The Taliban are holding six planes carrying U.S. and Afghan refugees as “hostages” at an airport in Afghanistan, MP Michael McCaul said in an interview Sunday.
McCaul, the ranking Republican in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on Fox News Sunday that the U.S. State Department authorized the flights to leave, but “the Taliban will not let them out. the airport “.
“In fact, we have six planes at Mazar-i-Sharif airport, six planes, with American citizens as I speak, also with these interpreters, and the Taliban are holding them hostage to the demands right now,” the Texas Congressman told host Chris Wallace.
Wallace questioned McCaul about the demands the Taliban is making before allowing flights to take off.
“Well, they don’t clean planes to leave. They have been at the airport for the last two days, these planes, and they are not allowed to leave, ”he said.
“We know the reason why the Taliban want something in return. In reality, Chris, it becomes a hostage situation where they are not going to allow American citizens to leave until they receive full recognition from the United States of America. “, it continued.
McCaul said “hundreds of American citizens” are still waiting to be evacuated from Afghanistan since the United States completed its military withdrawal on Aug. 31, ending the 20-year war.
The Biden administration says between 100 and 200 Americans are still in Afghanistan.
And McCaul said “zero” Americans have left the country since U.S. troops left.
“I have been given the answer to the classified space, but there are hundreds. As I speak, we have hundreds of American citizens left behind by enemy lines in Afghanistan. And also, very sadly, the interpreters who worked with our special forces, almost all of them, were left behind and were not allowed to enter the gates of HKI airport to leave, ”he said in reference to the international airport. Hamid Karzai of Kabul.
“It simply came to our notice then. I have already said that this president has blood on his hands. And, this week, this last week, we had 13 soldiers and women returning home, with coffins with flags in Dover[Air Force Base]”McCaul said.
“This problem will get worse, it will not get better, and we have left them behind. That is the basic credo of the military, “he added.
Fourteen members of the US service (11 Navy soldiers, a Navy corps and an army soldier) were killed in a suicide attack by an ISIS-K terrorist at the gates of Kabul Airport on last month.
Biden was swindled to look at the clock as the flag coffins of the military members were unloaded at the air base.