Taliban resume some flights, press assault on final holdout

KABUL – Afghanistan's Taliban rulers resumed immoderate home rider flights to and from Kabul connected Sunday, arsenic the spiritual militia's fighters stepped up an battle connected the past remaining pouch of absorption being led by fighters opposed to their rule.

The anti-Taliban fighters successful Panjshir province, northbound of the Afghan capital, are being led by erstwhile vice president Amrullah Saleh, who has appealed for humanitarian assistance to assistance the thousands of radical displaced by the fighting.

A elder Taliban spokesperson tweeted Sunday that Taliban troops had overrun Rokha district, 1 of largest of 8 districts successful Panjshir. Several Taliban delegations person attempted negotiations with the holdouts there, but talks person failed to summation traction.

Saleh fled to Panjshir aft Afghan President Ashraf Ghani discontinue Afghanistan arsenic the Taliban marched connected the capital. The fighters' lightning blitz crossed the state took little than a week to overrun immoderate 300,000 authorities troops, astir of whom surrendered oregon fled.

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Since the takeover, the Taliban person sought to recast the radical arsenic a antithetic from its 1990s incarnation, erstwhile they past ruled the state and enforced strict controls crossed society. Women and girls were denied enactment and education, men were forced to turn beards, and tv and euphony were banned.

Now, the satellite is waiting to spot the look of the caller government, and galore Afghans stay skeptical. In the weeks since they took power, signals person been mixed: authorities employees including women person been asked to instrumentality to work, but immoderate women were aboriginal ordered location by lower-ranking Taliban. Universities and schools person been ordered open, but fearfulness has kept some students and teachers away.

Women person demonstrated peacefully, immoderate adjacent having conversations astir their rights with Taliban leaders. But immoderate person been dispersed by Taliban peculiar forces firing successful the air.

Kabul's streets are again clogged with traffic, arsenic Taliban fighters patrol successful pickup trucks and constabulary vehicles — brandishing their automatic weapons and flying the Taliban's achromatic flag.

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Still, immoderate signs of normalcy person returned: women are connected the streets, schools person opened, and moneychangers enactment the thoroughfare corners. Traffic constabulary person returned to duty, and elephantine cement barriers sealing disconnected upscale neighborhoods person been removed.

As Taliban leaders clasp meetings and committedness a authorities successful the coming days, method teams from Qatar and Turkey are moving to get the civilian airdrome operational.

On Saturday, state-run Ariana Airlines made its archetypal home flights, which continued connected Sunday. The airdrome is without radar facilities, truthful flights are restricted to daylight hours to let for ocular landing, said Kabul presumption manager Shershah Stor.

Several countries person besides been bringing successful humanitarian supplies. The Gulf authorities of Qatar, wherever the Taliban maintained a governmental bureau since 2013, is making regular flights into Kabul, delivering humanitarian assistance for the war-weary nation. Bahrain besides announced humanitarian assistance deliveries.

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Associated Press Writers Rahim Faiez and Tameem Akhgar successful Istanbul contributed to this report

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