Hamid Karzai

Western nations involved in the Kabul airlift began pulling out of the effort on Thursday, with a number of them citing the acute threat of a "highly lethal" terrorist attack by Islamic State, possibly within hours.

The Taliban have taken away security from former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and former Prime Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who is officially the head of the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR).

Ghani fled Kabul on the same day that the city fell to the Taliban and is now in the United Arab Emirates. He claimed that he did it in order to avoid bloodshed, and along the way he denied that he fled the country with millions of dollars.

Turkey is continuing its dialogue with all the sides in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, the Turkish foreign minister has said, vowing that Ankara's efforts for peace, stability and prosperity of the war-torn country will endure.

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 Taliban has taken control of Afghanistan's presidential palace, two senior Taliban commanders present in Kabul told Reuters on Sunday, hours after the insurgents entered the Afghan capital Kabul even as diplomats and locals hurried to leave the country.

Turkey will not send additional troops to Afghanistan as part of a plan to run and secure Kabul's airport following the U.S. and NATO pull-out from the country, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar was cited as saying on June 23. 

As many as three Afghan civilians were killed early on June 12 when American troops opened fire after their vehicle struck a roadside bomb, an official in eastern Nangarhar province said.

A man and his two sons were killed at their home in Ghani Khel, a district in the south of Nangarhar, on the border with Pakistan, said Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres denied that Taliban fighters were firing from its hospital at Afghan and NATO forces  before a suspected U.S. air strike killed at least 19 people in a battle to oust the Islamist insurgents from an Afghan city. 

Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed the United States for his country's long war

An Afghan judge on Sunday sentenced seven men to death for the gang-rape of four women in a case that has sparked nationwide outrage, with angry protests outside the court and proceedings broadcast live on television.