KABUL / WASHINGTON – A shootout broke out Monday between unidentified gunmen, Western security forces and Afghan guards at the north gate of Kabul airport, German armed forces reported as thousands of Afghans and foreigners s ‘they were at the airport looking to flee Taliban rule.
An Afghan guard was killed and three others were injured in the battle, which also involved US and German forces, the German military said on Twitter, without specifying whether the dead Afghan was one of the Taliban fighters deployed to protect the airport.
The airport has been the scene of chaos since the Taliban seized the Afghan capital on August 15 as international and U.S. 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 Aug. 31 deadline to leave the country, a Taliban official said Monday, after President Joe Biden said U.S. troops could stay longer to monitor a “hard and painful” evacuation.
The Taliban took power in Afghanistan just over a week ago as the United States and its allies withdrew troops after a 20-year war aimed at overthrowing the Taliban and ousting Al Qaeda after the attacks of September 11th.
Foreign forces were working towards the end of the August deadline agreed with the Taliban to leave the country and had not yet tried to expand it, a senior legal adviser to the Taliban leadership told Reuters on Monday.
Biden, who last week indicated the possibility of troops continuing for longer, said on Sunday that the security situation in Afghanistan was changing rapidly and was still 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.”
Asked by a reporter if the U.S. would extend the deadline for evacuations on Aug. 31, Biden responded, “Our hope is that we won’t have to extend, but there will be discussions that I suspect about how far we are. in the process. ”
Biden said he had ordered the State Department to contact the stranded Americans in the country, where there are Taliban checkpoints.
“We are running a plan to move groups of these Americans to safety and move them safely and effectively to the airport grounds. For security reasons, I will not go into details … but today I will return to say what I said before: any American who wants to go home will come home. “
He added Western Afghan allies and vulnerable Afghans, such as activists and journalists.