Afghanistan crisis live updates: India allowed to operate two flights daily to evacuate citizens from Kabul

An Afghan woman journalist has said she was barred from working at her TV station after the Taliban took control of the country, and pleaded for help in a video posted online. Female journalists have been targeted by the group in a wave of assassinations in recent months leading up to their takeover of the country.

The Taliban urged Afghan imams to try to counter negative reports about the movement and persuade people not to try to flee the country ahead of the first Friday prayers since the dramatic seizure of Kabul on Sunday. It said they should "encourage our compatriots to work for the development of the country, and not to try to leave the country" and answer "the negative propaganda of the enemy".

Russia is ready to provide its civilian aircraft to fly Afghan citizens from Afghanistan to other countries, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday. "We are ready to offer the services of Russian civilian aviation to provide flights for any number of Afghan citizens including women and children to any foreign countries that show interest in receiving and accommodating them," Zakharova said at a news briefing. She did not say anything about Russia taking in Afghans.

“Business has been booming even before the Taliban entered Kabul. We have smuggled in around 1,000 people from across the border since last week and business is booming,” Hameed Gul, who operates from a small town near the Chaman-Spin Boldak border with Afghanistan, told a news agency over telephone. He was reluctant to divulge how much they charge for smuggling the Afghani people into Pakistan

United States said Wednesday the Taliban were reneging on pledges to allow Afghans who worked with the United States and its allies out of the country. "We have seen reports that the Taliban, contrary to their public statements and their commitments to our government, are blocking Afghans who wish to leave the country from reaching the airport," Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told reporters. "We expect them to allow all American citizens, all third-country nationals and all Afghans who wish to leave to do so safely and without harassment."

"There is currently a lack of clarity within the international community regarding recognition of a government in Afghanistan, as a consequence of which the country cannot access SDRs or other IMF resources.”

The son of Afghanistan's most famed anti-Taliban fighter says he has the forces to mount an effective resistance, but called on the United States to supply arms and ammunition to his militia. In an op-ed published Wednesday in The Washington Post, Ahmad Massoud said "America can still be a great arsenal of democracy" by supporting his fighters. "I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my father's footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban," he said.