After the Taliban came to power, the situation escalated at Kabul Airport in Afghanistan.
Thousands of Afghan citizens hope to leave the country.
Kabul - After the radical Islamic Taliban invaded the Afghan capital Kabul, chaos reigned at the city's airport. Thousands of people tried to get a place on an evacuation flight on Monday morning (August 16, 2021). US soldiers who, according to the US government, are securing the airport fired shots into the air to control the crowd. In addition, at least three people are said to have been killed, according to the Wall Street Journal. In the meantime, Germany, the USA * and other Western countries are working flat out to have their citizens and Afghan employees flown out.
The crowd of Afghan citizens seeking help also reached the airport runway.
“I'm very scared.
They fire a lot of shots in the air, "a witness told the AFP news agency on Monday.
"I saw a young girl run over and killed," he said.
Taliban takes power in Afghanistan: Dramatic footage from the airport in Kabul
Dramatic footage posted on online platforms showed desperate civilians climbing an already crowded and twisted staircase to board a parked passenger plane. Some of them hung their hands on the banister. According to the Wall Street Journal, at least three people were shot dead. Stuff: inside want to have seen the corpses on the ground. The airport in Kabul is secured by US soldiers in order to enable the "safe departure" of employees of the USA and allied states in civil and military aircraft.
Many of the people were attracted by rumors or hoaxes on the net.
"I read on Facebook that Canada is accepting asylum applications from Afghanistan," said a man who claims to be a soldier in the Afghan army.
He was therefore in danger: "The Taliban are definitely after me," he said.
Afghanistan: Airport administration in Kabul ceases commercial air traffic
Meanwhile, the airport administration stopped commercial air traffic.
“There will be no commercial flights from Hamid Karzai Airport to prevent looting and devastation.
Please do not go to the airport, ”it said in a message sent to journalists.
The US embassy in Kabul also called on US nationals and Afghan citizens on Twitter to “not travel to the airport”.
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After the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, chaos reigns at Kabul airport.
© Rahmani / afp
The USA, Germany and other western countries had already brought citizens and embassy staff to the airport on Sunday (August 15, 2021) in order to fly them out from there.
As the US declared, its embassy staff are separate from the people without a travel permit.
“Thousands” of US citizens are said to be flown out of Afghanistan
According to the US, "hundreds" of embassy employees are already out of the country.
According to the State Department, “thousands” of US citizens living in Afghanistan, local staff from the US mission in Kabul, their families and other “particularly endangered” Afghan citizens were to be flown out on Monday and the following days.
67 countries, including Germany, called on the Taliban in a declaration to allow all Afghan citizens and foreigners who wish to leave the country.
The first German embassy employees are flown out of Afghanistan
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD *) announced on Sunday evening in Berlin that the first embassy employees would be flown out during the day.
The safety of German nationals, the staff at the embassy "and also of the people with whom we have worked in Afghanistan in recent years" have top priority.
"We are now doing everything we can to enable our nationals and our former local staff to leave the country in the coming days," said Maas.
On Monday morning, the Ministry of Defense announced that a first A400M transport aircraft of the German armed forces had taken off from Wunstorf for Kabul in order to bring "those to be protected from Afghanistan to safety".
"One thing is certain: It is a dangerous mission for our soldiers," the ministry said on Twitter.
Radical Islamic Taliban conquer the Afghan capital Kabul
The Taliban reached the capital Kabul on Sunday after a ten-day campaign of conquest through Afghanistan. * The Afghan government agreed to hand over power, and President Ashraf Ghani fled abroad.
In a Facebook message, he admitted defeat by the Taliban.
Fighters of the radical Islamic Taliban celebrated their “victorious” campaign against the Afghan government on Sunday evening in the presidential palace.
After the police and other government forces left their posts in Kabul on Sunday, Taliban fighters took over checkpoints in the city.
On Monday, fighters with rifles slung over their shoulders were seen running through the streets of the Green Zone - the formerly heavily fortified area that houses most of the embassies and international organizations.
(msb with afp)
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List of rubric lists: © Rahmani / afp