August 16, 2021, Afghanistan-Taliban news

The homes of two female journalists were visited by Taliban fighters on Sunday, a contact of the women told CNN, adding that both women were severely shaken psychologically.

According to the source, one of the female journalists whose home was visited by the Taliban on Sunday said: “I am very worried about my safety and that of my family.”

Several female journalists are said to have received threatening calls from the Taliban, with the calls increasing over recent days, the source added. One prominent female journalist in Kabul said she had received a threatening call from the Taliban, telling her they “will come soon.”

On Monday, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, said in a statement: “what we are witnessing in Afghanistan is a tragedy that should have been foreseen and averted. It will only be compounded further without swift and decisive action from the international community."

“Thousands of Afghans are at serious risk of Taliban reprisals – from academics and journalists to activists and women human rights defenders – and are in danger of being abandoned to a deeply uncertain future,” she added. 

Ahead of President Biden's speech on Afghanistan, the streets of Kabul are "quite calm" for now, according to reporting by a CNN journalist on the ground.

CNN International Security Editor Nick Paton Walsh said that even as foreigners, they've been able to "drive around the city freely" and members of the Taliban can be seen walking around the city holding their guns and sitting on street corners. It's a sight that is "stunning to see" in a city that many people have only known to be secured by Afghan soldiers and US troops, Walsh said.

Walsh said the situation at the Kabul airport earlier in the day was "completely out of control" and there were shots fired in the air "to get people to move away" at the airport where individuals were jumping fences and running through gates in an effort to get onto the airfield.

"There are the occasional rumors, reports that possibly Taliban are looking for former government employees, for those who worked with the Americans. But at the same time too, you simply have to look at the streets and observe the calm, the shops are open, a sense of order, frankly," Walsh described.

Watch Nick Paton Walsh's reports from Kabul:

The German federal government and its intelligence services “misjudged the situation” in Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement Monday. 

US intelligence analysts had predicted it would likely take several more weeks before Afghanistan's civilian government in Kabul fell to Taliban fighters. But on Sunday, after encroaching toward the city, the militants took control of the presidential palace and ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

Germany was one of several countries who took the decision on Sunday to move its embassy to a section of the Hamid Karzai international airport currently under military control, and is still in the process of evacuating staff from the country.

Speaking on Monday, Maas said 1,900 of Germany’s 2,500 local workforce in Kabul have now been evacuated from the country, adding that the government would be looking to help evacuate Afghan human rights activists and families who have worked alongside German companies. 

“We have already brought 1,900 of the 2,500 local forces to Germany, we have now expanded this circle due to the developments," Maas said. 

There are approximately 2,500 US troops at the airport currently, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said during an off-camera briefing on Monday.

Over the next 24 hours, the Department of Defense expects additional forces to arrive “from both the 82nd Airborne Division and battalions from a marine expeditionary unit,” Kirby said. Once those additional forces arrive, there will be about 3,000 US troops at the airport by tomorrow, he said.

The rough number, in the next two or three days once additional forces that have been authorized by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrive at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), will be about 6,000 US troops. 

“We will continue to expand our security presence as needed,” Kirby said.

Austin authorized a third battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division brigade combat team that was headed to Kuwait to head to HKIA airport instead. 

“They will flow in immediately and they will be there in coming days,” Kirby said.

There were two security incidents at the Hamid Karzai International Airport airfield “involving armed individuals shooting at US forces,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said during an off-camera briefing on Monday.

Kirby reiterated that while the mission at HKIA airport is “not offensive,” US forces “have the inherent right of self-defense.

The Pentagon press secretary said that “there is no indication” that the two Afghans who were shot and killed during this incident at Hamid Karzai International Airport were Taliban.

Kirby said the incident occurred “within the last 24 hours.” 

Kirby also said there has been “some preliminary indications that there may have been one” US military member “wounded,” but Kirby said he could not confirm it yet. 

Farzana Kochai, who was serving as a member of the Afghan parliament, says she doesn't know what comes next – for both the structure of the new government and her freedoms as a woman in Afghanistan.

"There has been no clear announcement about the form of the government in the future – do have parliament in the future government or not?" she said.

Kochai said aside from her role in parliament, she is more concerned about being a woman. She said she can work in a different role, but many questions remain about if she will even have the freedom to do that.

"We are just trying to have a clue that are we allowed... would be women allowed to work and to have occupied job or not. This is a question that made us, and every woman and international community, concern more about Afghan woman," she said.

Kochai said as a politician, she thinks Western countries, and specifically the United States, left Afghanistan too quickly.

She said the scenes of crowds of people desperate to get out of the country, rushing the gates of the airport in Kabul and hanging on to US planes was caused by the international community's swift exit.

"This power transfer could be done in much better way, like political settlement based on something that could happen," Kochai said.

New satellite images from Maxar showed a crowd of people on the tarmac at Kabul International Airport earlier today.

"While one Turkish airliner prepares to takeoff from the airfield, security forces can be seen near one of the airport’s main runways attempting to prevent crowds of people from moving toward other aircraft and from blocking flight operations," Maxar said of the images. 

Satellite images near the airport shows significant crowds and a traffic jam.

Earlier today, video from on the ground at the airport showed people clinging to the fuselage of a US military aircraft as it taxied.

Here's a look at the satellite images from Maxar:

Afghan Ambassador to the United Nations Ghulam M. Isaczai said during Monday’s ongoing Security Council meeting that the UN must call for an end to violence in Afghanistan.

“There is no time for a blame game anymore. We have an opportunity to prevent further violence, prevent Afghanistan descending into civil war, and becoming a pariah state. Therefore the Security Council and the UN Secretary-General should use every means at its disposal to call for an immediate cessation of violence and respect for human rights and international humanitarian law,” Isaczai said.

The ambassador stressed on Monday that he was speaking on behalf of millions of people in Afghanistan “whose fate hangs in the balance, and are faced with an extremely uncertain future.”

Isaczai added that the UN should also call upon the Taliban to abide by humanitarian laws, call on Afghanistan’s border counties to open their borders to displaced civilians and humanitarian goods, and call for a transitional and representational government.

He also called upon the United Nations to “stress that the council and the United Nations will not recognize any administration that achieves power through force or any government that is not inclusive and representative of diversity of the country,” Isaczai said.

The leader of the opposition in the UK, Keir Starmer, has said the situation in Afghanistan is “shocking, and it’s tragic.” 

Starmer told journalists on Monday the world is seeing "the unravelling of 20 years of progress, and of huge sacrifice."

The labour leader criticized the response of Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying he needs to “to step up to the plate, show some leadership, and some urgency.” 

However, he acknowledged that the decision to leave the country “was not the government's decision alone.” 

Starmer said, “It's absolutely clear what the priorities have to be," focusing on the evacuation of EU nationals and eligible Afghans. 

He also stressed it is important to ensure there is a process in place “for the safety of those that are remaining there and the assertion of the human rights of everybody in Afghanistan," particularly for women and young girls.