US Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked Qatar for its help with the evacuation mission in Afghanistan during a visit to the capital Doha.

At a meeting with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Blinken recognized "Qatar's extraordinary support in enabling the safe transit of US citizens, our partners and other vulnerable Afghans," as the US State Department announced in a brief statement.

The US Secretary of State and Qatar's head of state also discussed “other important bilateral issues”.

Blinken, who was accompanied to Qatar by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, is the highest-ranking representative of the US government to visit the region after the radical Islamic Taliban came to power in mid-August.

Talks between the US chief diplomat and representatives of the Taliban in Doha were not planned.

Foreign Office representative Dean Thompson said the US government would continue to involve the Taliban "to ensure that our message to them is clear."

A large part of the US evacuation mission from the Afghan capital Kabul ran through Qatar.

The Gulf state was used as a hub for around 55,000 people who flown out of Afghanistan and thus for almost half of all people brought to safety under US leadership after the Taliban came to power.

Blinken wants to work with Qatar and Turkey to reopen Kabul airport in order to enable further evacuation flights and aid deliveries for the Afghan population.

A US government official announced on Monday that for the first time since the US troops had withdrawn completely from Afghanistan, several US citizens had officially left the country.

Four US citizens traveled overland with the knowledge of the Taliban.

Flashing expected on Wednesday in Ramstein

There is a large US Army base in Qatar.

Blinken's visit program also includes a meeting with US diplomats who have moved from Kabul to Doha.

Blinken wants to travel on from Doha to Germany and visit the US military base in Ramstein there on Wednesday.

The Taliban claimed to have captured the last bastion of resistance in Afghanistan on Monday.

They therefore completely occupied the Pandjir Valley.

The National Resistance Front (NRF) fighting against the Taliban announced that it would continue its struggle and called for "national resistance" against the Taliban.