The Taliban on Sunday blamed the United States for the chaotic evacuation of thousands of Afghans and foreigners from the capital, a week after the radical Islamist group won a swift victory that stunned the world.
The United States has warned of security threats and the European Union has acknowledged it was “impossible” to remove everyone at risk from the Taliban, who have vowed a softer version of their brutal regime since 1996-2001.
But frightened Afghans continue to try to escape, deepening a tragedy at Kabul airport, where the United States and its allies have been unable to cope with the large numbers of people trying to evacuate.
“The US, with all its might and facilities… has failed to bring order to the airport. There is peace and tranquility in the whole country, but there is chaos at the Kabul airport itself.”
Britain’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that seven people had died in the crowd, without giving further details.
A journalist, who was among a group of media persons and academics lucky enough to reach the airport on Sunday, described desperate scenes of people surrounding his bus on the way.
“They were showing us their passports and shouting ‘take us with you… please take us with you’,” the journalist told AFP.
“The Taliban fighter in the truck ahead of us had to fire in the air to drive them away.”
Britain’s Sky News broadcast footage of at least three bodies covered in white tarpaulin outside the airport on Saturday. It was not clear how he died.
Reporter Stuart Ramsay, who was at the airport, called the deaths “inevitable” and said people were being “crushed”, while others were “dehydrated and frightened”.
It was the latest scene of utter dismay to emerge after a video of children and soldiers being passed over razor wire fences to hang on to departing planes showed soldiers and men.
During the evacuation crisis, an Afghan woman went into labor on a US Air Force flight and gave birth to a baby girl in the aircraft’s cargo bay after landing at a base in Germany, Air Mobility Command tweeted.
‘impossible’ deadline
The United States, which has thousands of troops trying to secure the airport, has set a deadline of August 31 to complete the evacuation.
But according to the Biden administration, there are 15,000 Americans and 50,000 to 60,000 Afghan allies who need to be evacuated.
Countless others fear repression under the Taliban and are trying to flee.
US President Joe Biden has described the evacuation operations as “one of the biggest, toughest airlifts in history”.
The situation was further complicated on Saturday when the US government warned its citizens to stay away from the airport due to “security threats”.
No specific reason was given, but a White House official later said Biden had been briefed about security threats, including from the Islamic State jihadist group.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell made a bleak assessment of whether the airlift would be successful.
“They want to evacuate 60,000 people between now and the end of this month. It is mathematically impossible,” he told AFP.
Borrell said that we “complained” to Americans that their airport security was overly tight and hindered efforts by Afghans who worked for Europeans to enter.
On Saturday, the Pentagon said 17,000 people had been evacuated, including 2,500 Americans, since the operation began on August 14.
Thousands others have left on foreign military flights.
Taliban government
Meanwhile, the Taliban is focusing on forming a government.
An official told AFP that the group’s co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar flew into Kabul and planned to meet jihadist leaders, elders and politicians in the coming days.
These include the leaders of the Haqqani Network, a US-designated terrorist organization with a million-dollar reward for its leadership.
The Taliban’s withdrawal ended two decades of war, as the fighters faced virtually no opposition from government forces trained and equipped by the US-led coalition.
However, there has since been a flurry of resistance with some ex-government troops gathering in the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, long known as an anti-Taliban stronghold.
One of the leaders of the movement named National Resistance Front is the son of renowned anti-Taliban commander Ahmed Shah Masood.
The NRF is prepared for a “long-term conflict” but is still seeking talks with the Taliban about an inclusive government, its spokesman Ali Maisam Nazari told AFP in an interview.
“The terms of the peace deal with the Taliban are decentralization, a system that ensures social justice, equality, rights and freedoms for all.”
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