US anti-missile defences have intercepted as many as five rockets fired at Kabul's airport, a US official says, as the United States rushes to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan to end its longest war.
British PM Boris Johnson has defended Britain's airlift out of Kabul on Sunday and praised the troops for their mission after criticism grew that the government had been "asleep on watch" in Afghanistan.
Western forces running the Afghan airlift are bracing for more attacks after the United States launched a drone strike, apparently killing an Islamic State "planner", two days after the group claimed a deadly bombing outside Kabul airport.
US forces helping to evacuate Afghans desperate to flee Taliban rule are on alert for more attacks after at least one Islamic State suicide bomber killed 85 people including 13 US soldiers outside the gates of Kabul airport.
Several people have been killed in the Afghan city of Asadabad as Taliban fighters fired on people waving the national flag at an Independence Day rally, a witness said.
Five people have been killed in chaos at Kabul airport, witnesses say, as US troops guarded the evacuation of embassy staff a day after the Taliban seized the Afghan capital and declared the war was over and peace prevailed.
Taliban fighters have taken control of another city in northern Afghanistan, an official says, the eighth provincial capital to fall to the insurgents in six days as US-led foreign forces complete their withdrawal.
Taliban fighters have tightened their control of captured territory in northern Afghanistan as residents hid in their homes and a pro-government commander vowed to fight to the death to defend Mazar-i-Sharif, the biggest city in the north.
Taliban fighters have seized key government buildings in the northeastern Afghan city of Kunduz, leaving government forces hanging onto control of the airport and their own base, a provincial official says.
