The inside story of Kabul chaos...
HEARTBREAKING scenes as thousands of Afghans fled for their lives, many scaling the razor-wire walls of Kabul airport, touched the lives of people across the world last year.
Now, 13 months after the US ended its 20-year war in Afghanistan, this featurelength documentary tells the inside story of their withdrawal, over 18 chaotic days in August 2021. More than 124,000 people would ultimately leave – in what became the biggest airlift in US history.
Documentary-makers speak to Taliban commanders, and survivors who escaped Kabul, both military and civilian.
Through emotive interviews, and never-before-seen video footage taken during the evacuation, the stampede, fear and bloodshed is laid bare.
US President Joe Biden described their evacuation mission as an “extraordinary success”.
The ensuing carnage looks like nothing of the sort. The evacuation would come at the cost of 170 innocent Afghan lives and 13 military personnel. There is harrowing footage as a C17 plane takes off and a desperate Afghan – clinging onto the outside to escape – drops from the sky.
There are sickening declarations from Taliban commanders, including lies that Afghan women won’t be stripped of their rights. Also the boasts that they have “1,000 suicide bombers surrounding Kabul airport’s gates”.
It’s a devastating reminder of how badly the evacuation went. Most of all there’s an overwhelming sense of sadness.
Your heart goes out to the Afghans – to the children left orphaned when their parents didn’t make it out alive – and to the families leaving loved ones behind to face such a terrifying uncertain future.