Taliban

Ahead of a one-on-one meeting on Sept. 21 on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, the U.S. and Turkey's top diplomats said they would continue to work on Afghanistan.

The European Union will focus on humanitarian aid as it figures out how to deal with the Taliban, aiming on an informal arrangement with Afghanistan's new rulers to ensure safe aid corridors, four diplomats and two officials said.

The Pentagon retreated from its defense of a drone strike that killed multiple civilians in Afghanistan last month, announcing on Sept. 17 that a review revealed that only civilians were killed in the attack, not an Islamic State extremist as first believed.

"The strike was a tragic mistake," Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, told a Pentagon news conference.

 Russia needs to work with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday at a meeting of a China- and Russia-led security bloc, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Viola player Bahar was practising at her music college in the Afghan capital, when news broke that the Taliban had reached the city.

A month after seizing Kabul, the Taliban face daunting problems as they seek to convert their lightning military victory into a durable peacetime government.

"We will not allow any individual or group to use our territory against any other country," said Foreign Minister Muttaqi of Afghanistan's new Taliban government, the first comment by a Taliban government member on an agreement reached last year with the United States.

In his address to the members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Josep Borrell pointed out that Brussels would try to coordinate activities with other EU members in order to organize a diplomatic presence in Kabul.

The European Union intends to strengthen cooperation with Turkey on the issues of irregular migration and border security, the head of the EU Delegation to Turkey, has said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken beat back criticism of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan on Sept. 13 at a contentious congressional hearing where at least two Republicans called on him to resign.