announcer: live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with robyn curnow. the taliban are pushing ahead with their offensive in northern afghanistan in their quest to take control of the last holdout for resistance fighters. on sunday, fierce fighting was reported in the panjshir valley with both sides claiming to have made gains. now, the leader of the national resistance front says he supports calls for an end to the fighting and is ready to talk once the taliban withdraw their fighters. meanwhile, a vital lifeline for afghanistan has reopened. the kabul airport is now seeing more domestic flights resume, and on sunday aid planes brought in more than 50 tons of medical supplies and food. and while the taliban have taken a key step in reopening the airport, they still haven t announced what their new government will look like.
country. we do not control the airspace, whether over afghanistan or elsewhere in the region. given these constraints, we also do not have a reliable means to confirm the basic details of charter flights, including who may be organizing them, the number of u.s. citizens and other priority groups onboard. cnn has reached out to a nonprofit group, like many of these groups that are trying to get american citizens out of kabul, out of the airport. they say that, yes, there are some that are being held there, that the taliban is not allowing for these planes to leave. a spokesperson from the state department, however, reiterating that they will hold the taliban accountable to the commitment that they made that american citizens as well as allies will be able to leave the country freely. but, of course, all right now is very uncertain. suzanne malveaux, cnn, at the capitol. it has been a week since hurricane ida charged ashore in louisiana, and it s still claiming victims.
team from qatar arrived. they helped with the repairs to the airport runway, which was damaged during the mass evacuations where more than 120,000 people were airlifted out of afghanistan, out of kabul within 16 days. you know, people came into the airport afterwards. there was damage, looting. so repairs to that runway have been completed to a standard where now foreign aid, international flights can land with foreign aid. that is what we have been seeing over the last couple of days. this, as we know, robyn, desperately needed due to the humanitarian crisis that is facing afghanistan. the question now is when will those evacuation flights resume. we know that the uk foreign secretary, dominic raab, was in qatar the last few days. he met with the taliban leadership to discuss this exact issue, and he believes that those evacuation flights will resume in the future, near
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situation, saying he s getting this information from classified briefings. and he is describing it as something that is similar to a near hostage situation. we had six airplanes at mazza sharif airport. also with these interpreters. and the taliban is holding them hostage for demands right now. the state has cleared these flights, and the taliban will not let them leave the airport. reporter: because of the specific nature of mccaul s claims, cnn has reached out to government agencies to help amplify, clarify or even confirm what he is saying here. while the state department says it cannot confirm the details, the specifics of this situation, they put out a statement here saying we understand the concern that many people are feeling as they try to facilitate passage out of afghanistan. however, we do not have personnel on the ground. we do not have air assets in the