Kabul, Afghanistan — The Taliban on Sunday blamed the United States for the chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans and foreigners from the capital, one week after the hardline Islamist group returned to power in a rapid victory that stunned the world.
The United States has warned of security threats and the European Union admitted it was “impossible” to evacuate everyone at risk from the Taliban, who have vowed a softer version of their brutal rule from 1996-2001.
But terrified Afghans continue to try to flee, deepening a tragedy at Kabul airport where the United States and its allies have been unable to cope with the huge numbers of people trying to get on evacuation flights.
“America, with all its power and facilities … has failed to bring order to the airport. There is peace and calm all over the country, but there is chaos only at Kabul airport,” Taliban official Amir Khan Mutaqi said.
Britain’s defense ministry said Sunday seven people had died in the crowds, without giving further details.
A journalist, who was among a group of fleeing media workers and academics fortunate enough to reach the airport on Sunday, described desperate scenes of people surrounding their bus on the way in.
“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 shoot in the air to make them go away.”
Britain’s Sky News on Saturday aired footage of at least three bodies covered in white tarpaulin outside the airport. It was not clear how they had died.
Reporter Stuart Ramsay, who was at the airport, called the deaths “inevitable” and said people were being “crushed,” while others were “dehydrated and terrified.”
It was the latest scenes of utter despair to emerge, following videos of a baby and children being passed over razor wire fences to soldiers and men hanging on to departing planes.
During the distress of evacuation, an Afghan woman went into labor on a U.S. Air Force flight and gave birth to a baby girl in the plane’s cargo bay moments after landing at a base in Germany, the Air Mobility Command tweeted.
‘Impossible’ deadline
The United States, which has thousands of troops trying to secure the airport, has set a deadline to complete the evacuations by August 31.
Countless others fear repression under the Taliban and are also trying to flee.
US President Joe Biden has described the evacuation operations as “one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history.”
The situation was further complicated on Saturday when the US government warned its citizens to stay away from the airport because of “security threats.”
No specific reason was given, but a White House official later said Biden had been briefed on security threats, including from the Islamic State jihadist group.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell gave a bleak assessment of whether the airlift would succeed.
“They want to evacuate 60,000 people between now and the end of this month. It’s mathematically impossible,” he told AFP.
Borrell added that “we have complained” to the Americans that their airport security was overly strict and hampering attempts by Afghans who worked for the Europeans to enter.
On Saturday, the Pentagon said 17,000 people had been taken out since the operation began on August 14, including 2,500 Americans.
Thousands more have left on other foreign military flights.
Taliban government
The Taliban meanwhile have been focusing on forming a government.
The group’s co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar flew into Kabul and planned to meet jihadi leaders, elders and politicians in the coming days, an official told AFP.
Among them are leaders of the Haqqani network, a US-designated terrorist organization with million-dollar bounties on its leadership.
The Taliban’s comeback has ended two decades of war, after fighters faced virtually no opposition from government forces that had been trained and equipped by the US-led alliance.
However, there have since been flickers of resistance with some ex-government troops gathering in the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, long known as an anti-Taliban bastion.
One of the leaders of the movement, named the National Resistance Front, is the son of famed anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.
The NRF is prepared for a “long-term conflict” but is also still seeking to negotiate with the Taliban about an inclusive government, its spokesman Ali Maisam Nazary told AFP in an interview.
“The conditions for a peace deal with the Taliban is decentralization, a system that ensures social justice, equality, rights, and freedom for all.”
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