August 18, 2021, Afghanistan-Taliban news

The Taliban will impose a curfew over the entire southeastern Afghan city of Khost on Thursday, multiple Taliban sources told CNN Wednesday.

The curfew will be in place “for an indefinite time," and all kinds of movement will be banned “while joint forces of the Islamic Emirate carry out clearance operations,” one source said.

Roughly 650,000 Afghans live in the rural and urban areas of Khost province, according to 2021 population estimates from Afghanistan's National Statistics and Information Authority. 

Protests turn violent: Videos emerged on social media Wednesday purporting to show demonstrations across Khost city, the capital of the province, where hundreds of people took to the streets in an outpouring of anger over the Taliban’s takeover of the country. CNN has not independently verified these videos. 

Clashes also broke out in the city of Jalalabad Wednesday, after Taliban forces clashed with protesters who removed the group’s flag from the main square and replaced it with the Afghan flag, three witnesses told CNN.

According to the witnesses, the protest was met with a violent response by the Taliban, who fired into the crowd and beat some of the participants.

An Afghan translator who had been working for the Czech unit of the NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan told CNN he and his family were left on the tarmac in Kabul after being told the flight they were about to board was full. 

The Czech Army plane took off from Kabul on Wednesday afternoon and landed in Prague, the Czech capital, at around 10 p.m. local time, the Czech Defence Ministry said in a statement.  

Rafiullah, 33, his wife and their four-year old son had been waiting outside the Kabul airport for three days, covering their faces whenever Taliban fighters passed by and spending nights in hiding.

“I covered my face using a mask, the Taliban staring at me in anger and threatening me to leave … (they) also kicked me several times,” he told CNN in a series of messages. CNN agreed not to give the man's full name for security reasons. 

Rafiullah said he and his family were living a good life in Afghanistan until just a few weeks ago. When the Taliban took over, both he and his wife -- a university lecturer -- became a target. 

On Wednesday, the family was finally allowed through the Taliban checkpoint at the airport, after Czech soldiers picked them up and escorted them to a plane that was about to take off. 

Officials from The Poppy Association, a Czech NGO focused on helping veterans, have confirmed to CNN they have been in contact with a number of families which are being evacuated from Kabul by the Czech Army, including Rafiullah and his family. They said at least three other families of translators who worked with the Czech Army in the past are still waiting outside of the Taliban checkpoint at the airport. Rafiullah said he and his family were able to wait inside the airport.

The Czech Defence Ministry was not immediately available to comment on Rafiullah’s situation. 

The ministry also told CNN that three flights have arrived in Prague from Kabul in the past three days, carrying both Czech and Afghan citizens. In total, 195 people were on board the three flights.

Rafiullah said he and his family were offered shelter, food and water by US and Turkish soldiers at the airport. They are now waiting to see if another Czech plane turns up that they could get on, Rafiullah said. 

Rafiullah said his son is excited about the prospect of living in a new country, although he doesn’t quite understand what is going on.

During a virtual town hall, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered the services of her office to help Afghanistan refugees and others who are trying to leave the country.

An aide to Pelosi said the speaker has requested briefings from the White House on Afghanistan, including an unclassified briefing for all House members of Friday, an in-person classified briefing for all members on Tuesday, and a classified briefing for the so-called gang of eight Congressional leaders without a set time or date yet.

President Joe Biden said there was "no consensus" in intelligence reports on Afghanistan when he claimed in June it was "highly unlikely" the Taliban would take over the country after US forces departed, but he admitted many said the fall of the Afghan government was "likely to be some time by the end of the year."

In a clip of an interview with ABC News released Wednesday night, Biden was asked if the intelligence was wrong or if he downplayed it when he called a takeover unlikely.

When asked about the fact that he didn't give a timeline in his initial public assessment, Biden said he didn't think anyone predicted just how quickly things would unfold in the country or how.

"The idea the Taliban would take over was premised on the notion that the, somehow the 300,000 troops we had trained and equipped was going to just collapse. They were going to give up. I don't think anybody anticipated that," he said.

Customs and Border Protection sent additional personnel to Doha on Wednesday to help assist in the processing of people leaving Afghanistan en route to the US, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson. 

The move comes as DHS ramps up staffing to handle processing for the influx of Afghans fleeing their country amid the Taliban takeover. 

