Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 21, 2021
The administration of President Joe Biden has alerted U.S. civilian airlines that they could be utilized to help transport people who have been evacuated from Afghanistan, U.S. media are reporting.
Reuters on August 21 quoted a U.S. government official speaking on condition of anonymity as saying a “warning order” has been issued to carriers telling them they could be used but that no decision had been made.
According to the official, civilian aircraft would not fly into Afghanistan but would instead transport evacuees from air bases in other locations, including the Middle East and Germany.
The reports come as tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan waited nervously to see whether the United States would deliver on Biden’s new pledge to evacuate all Americans and all Afghans who aided the war effort amid deteriorating security conditions.
As of early August 22, thousands of people were besieging entrances to Kabul’s airport, the main route of escape for foreign citizens and Afghans seeking to flee the country following the Taliban takeover of the government.
Shots were being heard almost continuously outside the heavily armed airport compound, a witness told dpa news agency.
The agency reported that there have been numerous armed confrontations at the gates to compound.
The Afghan Civil Aviation Authority issued a statement on August 21 asking people not to travel to the facility.
“There [are] no civilian and commercial flights in Hamid Karzai International Airport,” it advised on its Facebook account.
Earlier, the U.S. Embassy told citizens not to travel to the Kabul airport without “individual instructions from a U.S. government representative.” The warning cited potential security threats outside its gates of the airport.
Footage from Britain’s Sky News showed soldiers covering three bodies with white tarpaulins outside of Kabul airport. It was not clear how they died.
A reporter for Sky News at the scene said people in the crowd were being “crushed” and that medics were rushing from casualty to casualty amid “dehydrated and terrified” Afghans who were desperate to leave the country.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on August 21 that is “mathematically impossible” for the United States and its allies to evacuate the tens of thousands of Afghan personnel and their families by an August 31 deadline Biden has set for the last U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan.
Borrell said the EU has “complained” to U.S. officials that their security at Kabul airport was overly strict and was hampering attempts by Afghans who worked for the Europeans to enter.
Bahrain has said it will open up its airports to flights evacuating people from Afghanistan, and the United Arab Emirates announced it would temporarily host Afghan refugees as the United States faced overcrowding at facilities processing evacuees in Qatar.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby acknowledged the sense of urgency as the military attempts to complete the evacuations by August 31.
“We know that we’re fighting against both time and space,” he said.
Meanwhile, AP reports that U.S. authorities are concerned the Islamic State (IS) militant group could disrupt efforts to evacuate foreign citizens and Afghan allies.
A senior U.S. official said on August 21 that potential IS threats in Afghanistan are forcing the U.S. military to develop new ways to get evacuees to the Kabul airport in Kabul.
AP quoted the official as saying that small groups of Americans and possibly other civilians will be given specific instructions on what steps to take, including a list of transit points where they can be gathered by the military.
In the first known case of U.S. forces exiting Kabul’s airport to rescue Americans since the Taliban takeover, the Pentagon said it had deployed three Chinook transport helicopters to rescue 169 Americans at a hotel who were unable to reach the Kabul airport gates.
At least 12 people have been killed in and around Kabul’s airport since the Taliban retook the city on August 15, NATO and Taliban officials have said.
“The evacuation process is slow, as it is risky, for we don’t want any form of clashes with Taliban members or civilians outside the airport,” a NATO official told Reuters on August 20 on condition of anonymity.
The Taliban’s senior leadership gathered in Kabul on August 21 to map out its plans for a future government following the hard-line Islamist group’s seizure of the Afghan capital.
The gathering was taking place as the Taliban attempts to present a more moderate image after regaining control over most of the country as U.S.-led forces evacuate.
A senior Taliban figure told AFP on condition of anonymity that Taliban cofounder and political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar would meet in Kabul with Taliban military “leaders and politicians for an inclusive government set-up.”
Reuters, meanwhile, quoted an unidentified Taliban source as saying that Baradar was in Afghanistan to “delegate responsibility to commanders, meet former government leaders, local militia commanders, policymakers, and religious scholars.”
With reporting by Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, dpa, AP, and AFP
Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
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