A shooting at Kabul airport compounds the evacuation chaos as the Taliban try to take control

By Yuliya Talmazan-NBC News

A deadly shooting on Monday triggered further chaos at Kabul airport, where thousands of Afghans waited to flee the country as the Taliban faced a nascent resistance movement in the north.

An Afghan soldier was killed and three others injured in the clash between Afghan security forces and "unknown attackers" at the north gate of the airport, the German army said in a tweet.

Furthermore, that report states that US and German forces were involved in the incident, and specifies that no German soldiers were injured.

NBC News reached out to the US Central Command and NATO for comment.

It is not yet known if any American soldiers were killed or wounded.

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In a subsequent tweet, the German military said that the Afghan soldiers involved in the incident were "members of the Afghan army" who were participating in a multinational operation to secure the airport.

It was unclear how many Afghan soldiers were operating at the airport or elsewhere in Afghanistan.

The Afghan army, built and trained by the United States over two decades, and at a cost of $ 83 billion, capitulated to the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan, which culminated in the collapse of the Afghan government and the flight of President Ashraf Ghani el August 15th.

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Kabul airport has remained a hotbed of violence and chaos since the Taliban took power because militants, who patrolled the outer perimeter, have used force to control crowds and some people have been crushed to death.

On Saturday, two US defense officials warned of a possible Islamic State threat to the airport, raising security concerns.

On Sunday, President Joe Biden held a media meeting in which he said that, since Aug. 14, the United States has evacuated 28,000 people from Afghanistan.

But as concerns mount for the thousands of desperate people trying to escape the country, Biden said he was looking into the possibility of extending evacuation efforts beyond the Aug. 31 deadline.

The Taliban warned the United States that the deadline must be met.

“It is a red line.

President Biden announced that on August 31 they would withdraw all of their military forces.

If they extend the deadline, it means they are extending the occupation and there is no need for that, ”said Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban, in an interview with Sky News.

“If the United States or the United Kingdom want more time to continue evacuations, the answer is no.

Or there will be consequences, ”Shaheen said.

Over the weekend, the United States called in commercial aviation to help move the Kabul evacuees overseas, Biden said Sunday that he was grateful to the six American companies that are collaborating in that process, adding that his Administration established agreements with more than twenty countries, including Qatar, Kuwait, Germany and Spain, to help process Afghan evacuees.

Officials from three Balkan countries (North Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania) that have offered to host the Afghans have told NBC News that no refugees have so far been transported on US flights and that they did not know when they would arrive.

On Monday, the Taliban said their fighters have secured three northern provinces and are now heading towards Panjshir, the last territory they do not control.

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In the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, several opposition figures have gathered, including Amrullah Saleh, a senior official in the deposed Afghan government who had declared himself the “legitimate interim president,” and Ahmad Massoud, son of the assassinated Commander of the Northern Alliance Militia that partnered with the United States to oust the Taliban from power in 2001.

Massoud told Reuters on Sunday that he hoped to hold peaceful talks with the Taliban, but his forces are ready to fight if the militants try to invade the valley.

"They want to defend themselves, they want to fight," he said.