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Kabul the day after the Taliban occupation: Chaos at the airport, streets deserted
The U.S. military has fired into the air to keep the masses of civilians desperate to flee Afghanistan, but military flights are aimed only at diplomats and embassy staff.
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Afghanistan
Taliban
Kabul
News agencies
Monday, 16 August 2021, 08:32 Updated: 08:58
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Complete the occupation of the country in a little over a week.
Taliban fighters outside Interior Ministry in Kabul, today (Photo: Reuters)
Kabul streets were deserted this morning (Monday), a day after Taliban fighters took control of the Afghan capital without a fight, while chaos and commotion were recorded at the city’s international airport.
Documents posted on social media showed hundreds of people flocking to the terminal with their belongings with shots fired in the background.
Other documents showed civilians struggling to get a seat on one of the planes on the runway.
A U.S. source said U.S. forces, sent to secure the evacuation of Kabul diplomats and control the airport, were forced to fire into the air to prevent civilians from boarding military flights.
The source said the military flights were intended solely to evacuate diplomats and embassy staff.
These sights reinforced the feeling among many in Afghanistan that the United States had abandoned them, after 20 years of war in the Taliban that ended in a resounding military defeat.
The collapse of Afghanistan
Biden let Afghanistan manage on its own against the Taliban.
It ended in great humiliation from Vietnam
To the full article
Residents in the capital said government offices were left empty this morning, and the diplomatic district and Vizir Akbar Khan were largely abandoned.
Almost all foreign diplomats and their families have already left the city or are at the airport waiting for a flight.
However, some countries continue their activities as usual, including Russia, Turkey and Iran.
The diplomatic quarter was one of the most fortified in the city, but many checkpoints were not staffed today.
Some drivers got out of their cars to remove the checkpoints before continuing their journey.
"It's weird to sit here and see empty streets, without diplomatic convoys laden with big cars and machine guns," said Gul Muhammad Hakim, one of the city's best-known bakers.
"I will be here to bake bread, but I will make very little money. The security guards were my friends, and they went."
He has not received any new customers this morning, and he is still heating his oven in anticipation of their arrival.
"My first concern was to grow my beard and how to grow it fast," he said.
"I also checked with my wife if there were enough flashes for her and for the girls."
During the previous Taliban rule between 1996 and 2001, men were not allowed to shave their beards and women were required to cover their faces and bodies in public and girls were not allowed to go to schools.
Many fear that the progress made in the last two decades in the field of women's rights will be quickly erased, despite Taliban promises that it will allow them to go to work.
This morning, girls were documented going to a school in Kabul, but it is still unclear what the new regime, which has not yet been officially established, will look like.
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