Taliban killings fuel fear, drive more chaos at airport
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN >> Reports of targeted killings in areas overrun by the Taliban mounted Friday, fueling fears that they will return Afghanistan to the repressive rule they imposed when they were last in power, even as they urged imams to push a message of unity at weekly prayers.
Terrified that the new rulers would commit such abuses and despairing for their country’s future, thousands have raced to Kabul’s airport, where chaotic scenes continued unabated. People seeking to escape struggled to get past crushing crowds, Taliban airport checkpoints and U.S. bureaucracy. Video images showed crowds gathered in the dark outside the barbedwire topped walls. Occasionally someone shot a stream of gunfire into the air.
What appeared to be American troops stood in the distance. In one dramatic image, a U.S. Marine reached over the razor wire atop a barrier and plucked a baby by the arm from the crowd and pulled it up over the wall.
Reports of planes leaving at least partly empty underscored how difficult it still is for people to get into the airport. In an indication of the extent of the chaos, the Belgian foreign affairs ministry confirmed that one of its aircraft took off from Kabul without a single passenger because the people who were supposed to be on board got stuck outside the airport.
Also Friday, American officials confirmed to The Associated Press that U.S. military helicopters flew into Taliban-held Kabul to scoop up would-be evacuees, and President Joe Biden pledged to bring all Americans back from Afghanistan — and Afghans who aided the war effort, too.