Taliban take over airport, stir fears

The Taliban tightened their grip on Kabul’s airport on Saturday, shattering the hope of many Afghans to leave the country now in control of the militant group.

With the U.S. and its allies due to end 20 years in Afghanistan on Tuesday, Western leaders acknowledged that their withdrawal would mean leaving behind some of their citizens and many locals who helped them over the years.

Most U.S. allies have ended their evacuation flights, but the United States planned to keep flights going around the clock until the deadline.

Britain was carrying out its final flights Saturday, though Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed to “shift heaven and earth” to get more of those at risk to Britain by other means.

The withdrawal of Western troops has left some people bitter.

Journalist Shabeer Ahmadi, 29, was able to flee to Spain. He said the United States doomed the effort he and others had put into making the country a better place by letting the Taliban take charge again.

“They abandoned the new generation of Afghanistan,” said Ahmadi, who claimed to be targeted by the Taliban.

A Taliban spokesman claimed Saturday that the group’s forces were holding some parts of the airport and were ready to peacefully take full control as American forces flew out. But Pentagon spokesman John Kirby denied the claim.

The Taliban deployed extra forces outside the airport to prevent large crowds from gathering in the wake of Thursday’s bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 60 Afghans.

New checkpoints sprang up on roads leading to the airport, some manned by uniformed Taliban fighters. Areas where the crowds had gathered in recent days in the hopes of fleeing the country were mostly empty.

The United States has extra precautions at the airport, as President Biden said Saturday another terror attack by ISIS-K is “highly likely.”

The fate of many people is up in the air, such as an Afghan who worked as a translator for the U.S. military, who said he was with a group of people with permission to leave who tried to reach the airport late Friday. He was stopped by a checkpoint by the Taliban, who said they had been told by the Americans to only let U.S. passport-holders through.

“I am so hopeless for my future,” the man later said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of security concerns. “If the evacuation is over, what will happen to us?”