Afghanistan live updates: Scramble to complete evacuations by US deadline intensifies

Europe and the rest of the world are taking stock of President Biden's insistence that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan must be completed by his self-imposed deadline of next Tuesday, August 31.

G7 and European leaders have pledged to help the country and its people following the Taliban's takeover, but without a Western military presence the challenge is immense.

Evacuations continue from Kabul airport, but many people desperate to leave are unlikely to be able to do so.

Read more main articles on the story here, and see below for our live updates.

More than 300 Afghans evacuated from Kabul arrived on Wednesday morning in Paris on board two military flights from Abu Dhabi, an armed forces spokesperson said.

An Airbus A330 landed around 3:00 am at Roissy with "more than 240 people on board, mostly Afghans, as well as 22 French nationals and one Briton", Colonel Pascal Ianni told AFP.

An A400M then landed at 8:40 am with "a hundred people, again an overwhelming majority of Afghans, and five French," he said.

Two other flights are scheduled for Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning.

These are the 10th and 11th flights since the French airlift was set up between Kabul and Paris, via the Al-Dhafra base in the United Arab Emirates.

France has brought out more than 2,000 people since the fall of Kabul at the hands of the Taliban on August 15. They include French nationals, other nationalities and Afghans considered under threat.

Unlike other NATO countries, France has not had a military presence in Afghanistan since 2014 and so has already brought back 800 personnel who worked for the French army, plus their families, between 2014 and 2019.

Anticipating the departure of the United States from the country, France evacuated 623 people -- those who worked for the embassy and other French institutions, plus their families -- between May and July 2021.

Poland has halted its airlift evacuations from Kabul's international airport over safety concerns.

Marcin Przydacz, a Polish deputy foreign minister, said that a group taken from Kabul and now in Uzbekistan was the last evacuated by Poland.

Another plane is on its way to Warsaw. 

He said his nation made its decision after consulting with the US. and British officials.

“After a long analysis of reports on the security situation we cannot risk the lives of our diplomats and of our soldiers any longer," Przydacz said.