Germany says firefighters with Western forces are exploding at Kabul airport

KABUL / WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 (Reuters) – A shootout broke out between unidentified gunmen, Western security forces and Afghan guards at Kabul airport on Monday, according to German armed forces, while thousands of Afghans and foreigners flocked to the airport seeking to flee Taliban rule. .

One Afghan guard was killed and three were injured in the battle at the airport’s north gate, which involved US and German forces, the German military said on Twitter.

While the Taliban have deployed fighters outside the airport, where they have tried to help enforce some sort of order, there are Afghan guards assisting U.S. forces inside the airport.

CNN reported that a sniper outside the airport had fired at the Afghan guards inside the facility and that they had fired again, but U.S. forces had fired at the Afghan guards.

Two NATO officials at the airport said the situation was under control and all doors at the airport had been closed.

The airport has been in chaos since the Taliban seized the capital on August 15 as international and US forces tried to evacuate vulnerable citizens and Afghans.

On Sunday, Taliban fighters repulsed crowds at the airport a day after the deaths of seven Afghans in a blast at the gates as the deadline for the withdrawal of foreign troops approached.

Foreign forces in Afghanistan have not tried to extend the deadline to leave on August 31, a Taliban official said after President Joe Biden said U.S. troops could stay longer to monitor a “tough and painful “evacuation.

The Taliban seized power just over a week ago as the United States and its allies withdrew troops after a 20-year war that began in the weeks following the September 11, 2001 attacks, while forces Americans hunted down Al Qaeda leaders and tried to punish their Taliban. hosts.

The administration of Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, last year struck a deal with the Taliban that allowed the United States to withdraw its forces in exchange for Taliban security guarantees.

Foreign forces were working towards the end of August deadline to leave and had not tried to extend it, a senior legal adviser to the Taliban leadership told Reuters on Monday.

Biden said on Sunday that the security situation in Afghanistan was changing rapidly and remained dangerous.

“Let me be clear, the evacuation of thousands from Kabul will be hard and painful” and would have been “no matter when it started,” Biden said at a briefing at the White House.

“We have a long way to go and a lot of things can go wrong.”

Biden said he had directed the State Department to contact trapped Americans.

“We are running a plan to move groups of these Americans to safety and move them safely and effectively to the airport grounds … I will say again today what I said before: any American who want to go home will get home “.

He added Western Afghan allies and vulnerable Afghans, such as activists and journalists.

CIVIL PLANE

Panicked Afghans have demanded to embark on flights out of Kabul, for fear of reprisals and a return to a harsh version of Islamic law that the Sunni Muslim group applied when it came to power.

The United States on Sunday called for the help of six commercial airlines to transport people after their evacuation from Afghanistan. Biden said more than two dozen countries on four continents were assisting people fleeing Afghanistan.

Japan said it would send a military plane to Afghanistan on Monday to retrieve its citizens. More flights are expected to be repatriated to Japanese and Afghan citizens working at the Japanese embassy or with Japanese missions, a government spokesman said.

A UN flight on Sunday carried 120 people from Kabul to Kazakhstan, a UN spokesman said. Among the passengers were UN personnel and members of non-governmental organizations working with the United Nations in Afghanistan, he said, adding that it was the second flight this week.

OPPOSITION

Taliban leaders, who have tried to show a more moderate face since capturing Kabul, have begun talks on forming a government.

They face opposition from forces in northern Afghanistan, who said this weekend they had taken three districts near the Panjshir Valley, a former stronghold of Taliban opponents.

Anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Massoud said on Sunday he hoped to hold talks with the Islamist movement, but his forces in the Panjshir (remnants of army units, special forces and militias) were ready to fight.

“We want to make the Taliban realize that the only way forward is to negotiate,” he said. “We don’t want a war to break out.”

The Taliban said hundreds of their fighters were heading for Panjshir, showing a Twitter video of a column of trucks captured with the Taliban’s white flag but still carrying government marks on a road.

But in general, peace has prevailed in recent days.

Reuters spoke to eight doctors at hospitals in several cities who said they had not heard of violence or had received any casualties since clashes since Thursday.

Kabul Office Reports, Rupam Jain, Caroline Copley, Michelle Nichols, Simon Lewis, Ju-min Park; Written by Lincoln Feast; Edited by Simon Cameron-Moore

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