a car parked in a parking lot© Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Taliban fighters on Saturday battled a local militia in northern Afghanistan in some of the first significant armed clashes since the rapid takeover of the country, while the Islamist group’s political leaders held talks in Kabul on the formation of a new government.

Efforts to evacuate foreign nationals and Afghans who have worked with them over the past two decades, meanwhile, continued to be plagued by chaotic conditions in the capital. Taliban check points and unruly crowds prevented many from reaching the airport.

The U.S. Embassy warned Americans that “because of potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time.”

The security risk partly involved concerns of violence by the Islamic State extremist group, defense officials said. The U.S. is creating at least two new meeting points for Americans to lead them to the airport to improve safety, a U.S. official said.

British officials said that airport gates had been closed for a time Saturday, although the Pentagon would not say whether it had to close any of the gates. “There’s a whole canopy of security concerns we have,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at a Pentagon press briefing.

On Saturday morning, a group of around 150 Indians were detained by the Taliban while trying to get to the airport entrance, and later released after questioning, Indian officials said.

Since the evacuation began nearly a week ago, roughly 17,000 people, including 2,500 Americans, have been evacuated from Kabul, said Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, of the Joint Staff.

Over the past 24 hours, 3,800 passengers were flown out, U.S. officials said Saturday. The Pentagon said the situation at the airport was “very fluid and very dynamic.”

Would-be passengers have complained of beatings by the Taliban outside the airport, as well as harassment, tear gas and firing in the air at the airport’s gates as forces try to control the crowd. American, British and other foreign military personnel are protecting the perimeter, along with some remaining Afghan security personnel.

President Biden on Friday vowed to evacuate any American who wanted to leave the country, and said the U.S. would also work to extract Afghan translators and other allies of the U.S., calling the mission dangerous.


Video: UN chief urges united front against Taliban (Associated Press)

Ad 00:13 - up next "UN chief urges united front against Taliban"
Loaded: 0.00%
0
UN chief urges united front against Taliban

“I cannot promise what the final outcome will be or that it will be without risk of loss, but as commander in chief, I can assure you that I will mobilize every resource necessary,” he said.

Since the evacuation operation began a week ago, 17,000 people have been flown out of Kabul, including 2,500 Americans, the U.S. said. The mission is due to end Aug. 31.

Members of a local militia in the northern province of Baghlan province attacked Taliban forces on Friday, and fighting continued Saturday, both sides said.

Pictures and video posted on social media showed anti-Taliban militia fighters celebrating capturing some government buildings in Baghlan, along with military and police vehicles. The militia said, in social media posts, that it had killed some Taliban fighters.

Three districts in the Baghlan province are now under the militia’s control, said Ahmad Yasin Zia, who stepped down as the Afghan army’s chief of staff earlier this year and has left the country.

A Taliban official said the militia had captured some territory, terming it a “distraction” as the group prepares to declare a new national government with itself in charge. The militants had declared the war over earlier this week.

The Taliban raced through the country in a lightning campaign, which started in May, seizing control without much of a fight as the Afghan national army melted away.

The fighting on Friday and Saturday occurred adjacent to the Panjshir Valley, populated by members of the country’s Tajik ethnic minority, which held out against Taliban rule in the 1990s. That area is now the base of a new group that has pledged to block any incursion by the Taliban.

Calling themselves the National Resistance Front, leaders of the group said they have assembled a force of more than 7,000 men. Ali Nazary, the group’s head of foreign affairs, said that number includes a substantial number of officers from the Afghan security forces.

Mr. Nazary said the group also has some helicopters from the Afghan air force. He said the group’s plan was to defend the valley in the event of a Taliban attack. He said the militia in Baghlan had acted independently.

“We’re not going to let invaders take over this valley, which has never been conquered,” said Mr. Nazary. He said the group was willing to accept peaceful coexistence with the Taliban if it respects human rights and decentralizes power to the provinces.

The Taliban’s political chief, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, arrived in Kabul this week. The Taliban, which says it wants to establish an inclusive government, has held talks in recent days with leading Afghan politicians including former President Hamid Karzai and former chief peace negotiator Dr. Abdullah Abdullah.

However, it remains unclear what the Taliban mean by inclusive, and whether any outside elements brought into a new administration would have a genuine share of power.

Write to Saeed Shah at saeed.shah@wsj.com and Jessica Donati at jessica.donati@wsj.com