Evacuation flights resume at Kabul airport as runway cleared of desperate Afghans

Military flights evacuating diplomats and civilians from Afghanistan resumed on Tuesday after the runway at Kabul airport was cleared of thousands of people desperate to flee after the Taliban seized the capital.

The number of civilians had thinned out, a Western security official at the airport said, a day after chaotic scenes in which US troops fired to disperse crowds and people clung to a US military transport plane as it taxied for take-off.

“Runway in Kabul international airport is open. I see airplanes landing and taking off,” Stefano Pontecorvo, Nato’s civilian representative, said on Twitter.

By afternoon, at least 12 military flights had taken off, a diplomat at the airport said. Planes were due to arrive from countries including Australia and Poland to pick up their nationals and Afghan colleagues.

Under a US troops withdrawal pact struck last year, the Taliban agreed not to attack foreign forces as they leave.

US forces took charge of the airport - their only way to fly out of Afghanistan - on Sunday, as the Taliban wound up a week of rapid advances by taking over Kabul without a fight, 20 years after they were ousted by a US-led invasion.

Taliban fighters on patrol in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Photograph: EPA

Flights were suspended for much of Monday, when at least five people were killed, witnesses said, although it was unclear whether they had been shot or crushed in a stampede.

Media reported two people fell to their deaths from the underside of a US military aircraft after it took off and US troops killed two gunmen who appeared to have fired into the crowd at the airport, a US fficial said.

Taliban leaders

Senior Taliban leader Amir Khan Muttaqi is said to be in Afghanistan’s capital negotiating with Kabul’s political leadership.

Those involved in the talks include Abdullah Abdullah, who once headed the country’s negotiating council, and former president Hamid Karzai.

Mr Muttaqi was a higher education minister when the Taliban last ruled and he began making contacts with Afghan political leaders even before President Ashraf Ghani secretly slipped away from the Presidential Palace last weekend. His departure left a devastating vacuum that Taliban who were surrounding the city strode in to fill.

People climb atop a plane as they wait at the airport in Kabul to flee Afghanistan. Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

It is understood the talks are aimed at bringing other non-Taliban leaders into the government that Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen has said will be an “inclusive Afghan government.”

The UN Security Council called for talks to create a new government in Afghanistan after Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned of “chilling” curbs on human rights and violations against women and girls.

Many Afghans fear the Taliban will return to past harsh practices. During their 1996-2001 rule, women could not work and punishments such as public stoning, whipping and hanging were administered.

Mr Shaheen told Dunya News the Taliban would improve the security of Kabul and “respect the rights of women and minorities as per Afghan norms and Islamic values”.

He added the new regime would ensure representation of all ethnicities and that the Taliban were keen to work with the international community to rebuild the country.

Defends decision

There is little indication about the substance of the talks, but Mr Shaheen earlier said that a government will be announced after negotiations with non-Taliban leaders are completed.

President Joe Biden defended his decision to withdraw US forces after 20 years of war, which he described as costing more than $1 trillion.

US president Joe Biden defends his actions on Afghanistan during a speech in the East Room of the White House in Washington DC. Photograph: EPA

But a video of hundreds of desperate Afghans trying to clamber onto a US military plane as it was about to take off could haunt the United States, just as a photograph in 1975 of people trying to get on a helicopter on a roof in Saigon became emblematic of the humiliating withdrawal from Vietnam.

Mr Biden said he had to decide between asking US forces to fight endlessly or follow through on a withdrawal agreement negotiated by his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump.

“I stand squarely behind my decision,” he said. “After 20 years I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces. That’s why we’re still there.”

The Taliban captured Afghanistan’s biggest cities in days rather than the months predicted by US intelligence. In many cases, demoralised government forces surrendered despite years of training and equipping by the United States and others.

Terrorism

The Taliban began their push in the spring with attacks on government positions in the countryside and targeted killings in cities. The International Committee of the Red Cross said more than 40,000 people with wounds caused by weapons had been treated at facilities it supports in June, July and August, 7,600 of them since August 1st.

US forces are due to complete their withdrawal by the end of this month under the deal with the Taliban that hinged on their promise not to let Afghanistan be used for international terrorism.

British foreign secretary Dominic Raab said Afghanistan must never be used to launch attacks, but the West would have to be pragmatic in relations with the Taliban.

French nationals and their Afghan colleagues line up to board a French military transport plane at Kabul airport. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images

President Ashraf Ghani left Afghanistan on Sunday as the Islamist militants entered Kabul, saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed.

The UN Security Council called for talks to create a new government in Afghanistan after Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned of “chilling” curbs on human rights and violations against women and girls.

The Taliban have said there will be no retribution against opponents and promised to respect the rights of women, minorities and foreigners, but many Afghans are sceptical and fear old enemies and activists will be rounded up.

The top UN human rights official voiced concern about the safety of thousands of Afghans who have worked on human rights. The UN refugee agency called for a halt to forced returns of Afghans including asylum seekers whose requests had been rejected.

European Union foreign ministers will meet in emergency session on Tuesday via teleconference to discuss the unfolding crisis.

Irish and EU efforts in the coming days are expected to focus on the extraction of their citizens from Afghanistan, officials said, though EU ministers are likely to signal that any aid to the next government in Kabul will be conditional on human rights being respected by the new regime.

Irish officials stressed the importance of protecting the rights of women and girls, a core element of Irish foreign policy.

â€" AP/Reuters

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