Thousands of Afghans flood Kabul airport after Taliban take charge

People swarmed around a departing US military plane as it taxied down the runway: symbolic of the Afghan hope even amid the recent developments

A satellite photo provided by Maxar Technologies shows people on the tarmac at Kabul’s international airport, also known as Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday: NYTNS

Reuters, New York Times News Service   |   Kabul   |  17.08.21: The morning after the Taliban installed themselves in the presidential palace in Afghanistan’s capital, the crowds outside Kabul’s international airport swelled and swelled.

It was a scene of desperation, sadness and panic.

Thousands of Afghans flooded the tarmac on Monday morning, at one point swarming around a departing US military plane as it taxied down the runway.

Images of people clinging to the hulking aircraft even as it left the ground quickly circulated around the world. It seemed to capture the moment more vividly than words: a symbol of America’s military might flying out of the country even as Afghans hung on against all hope.

Insane. Don’t have any other words.

The Kabul Airport.

pic.twitter.com/ylraJsDyme

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) August 16, 2021

Reuters reported that five people were killed in the chaos. It was not immediately clear how the five people died at the airport.

The UN Security Council called for the establishment, through negotiations, of a new government in Afghanistan that is “united, inclusive and representative, including with the full, equal and meaningful participation of women”.

The Council also called for an immediate end to hostilities and human rights abuses.

With civilian air travel temporarily halted, the arriving and departing military planes underscored the stark divide between foreign nationals and some Afghans who were a flight away from safety, and many more who would have no escape.

The airport was under the protection of foreign forces, including thousands of US soldiers sent to the country to assist in a hasty evacuation.

A US official said troops had fired in the air to deter people trying to force their way on to a military flight taking US diplomats and embassy staff out of the city.

One witness, waiting for a flight out for more than 20 hours, said it was unclear if the five had been shot or killed in a stampede.

The US temporarily halted all evacuation flights to clear people from the airfield, an American defence official told Reuters. The official did not say how long the pause would last.

Worries pervaded Kabul about the potential for violence as the Taliban filled the city and the Afghan government crumbled. President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as the insurgents entered the city on Sunday.

Former President Hamid Karzai said he had formed a council with other political leaders to coordinate a peaceful transition to a new Taliban government.

Early Taliban actions in other cities under their control offered a glimpse of what the future might hold. In Kunduz, which fell on August 8, they set up checkpoints and went door to door in search of absentee civil servants, warning that any who did not return to work would be punished.

The change in atmosphere in Kabul was as swift as it was frightening for many who thought that they could build a life under the protection of their American allies.

Residents of Kabul began tearing down advertisements that showed women without head scarves for fear of upsetting the Taliban, whose ideology excludes women from much of public life.

The Taliban said their forces had entered Kabul to ensure order and public safety.

A member of the Taliban’s negotiating team in Qatar told the BBC that “there will be no revenge” on civilians. “We assure the people in Afghanistan, particularly in the city of Kabul, that their properties, their lives are safe,” Suhail Shaheen said on Sunday night. “There will be no revenge on anyone.”

At the Kabul airport, as the chaos spread, US troops took control of the civilian section while people rushed through the boarding gates and tried to push their way onto two commercial planes that were parked beside the terminal.

The desperation was evident as some people broke down in tears, recognising that their chance of escape was slim.

The US government said that in the coming days it would evacuate thousands of American citizens, embassy employees and their families, and “particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals”.

Although the Taliban has seized control of the country, there is no government in any real sense. That made it hard to get reliable information.

Video from journalists recorded sounds of gunfire at the airport as people ran across the tarmac and approached gates from outside. The local news media aired a video of young Afghans clinging to a plane as it taxied. Apache helicopters flew low over the crowds to clear the way for military planes.

Twenty years after the US invaded Afghanistan, the airport was the nation’s final redoubt, one of the last places in the capital not controlled by the Taliban. The state department said all embassy personnel had been evacuated to the airport, where they were being defended by the US military.

But for the thousands of others hoping to find refuge, there was no escape.

Witnesses said they saw a growing number of Taliban around the civilian side of the airport. They appeared to be clearing groups of people away, sometimes shooting into the air to get them moving.

Several witnesses said the Taliban were now controlling access to entrances on the civilian side — allowing groups of people and vehicles to leave the airport but turning people away if they were trying to get in.

One international worker for a humanitarian group who was trying to get to the airport was told that no one would be allowed to leave the country now without permission from the “new government”.