Students and alumni of the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) in Kabul were told that the United States had provided their names to Taliban, According to a report New York Times.
On Sunday, hundreds of current and former students, their relatives and staff gathered in a safe house and boarded a bus to Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport.
But after seven hours of waiting for customs clearance, they were told that the airport gate was a security threat and that the evacuation of civilians would end on Monday, the eve of the deadline for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan after the Taliban took over.
“I regret to inform you that the Hong Kong International Airport High Command at the airport has announced that there will be no more rescue flights,” the university administration told students in an email on Sunday afternoon. According to reports, Second-rate.
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The email told the group of about 600 students and relatives to return home. The president of the university, Dr. Ian Bickford, told the newspaper that this also caused panic because it said the U.S. military had provided their names and passport information to the checkpoint guarding the airport by the Taliban in accordance with the agreement.
“We were all scared, we didn’t evacuate, we didn’t go out,” added Hosay, a 24-year-old sophomore.
According to AUAF, it was one of the first places occupied by the Taliban when the Taliban swept Kabul earlier this month. Second-rate.
When the Taliban were on the outskirts of the capital, the campus was closed on August 14. Bickford and other foreign workers fled Kabul for Qatar that night.
Bickford tells era He is working with the US State Department to evacuate approximately 1,200 current and former students.But he said The terrorist attack at Kabul Airport on Thursday killed at least 160 Afghans with 13 U.S. service personnel, A complex effort.
Bickford and the State Department have been contacted for comment.
The department issued a statement on Sunday, NATO with European Union, Claiming that they have received “guarantees” from the Taliban that after the evacuation, people with travel documents can still leave Afghanistan.
In the two weeks since Afghanistan fell into the hands of the Taliban, thousands of Afghans have been airlifted out of the country. Kabul’s international airport has been in chaos as people worried about persecution tried to flee before the August 31 deadline to end the U.S.-led evacuation operation.
But since the suicide bombing occurred last week, the Taliban have strengthened the security cordon around the airport. Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch Claiming responsibility for this.
At the same time, the US Embassy in Kabul warned Americans to stay away from the area because of a “concrete and credible threat” of further attacks.
Several rockets were launched at the airport on Monday morning, But was intercepted by the US missile defense system.
The White House issued a statement stating that the president Joe Biden I have heard a briefing on the “Rocket Attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport” in Kabul.
The statement said: “The President was informed that operations at the Hong Kong International Airport continue to be uninterrupted, and reiterated his order, requesting the commander to redouble his efforts and take all necessary measures to protect our ground forces as a matter of priority.”
It follows another The target of the U.S. attack was a suicide bomber in a car containing explosives on Sunday. However, the Afghans claimed that the attack killed as many as 9 civilians, including children, American armies investigating.
