Fearful Afghans scramble for the border
TALIBAN SHOW OFF US PLUNDER AS FIRST FLIGHT SINCE PULLOUT ARRIVES WITH QATARI OFFICIALS
The Taliban yesterday paraded some of the military hardware they captured during their takeover of Afghanistan, as a team from Qatar landed at the trashed airport in Kabul — a first step towards getting the facility back up and running as a lifeline for aid.
The Qatar Airways flight, the first to land at Hamid Karzai International Airport since the US withdrew all troops from Afghanistan late Monday, brought a team of technical experts to work on the airport, a source said.
The goal was to resume flights for aid, as the UN warns of a looming “humanitarian catastrophe” and to provide freedom of movement for those wanting to flee the new regime.
Yesterday, a long line of green Humvees and armoured fighting vehicles drove in single file along a highway outside Kandahar — the spiritual birthplace of the militant movement — many flying white-and-black Taliban flags.
In footage posted on a proTaliban account of the build-up to the parade, a helicopter flew overhead trailing the Taliban’s standard as fighters wrapped in headscarves waved beneath.
‘Best decision for America’
The scenes of Taliban triumph came hours after US President Joe Biden gave a defiant speech defending the decision to end America’s longest war, and the frenzied evacuation effort that ensued as the Afghan government collapsed.
Leaving was “the best decision for America,” Biden said in an address to the nation in Washington late on Tuesday, arguing that the only other option had been “escalating”.
The president hailed the operation as an “extraordinary” success. “No nation has ever done anything like it in all of history,” he said.
Afghans crowd borders
Crowds seeking to flee Afghanistan gathered on its borders while long queues formed at banks yesterday.
The Taliban focused on keeping banks, hospitals and government machinery running after the final withdrawal of US forces on Monday put an end to a massive airlift of Afghans.
With Kabul’s airport inoperable, private efforts to help Afghans fearful of Taliban reprisals focus on arranging safe passage across the land-locked nations borders with Iran, Pakistan and central Asian states.
At Torkham, a major border crossing with Pakistan, a Pakistani official said: “A large number of people are waiting on the Afghanistan side for the opening of the gate.” Thousands of people also flocked to the Islam Qala border post between Afghanistan and Iran.
More than 123,000 people were evacuated from Kabul in the US-led airlift, but tens of thousands of Afghans at risk remained behind. Germany alone estimates that between 10,000 and 40,000 Afghan staff still working for development organisations have a right to be evacuated to Germany.
Negotiations with Taliban
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the Taliban were in talks with Qatar and Turkey about the management of Kabul airport.
In the absence of a government in Kabul, Britain and India held separate talks with Taliban representatives in Doha amid fears that up to half a million Afghans could flee their homeland by year-end.
The Taliban have declared an amnesty for all Afghans who worked with foreign forces during the war that ousted it from power in 2001. They have also called on Afghans to return home and help rebuild, while promising to protect human rights.
The Taliban made similar promises when it seized power in 1996, only to publicly hang a former president, ban women from education and employment, enforce strict dress codes and adopt a punitive approach.