US President Joe Biden said on Sunday (August 22) that he still hopes to complete the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan by August 31, because Islamists accused Washington of making orders at Kabul Airport Distressed scenes of chaos and despair.
A week after the hard-line militant group surprisingly regained power, the terrified Afghans continued to try to flee, skeptical of the Taliban’s commitment to a milder version of the brutal rule of 1996-2001.
Biden had previously set August 31 as the date for the United States to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
However, the United States and its allies have been unable to cope with the large number of people trying to take the evacuation flight, leading to chaos at Kabul Airport. The European Union warned that it may be “impossible” for everyone to evacuate before the deadline.
Biden said in a speech at the White House that he “hopes that we don’t have to postpone.”
“We will see what we can do,” he added when asked by reporters about his response to foreign leaders’ requests for more time.
Biden said: “We still have a long way to go, and there are many things that can go wrong,” he specifically mentioned the threat of attacks from the Islamic State organization.
He admitted that there were scorching scenes at the American-controlled Hamid Karzai International Airport, which included infants and children passing through barbed wire to soldiers, and men clinging to the departing aircraft.
But he said they are part of the departure cost.
“There is no way to evacuate so many people without the pain, loss and heartbreaking pictures you have seen,” he said.
‘Please take us’
Biden spoke after the Taliban held talks with elders and politicians to establish a government, criticizing the chaotic evacuation.
“The United States, with all its power and facilities… failed to bring order to the airport. Taliban official Amir Khan Mutaki said that the country is peaceful and calm, but only Kabul Airport is in chaos.
The British Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that seven people had died in the crowd, but did not provide more details.
A reporter from a group of fleeing media workers and academics who had the honor to arrive at the airport on Sunday described the desperate scene of people crowding their buses on their way to the station.
The reporter told AFP: “They showed us their passports and yelled’Bring us…please bring us’.”
“The Taliban fighters in the truck in front of us had to shoot into the air to get them to leave.”
The Air Mobility Command wrote on Twitter that during the evacuation, an Afghan woman gave birth on a US Air Force plane and gave birth to a woman in the cargo hold of the plane shortly after landing on a base in Germany. infant.
Biden said that since the Taliban captured Kabul last weekend, about 28,000 people have been airlifted out of the country.
Earlier this week, the government stated that as many as 15,000 Americans and 50,000 to 60,000 Afghan allies need to be evacuated. Countless others also tried to escape.
On Sunday, Washington sought the help of several major airlines to transport people flying to the U.S. Gulf and European bases back to the United States.
The crisis has triggered increasing criticism of the United States and its Western allies. This year, as the government and security forces strive to contain the intensification of Taliban violence, the United States and its Western allies have been forced to withdraw their troops.
G7 leaders will discuss this situation at a virtual summit on Tuesday.
Revolt
Outside Kabul, there is resistance to the Taliban.
Some former government troops gathered in the Panjshir Valley in the north of the capital-long known as an anti-Taliban fortress.
The Taliban said on their Arabic Twitter account on Sunday that they would send hundreds of fighters to the valley after “local government officials refused to hand over peacefully.”
Islamists “assembled troops near the entrance to Panjshir,” Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who later took refuge in the area, wrote on Twitter.
One of the leaders of the Panjshir Movement, known as the National Resistance Front, is the son of the famous anti-Taliban commander Ahmed Shah Masood.
NRF spokesperson Ali Maisam Nazary told AFP in an interview that NRF is ready to deal with “prolonged conflict” but is still seeking negotiations with the Taliban on an inclusive government.
“The condition for reaching a peace agreement with the Taliban is decentralization, which is a system that ensures social justice, equality, rights and freedom for all.”
