KABUL – United States (US) President Joe Biden yesterday said he still hopes to finalise the dramatic evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan by August 31, as the Islamists blamed Washington for harrowing scenes of chaos and despair at the airport in Kabul.
One week after the hard-line militant group made a stunning return to power, terrified Afghans kept trying to flee, sceptical of its promises of a softer version of its brutal 1996-2001 rule.
Biden had previously set August 31 as the date to complete the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
But the US and its allies have been unable to cope with huge numbers of people trying to get on evacuation flights, leaving Kabul airport in disarray and the European Union warning it may be “impossible” to get everyone out before the deadline.
Biden, speaking in the White House, said his “hope is we will not have to extend. We will see what we can do”.
“We have a long way to go and a lot could still go wrong,” he added, citing, in particular, the threat of attacks by the Islamic State group.
Biden acknowledged the searing scenes at the US-controlled Hamid Karzai International airport, which included babies and children being passed to soldiers over razor-wire fences and men clinging to the outside of departing planes.
But he said they were part of the cost of departure.
“There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and loss, and the heartbreaking images you see.”
‘Please take us’
Biden spoke after the Taliban, who have been holding talks with elders and politicians to set up government, slammed the chaotic evacuation.
“America, with all its power and facilities... has failed to bring order to the airport.
“There is peace and calm all over the country, but there is chaos only at Kabul airport,” said Taliban official Amir Khan Mutaqi.
Britain’s Defence Ministry yesterday said seven people have died in the crowds, without giving further detail.
A journalist, who is among a group of fleeing media workers and academics fortunate enough to reach the airport yesterday, described desperate scenes of people surrounding their bus on the way in.
“They were showing us their passports and shouting ‘take us with you... please take us with you’,” the journalist told AFP.
“The Taliban fighter in the truck ahead of us had to shoot in the air to make them go away.”
During the distress of evacuation, an Afghan woman went into labour on a US Air Force flight and gave birth to a baby girl in the cargo bay moments after landing at a base in Germany, tweeted the Air Mobility Command.
Biden said since the Taliban captured Kabul last weekend about 28,000 people have been flown out.
Earlier this week, the administration said there are up to 15,000 Americans and 50,000 to 60,000 Afghan allies who need to be evacuated. Countless others are also trying to flee.
Yetserday, Washington enlisted the help of several major airlines to transport people who have been flown to US bases in the Gulf and Europe back to America.
The crisis has seen mounting criticism of the US and its Western allies, which this year pressed on with the troop withdrawal as the government and security forces struggled to contain rising Taliban violence.
G7 leaders will discuss the situation in a virtual summit tomorrow. – AFP, August 23, 2021
