KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – At least seven Afghans have died in a panic of people trying to enter Kabul International Airport, the British army said on Sunday, while thousands were still trying to flee the country in a chaotic exodus a week later of the Taliban acquisition. .
The Taliban faced the first armed resistance movements since capturing almost all of Afghanistan in a matter of days earlier this month. Anti-Taliban fighters claimed to have seized three mountain districts and a prominent militia commander from the only province not yet under Taliban control pledged to defend himself if attacked.
The British army on Sunday recognized at least seven dead at the airport. Others may have been trampled, suffocated, or suffered heart attacks while Taliban fighters fired into the air in an attempt to push back the crowds. The soldiers covered several corpses with white clothes. Other troops stood over concrete barriers, trying to calm the crowd.
Kabul Airport, now one of the only routes outside the country, has seen days of chaos since the Taliban entered the capital on August 15. Thousands of people dumped the asphalt last week and several Afghans were killed. after clinging to a U.S. military cargo plane as it took off, some of the seven died on August 16th.
The Taliban have promised amnesty to those who worked with the United States, NATO and the overthrown Afghan government, but many Afghans still fear retaliatory attacks. There have been reports in recent days that the Taliban hunted down their former enemies. It is unclear whether Taliban leaders say one thing and do another or whether fighters take matters into their own hands.
On Saturday, outside the airport, Western troops with full combat equipment tried to control crowds large enough to see them in satellite photos. They took away some who were sweating and pale. With temperatures reaching 34 degrees Celsius (93 F), the soldiers sprayed water from a hose on the assembled and gave bottled water.
“The situation at Kabul airport remains extremely challenging and unpredictable,” a NATO official said on condition of anonymity in accordance with the regulations. The official was unable to confirm an exact number of casualties.
The U.S. embassy, which has moved to the military side of the airport, has told U.S. citizens and others not to come to the airport until they have received precise instructions.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN that 3,900 people had been airlifted from Kabul on U.S. military flights in the past 24 hours, up from 1,600 the day before. This adds to some 3,900 people transported by plane on non-US military flights in the past 24 hours. It stays well below the 5,000 to 9,000 that the military says they have air transportation capacity on a daily basis.
Britain said it had airlifted more than 5,000 people, including 1,000 in the past 14 hours.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program, requesting 18 aircraft of U.S. carriers to help transport Afghan refugees after they are evacuated to other countries. The voluntary program, born out of the Berlin airlift, adds to the capabilities of the military during crises.
President Joe Biden has promised to take home all the Americans in Afghanistan and evacuate the Afghans who helped the U.S. war effort. U.S. military helicopters have been used to pick up 169 Americans from outside the airport. Tens of thousands of Americans and others continue to hope to fly.
There have also been concerns about a possible attack at the airport by a local Islamic State affiliate. U.S. military aircraft have been performing corkscrew landings and other aircraft have fired flares as they take off, measures used to prevent missile attacks.
The Taliban blame the chaotic evacuation of the U.S. military, saying Afghans need not fear them, even as their fighters shoot into the air and hit people with batons as they try to control crowds outside. from the airport.
“All of Afghanistan is safe, but the airport, run by the Americans, has anarchy,” Taliban senior official Amir Khan Motaqi said on Sunday. The United States “should not be baffled by the world and should not give this mentality to our people who (the Taliban) are a kind of enemy.”
Speaking to an Iranian state television channel on Saturday night in a video call, Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem also blamed the airport’s death on Americans.
“The Americans announced that‘ we would take you to America with us ’and people gathered at Kabul airport,” Naeem said. “If it were advertised right now in any country in the world, wouldn’t people go there?”
The Taliban have tried to project a more moderate image than when they last ruled the country, from 1996 until the U.S.-led invasion after the 9/11 attacks, which Al Qaeda carried out in defense of of the Taliban. During her previous government, women were largely confined to their homes, television and music were banned, and public executions were carried out, all in line with the harsh version of Islamic rule by the Taliban.
This time, the Taliban are holding talks with Afghan officials from previous governments about a political transition and say they will restore peace and security after decades of war. Afghan officials familiar with the talks say the Taliban have said they will not announce a government until after Aug. 31 for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
But they are already facing resistance unrest.
In Baghlan province, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Kabul, so-called “people’s uprising” fighters claimed to have seized three districts in the Andarab Valley, located in the towering mountains. of the Hindu Kush.
Khair Mohammad Khairkhwa, the former provincial intelligence chief, and Abdul Ahmad Dadgar, another leader of the uprising, said Taliban fighters had burned houses and kidnapped children. Two other officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, filed similar allegations. The Taliban did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the nearby Panjshir province, the only one still under Taliban control, a group of militia leaders and ousted government officials have pledged to defend it against the Taliban, who released a video showing their fighters heading for the region.
The province is a stronghold of Northern Alliance fighters who joined the United States to overthrow the Taliban in 2001 and Ahmad Massoud, son of a notorious Northern Alliance commander killed days before the 11th attacks of September, has appeared in videos from there.
But it seems unlikely that a few thousand guerrillas would soon succeed when Afghan national security forces failed despite 20 years of Western aid, assistance and training.
“If the Taliban warlords launch an assault, they will of course face strong resistance on our part,” Massoud said in an interview with the Al-Arabiya news network. But he also expressed his openness to dialogue with the Taliban.
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Akhgar reported from Istanbul and Gambrell in Dubai, UAE. Associated Press writers Joseph Krauss in Jerusalem, Robert Burns in Washington, Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington collaborated.
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Afghanistan coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan