STUCK IN AFGHANISTAN
Rep says four planes denied departure by Taliban
KABUL, Afghanistan — At least four planes chartered to evacuate several hundred people seeking to escape the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan have been unable to leave in a situation one U.S. lawmaker said Sunday is becoming a “hostage” situation.
There were conflicting accounts emerging from officials in Afghanistan about why the flights weren’t able to leave.
An Afghan official at the airport in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif said that the would-be passengers were Afghans, many of whom did not have passports or visas, and thus were unable to leave the country. He said they had left the airport while the situation was sorted out.
But Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the group included Americans and they were sitting on the planes, and that the Taliban were not letting them take off.
“This is really … turning into a hostage situation where they’re not going to allow American citizens to leave until they get full recognition from the United States of America,” McCaul told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” according to a transcript.
“The Taliban will not let them leave the airport,” he said, adding that he’s worried “they’re going to demand more and more, whether it be cash or legitimacy as the government of Afghanistan.” McCaul did not offer more details or say where that information came from.
The final days of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan were marked by a harrowing airlift at Kabul’s airport to evacuate tens of thousands of people — Americans and their allies — who feared what the future would hold, given the Taliban’s history of repression, particularly of women. When the last troops pulled out on Aug. 30, though, many were left behind.
The U.S. promised to continue working with the new Taliban rulers to get those who want to leave out, and the militants pledged to allow anyone with the proper legal documents to leave.
The Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said it was four planes, and their intended passengers were staying at hotels while authorities worked out whether they might be able to leave the country. The sticking point, he indicated, is that many did not have the right travel papers.
Residents of Mazar-eSharif also said the passengers were no longer at the airport. At least 10 families were seen waiting at a local hotel, they said.
The State Department has no reliable way to confirm information about such charter flights, including how many American citizens might be on them, since it no longer has people on the ground, according to a U.S. official. But the department will hold the Taliban to its pledges to let people travel freely, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The small airport at Mazar-e-Sharif only recently began to handle international flights and so far only to Turkey. The planes in question were bound for Doha, Qatar, the Afghan official said.
It was not clear who chartered them or why they were waiting in the northern city. The massive airlift happened at Kabul’s international airport, which initially closed after the U.S. withdrawal but where domestic flights have now resumed.