alliance had been caught by surprise by the Taliban’s swift takeover of Afghanistan.
He blamed Afghan leaders for the rout, saying they failed to stand up to the Taliban, and stressed his priority now was to evacuate NATO’s remaining 800 civilian personnel in Kabul and its Afghan employees.
Stoltenberg reiterated that all NATO countries had backed the US decision to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, which meant all allied soldiers that had been deployed were leaving too.
an Afghan health official said at least one person was killed and six were wounded when the Taliban violently dispersed a protest in the eastern city of Jalalabad,.
Dozens of people had gathered in Jalalabad to raise the national flag a day before Afghanistan’s Independence Day, which commemorates the end of British rule in 1919.
Elsewhere, Afghan civilians seeking to leave after the Taliban seized the capital on Sunday had been told not to gather around the airport unless they had a passport and visa to travel, said the official, who was working at the airport.
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