Taliban regained power in Afghanistan
Less than 24 hours after the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan, scenes of chaotic desperation played out at Kabul’s main airport as people climbed onto the wings and sides of departing military jets and clambered up gangplanks to try to get onto the last flights out of the capital.
At least five people were reported killed after the U.S. military, which has control of the airport, opened fire. It was yet unclear on Monday if they were shot by a stray bullet or crushed in a panicked stampede.
This is so, so awful. Afghans are trying to hold on to a U.S. military plane leaving Kabul. pic.twitter.com/vhV3NbNSfA
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) August 16, 2021
Several people also appeared to be on the jet wings as they took off. The Washington Post analyzed video posted on social media that showed at least one person falling from the sky and landing on a rooftop as the giant aircraft ascended.
On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the rounds on morning TV, repeating the Biden administration that, “This is manifestly not Saigon.” Kimberley Motley, an international human-rights lawyer who spent 13 years in Afghanistan, told The Wall Street Journal instead, “This is like Saigon on steroids.”
The Taliban, meanwhile, worked to cover up any images of women on billboards and storefronts, essentially erasing progress that had been made in the last two decades. CNN’s Clarissa Ward was interviewing Taliban fighters on the street when she was told blatantly to step to the side. “It’s because I’m a woman,” the veteran war correspondent, who has reported from the country on numerous occasions, said as she complied.
On Monday, the Taliban’s new Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority warned airlines to avoid its airspace because the air-traffic control system had been “released to the military,” according to Reuters, even though many commercial airlines had already rerouted. It wasn’t immediately clear if the notice was a reference to the fact that the U.S. military now controls air traffic over Afghanistan while they work feverishly to evacuate foreign nationals. The Associated Press also confirmed reports that a U.S. military general met face-to-face with a Taliban commander on Sunday to negotiate a temporary non-interference arrangement while evacuations are underway.
“Kabul airspace has been released to the military. Advise transit aircraft to reroute,” the notice warned, according to Reuters. “Any transit through Kabul airspace will be uncontrolled. Surrounding FIRs (air-traffic control regions) have been advised.”
A senior official in Afghanistan’s now-defunct government told The Daily Beast that he was frustrated by the international community’s response and its near total abandonment. “The fall of Kabul dishonors the sacrifice of over 150,000 Afghan lives, over 3,000 of NATO soldiers’ lives, 20 years of reconstruction efforts and over a trillion U.S. dollars,” he said. “It is the beginning of hopelessness and bottomless uncertainty for the long suffering Afghans. May Allah protect us because all the worldly superpowers came, killed us, failed and left us in lurch.”
