Thousands of people in Afghanistan waited nervously on Saturday to see if the United States will honor President Joe Biden’s new promise to evacuate all Americans and all Afghans who participated in the war. At the same time, the Taliban leaders arrived in Kabul and held talks with the leaders of the organization on the formation of a new government.
Before Biden’s August 31 deadline for withdrawing most of the remaining U.S. forces, time was running out, and the president did not promise to extend the deadline on Friday night. He is facing increasing criticism because the video depicts the chaos and occasional violence outside the airport, as well as fragile Afghans who are afraid of Taliban reprisals, making desperate plea not to be left behind.
In the new security warning, the US Embassy on Saturday told citizens not to go to Kabul Airport without “individual instructions from a representative of the US government” on the grounds that there is a potential security threat outside the gate. However, the crowd was still outside its concrete barrier, holding documents in their hands, and sometimes dumbfounded children, blocked by circles of barbed wire.
After the Taliban took over Afghanistan at an alarming rate in just over a week, tens of thousands of Afghan translators and other people and their close relatives sought to evacuate. The fall of Kabul marked the final chapter of the longest U.S. war that began after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
A Taliban official stated that the Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradhar, who is negotiating the religious movement’s 2020 peace agreement with the United States, is in Kabul to meet with the leader of the organization. The official requested anonymity because he No right to talk to the news media. Baradar’s attendance is significant because he often held talks with former leaders such as former Afghan President Karzai.
Afghan officials familiar with the talks in the capital said that the Taliban have stated that they will not announce anything to the government until the August 31 withdrawal deadline has passed.
Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official of the dismissed government, said on Twitter that he and Karzai met with the Taliban’s acting governor of Kabul on Saturday, who “assures us that he will do everything possible to protect the city. The safety of the people”.
Evacuation work continues, but due to airport chaos, Taliban checkpoints and bureaucratic challenges, some departing flights are far from full. A German flight on Friday night carried 172 evacuees, but the subsequent two flights carried only 7 and 8 people respectively.
After a backlog of transit facilities in Qatar caused flights to Kabul International Airport to be grounded for several hours on Friday, the Gulf state of Bahrain announced on Saturday that it would allow flights to use transit facilities for evacuation. At the same time, the United Arab Emirates stated that it will host as many as 5,000 Afghans “before going to other countries”.
On Friday, a defense official said that about 5,700 people, including about 250 Americans, took off from Kabul in 16 C-17 transport aircraft and were guarded by a temporary US military deployment that would add 6,000 soldiers. In each of the first two days, about 2,000 people were airlifted.
Officials also confirmed that US military helicopters flew over Kabul Airport and picked up 169 Americans seeking to evacuate. No one knows how many American citizens remain in Afghanistan, but it is estimated to be as high as 15,000.
US Secretary of State Anthony Brinken said that so far, 13 countries have agreed to at least temporarily accommodate Afghans in danger. Another 12 have agreed to serve as transit points for evacuees, including Americans and others. The US military said that about 300 evacuees arrived from Qatar on Friday night at the Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, which is a transit point for those sent to the United States.
“We are tired. We are very happy. We are now in a safe country,” said an Afghan man in a video posted by the country’s defense department after arriving in Italy with 79 compatriots.
But for many other Afghans, the growing question is, where will they eventually call home? European leaders worried about a recurrence of the immigration crisis in 2015 have signaled that Afghans who fled the war without helping Western troops should stay in neighboring countries. The desperate scene of people holding on to the plane taking off from Kabul Airport will only deepen the anxiety in Europe.
Staying in Afghanistan means adapting to life under Taliban rule. The Taliban say they seek an “inclusive Islamic” government that will provide full amnesty to those who work for governments supported by the United States and the West and who have become more moderate since they last took power. From 1996 to 2001. They also stated that _ without specifying _ they will respect women’s rights within the limits of Islamic law.
But many Afghans were afraid of returning to the harsh rule of the Taliban in the late 1990s, when the organization banned women from going to school or going to work, banned television and music, cut off the hands of suspected thieves and publicly executed them.
Canadian military aircraft are “reconfigured” to allow as many people as possible to leave Kabul
“Today, some of my friends went to work in the court, and the Taliban prevented them from entering their offices. They showed their guns and said,’If you worked in a government in the past, you are not qualified to work in this government. ‘” A woman activist in Kabul told the Associated Press on Saturday. For fear of retaliation, she requested anonymity.
The activist, who holds a Turkish visa but was unable to reach the airport safely, said the gap between the Taliban’s words and deeds was “very shocking.” She said that she and a colleague were hiding in the city, eating food from a friend.
The Taliban now operate in a very different Afghanistan, this time facing stricter scrutiny because citizens can share developments on social media. However, some people fear reprisals and are rushing to clear their online presence.
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Faiez reported from Istanbul, Gannon from Islamabad, and Anna from Nairobi, Kenya. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy; Matt Lee in Washington; Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
© 2021 Canadian Press
