Civil war looms as 12 die in panicked rush for evacuation
DESPERATE parents pass their babies through barbed wire barricades to distraught US soldiers as the race to evacuate Brits and loyalists from Afghanistan continues.
More distressing images emerged of the chaos at Kabul airport as terrified Afghans try to flee the Taliban regime.
US fighter jets were on standby to intervene as the Taliban blocked Westerners fleeing to the airport and troops fired shots in the air to disperse panicking locals.
As many as 12 people were killed in chaotic crushes, while former national youth footballer Zaki Anwari, 19, was named as one of those who died trying to cling to the outside of a US plane.
As many as 300 evacuees arrived in the UK yesterday as the RAF operation continued. Afghan pop star Aryana Sayeed, who lives in Turkey, was one of those evacuated on a US Air Force plane, as was a young Afghan child shown sleeping on the floor, kept warm by a US uniform.
Civil war fears loomed as Ahmad Massoud, son of General Ahmad Shah Massoud, who led resistance against the Soviets and Taliban, vowed he would “follow in my father’s footsteps with mujahideen fighters”. He wrote in the Washington Post: “We have stores of ammunition and arms that we have patiently collected since my father’s time because we knew this day might come.” Despite the ‘new-look’ Taliban claiming moderacy, gunmen were reported to have shot dead a woman for not wearing a burka and burned down a children’s amusement park for “idolatrous” images.