Agency officials are in Doha working on processing, screening and vetting Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants and other eligible vulnerable Afghan nationals before they travel to the US, the spokesperson said. 

The agency requested additional support this week from its field operations division, which is responsible for border security, as well as facilitating lawful trade and travel at ports of entry.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Mitt Romney on Wednesday encouraged the Biden administration to take measures to protect and evacuate journalists in Afghanistan.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Klobuchar and Romney said the US should "honor" its commitment to a free press by taking measures to "ensure the safety of journalists, supporting staff, and their families in Afghanistan."

"There are an estimated 200-plus journalists and support staff in addition to their families in Afghanistan seeking to evacuate the country. Please ensure that as evacuation flights continue, journalists and support staff are not forgotten," the pair added.

Some context: Several news organizations and press advocacy groups have said this week that they are working with the US to evacuate personnel from Afghanistan. 

A Biden administration official told CNN on Monday that dozens of State Department officials, including some of the most senior officials, have been in constant contact with US media organizations regarding efforts to bring their employees and affiliates to safety. It will continue to be a priority, the official added at the time.

President Biden said Wednesday he didn't think the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan was a failure and that he thought chaos in the country was inevitable after US troops departed.

In an interview with ABC News, Biden was asked if it was a failure of intelligence, planning, execution, or judgment that led to the situation in Afghanistan. 

"I don't think it was a failure," the President responded, adding, "look it was a simple choice." 

"When you had the government of Afghanistan, the leader of that government getting into a plane and taking off and going to another country. When you saw the significant collapse of the Afghan troops we had trained," he said, "that was — you know I'm not — that's what happened. That's simply what happened.”

Asked if he thought the withdrawal could have been handled better, Biden said: "No." 

"I don't think it could have been handled in a way that, we're gonna go back in hindsight and look — but the idea that somehow, there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens. I don't know how that happened," he told ABC.

Asked if that was "always priced into the decision," Biden initially responded yes, but then added that exactly what happened was not part of his calculation. 

Some context: In July, Biden used a question-and-answer session in the White House East to downplay the prospect the Afghan government could collapse and the Taliban could take over, saying that outcome was not inevitable.

He had also insisted there would be "no circumstance" in which American personnel were evacuated from the roof of their embassy, rejecting any comparison to the fall of Saigon.

When Biden was asked about pictures showing people packed into a C-17 and video of Afghans clinging to the sides of planes attempting to take off, he sharply cut off the question. 

"That was four days ago, five days ago!" Biden said. Many of those pictures were from Monday, just two days before the interview was shot. 

When asked what his first reaction was upon seeing the scenes, Biden told ABC, he thought: "We have to gain control of this." 

"We have to move this more quickly. We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport. And we did." 

The 90-second clip was released by ABC News on Wednesday afternoon, with more scheduled to air on World News Tonight and Good Morning America.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a letter sent to President Joe Biden on Wednesday that the state is ready to accept Afghan refugees. 

Colorado "stands ready to provide safety and opportunity to Afghan refugees and Special Immigrant Visa holders," Polis' letter said.

“I also hope that you will consider additional immigration paths that will save the lives of Afghans who cooperated with American forces, such as humanitarian parole, to ensure that we provide safety to those who helped our efforts overseas,” Polis wrote.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said US troops are focused on keeping the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul secure and when pressed about potentially extending the perimeter around the airport.

"We're going to evacuate everybody that we can physically, possibly, evacuate. And we'll conduct this process for as long as we possibly can. We will continue to deconflict issues with the Taliban and we will stay focused on securing the airfield. We cannot afford to either not defend that airfield or not have an airfield that is secure where we have hundreds or thousands of civilians that can access the airfield at will and put our forces at risk," he said.

Asked about the images of people struggling to get into the airport, Austin doubled down and reiterated that officials are attempting to "deconflict" with the Taliban to create passageways for people to get to the airfield.

"And where do you take that? I mean, how far can you extend into Kabul, you know, and how long does it take to flow those forces in to be able to do that," Austin added.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley added, that the State Department is still working on a "facilitation measure" to get evacuees onto the airfield.

"And I would tell you that for the American citizens, passport holders, the Taliban and the State Department... but they are working on a facilitation measure. So those numbers are likely to grow. For the others, the State Department is still working through exactly getting the procedures for the evacuees to get to the airfield," Milley said.