Afghanistan crisis live updates: Resistance leader Msssoud lays down condition for talks, says Taliban must stop Panjshir offensive

Qatar's ambassador to Afghanistan said a technical team was able to reopen Kabul airport to receive aid and that it would be prepared for civilian flights soon, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday.

US military bases housing Afghanistan evacuees are building their own city-type leadership organizations to deal with sanitation, food and other challenges as the numbers of Afghans coming into the US grows.

The United Nations chief will convene a ministerial meeting in Geneva on September 13 to seek a swift scale-up in funding to address the growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where nearly half the country's 38 million people need assistance.

Pakistan intelligence chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed has arrived in Kabul leading a delegation of Pakistani officials as heavy fighting is underway in Panjshir valley and the Taliban is set to announce the formation of a new government.

As Taliban fighters entered Kabul on the evening of August 15, executives at Afghanistan's biggest independent TV network had a tough decision to make: stay on-air or go dark. Tolo kept broadcasting, but like the rest of the country's TV and radio stations, it now faces a tough and uncertain future under the Taliban, whose return has sent fear coursing through the media.

Pakistan "supported and nurtured" the Taliban, said Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla on Friday (local time), adding that the US and India are carefully watching Islamabad's actions in the war-torn country with a "fine-tooth comb"."They (US) will obviously see how different players get engaged in the situation in Afghanistan. Pakistan is a neighbour of Afghanistan. They have supported and nurtured the Taliban. There are various elements there that Pakistan supported," the foreign secretary said.

As the Taliban appear set to announce Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund, the group’s public face for the past three years as their leader, India is hoping his recent experience of being chief international negotiator with the US and head of outreach with other major powers will influence his approach to policies that affect India.According to reports, Sher Mohammed Stanekzai as well as Sirajuddin Haqqani may also be given positions of power in the new government while Baradar seems set for a leading role. Born in 1968 in Uruzgan province, Baradar is a Durrani Pashtun from the Popalzai tribe, sharing tribal loyalties with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai. As one of the few leaders close to Mullah Omar, Baradar served as the Taliban’s deputy defence minister during the 1996-2001 regime.

The Taliban are due to form a government within days despite fighting in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley where forces battling the hardline Islamists say they are enduring "heavy" assaults.The Islamists face the enormous challenge of shifting gears from insurgent group to governing power, days after the United States fully withdrew its troops and ended two decades of war.But they are still battling to extinguish the last flame of resistance in the Panjshir Valley, which held out for a decade against the Soviet Union's occupation and also the Taliban's first rule from 1996-2001.