The Taliban imposed some order around Kabul airport on Sunday, firing in the air and using batons to make sure people formed orderly queues outside the main gates and did not gather at the perimeter, witnesses told Reuters news agency.

There were no major injuries, and long lines of people were forming in front of the gates of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, the witnesses said. 

A Taliban official, speaking to Reuters on Sunday, said they are "seeking complete clarity on foreign forces' exit plan" and added that "managing chaos outside Kabul airport is a complex task." 

The UK defense ministry said seven Afghan civilians were killed in the chaos around the airport on Saturday as thousands of people desperately tried to get a flight out, a week after the Taliban took control of the country. 

British Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace told British newspaper The Daily Mail on Sunday that "no nation will be able to get everyone out" before the August 31 deadline set by the United States for a total withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

"Perhaps the Americans will be permitted to stay longer and they will have our complete support if they do," Wallace said in a veiled plea for Washington to extend the deadline. 

A NATO official said that at least 20 people have died in the past seven days in and around the airport. Some were shot and others died in stampedes, witnesses have said.  

Taliban official Amir Khan Mutaqi said on Sunday that "America, with all its power and facilities... has failed to bring order to the airport. There is peace and calm all over the country, but there is chaos only at Kabul airport." 

On Saturday, the United States and Germany told their citizens in Afghanistan to avoid traveling to Kabul airport, citing security risks as thousands of desperate people gathered trying to flee. 

Read more:

Turkey says can't take more Afghan migrants amid Kabul airport exodus 

Live updates: Foreign countries rush evacuations from Afghanistan

Western evacuations

The Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan has sparked fear of reprisals and a return to a harsh version of Islamic law the Sunni Muslim group exercised when it was in power two decades ago. 

Crowds have grown at the airport in the heat and dust of the day over the past week, hindering operations as the United States and other nations attempt to evacuate thousands of their diplomats and civilians as well as numerous Afghans.

Army Major General William Taylor, with the U.S. military's Joint Staff, told a Pentagon briefing on Saturday that 5,800 U.S. troops are at the airport and that the facility "remains secure." 

Taylor said some gates into the airport that were temporarily closed had reopened over the past day to facilitate a safe influx of evacuees. 

Taylor said the United States in the past week has evacuated 17,000 people, including 2,500 Americans, from Kabul. He said in the past day 3,800 people were evacuated on U.S. military and chartered flights. 

Switzerland postponed a charter flight from Kabul on Saturday because of the chaos at the airport.  

Australia ran four flights into Kabul on Saturday night, evacuating more than 300 people, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Sunday, adding, "We are uplifting not just Australians and Afghan visa holders for Australia, but those from the United Kingdom, the United States and New Zealand." Australia has now evacuated approximately 550 people from Kabul since the Afghan capital fell to the Taliban.

France carried out its fifth evacuation operation on Saturday night, according to local reports. After the fourth evacuation was completed on Friday night, the Defense Ministry said it had evacuated more than 570 people, including at least 407 Afghans, to safety in Paris.

Biden to make another address

U.S. President Joe Biden will provide an update on Sunday on the evacuation of American citizens and refugees from Afghanistan, the White House said. 

Biden is due to speak at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT), after meeting with his national security team to hear intelligence, security and diplomatic updates on the evolving situation in Afghanistan, the White House said. 

The U.S. president has come under severe criticism over the situation in Afghanistan, including from former President Donald Trump, who called it "the greatest foreign policy humiliation" in U.S. history, even though Trump's administration had negotiated the withdrawal that triggered the collapse. 

"Biden's botched exit from Afghanistan is the most astonishing display of gross incompetence by a nation's leader, perhaps at any time," Trump told a boisterous rally in Alabama. 

Taliban to meet former provincial officials 

Taliban commanders are set to meet former governors and bureaucrats in more than 20 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces over the next few days to ensure their safety and seek cooperation, an official of the group said on Sunday. 

"We are not forcing any former government official to join or prove their allegiance to us, they have a right to leave the country if they would like," the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

(With input from agencies)

(Cover: Taliban fighters stand guard as Afghans gather outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport to flee the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 21, 2021. /CFP)