Fears rise about safety concerns at the airport
U.S. tells Americans to stay away as threat of ISIS attack worries officials
Panic and desperation rose Saturday among thousands of Afghans struggling to flee the week-old Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, as gates to the Kabul airport were closed off and the U.S. Embassy warned U.S. citizens to stay away from the airport, citing “potential security threats outside the gates.”
The U.S. Embassy’s warning that Americans should stay away from the airport added a new level of uncertainty to the volatile situation — which includes reports of growing hunger around the country — just a day after President Joe Biden vowed to get all U.S. citizens to safety.
Assaulted by tear gas and by Taliban gunmen who have beaten people with clubs and whips, throngs of Afghans and their families continued to swarm the airport in hopes of getting aboard U.S. military transport planes evacuating Americans and their Afghan allies. But the hopes of those who pressed against the airport blast walls faded as word spread that Biden had warned that his effort to evacuate Afghans was not open-ended.
U.S. officials said the most serious current threat is that Afghanistan’s Islamic State branch would attempt an attack that would both hurt the Americans and damage the Taliban’s sense of control. But it was unclear how capable ISIS, which has battled the Taliban, is of such an attack, the officials said.
The security alert instructed Americans still marooned in Kabul not to travel to the airport “unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so.”
John F. Kirby, the chief Pentagon spokesperson, said Saturday there had been no additional helicopter rescues of Americans in Kabul seeking to flee the Afghan capital since Thursday’s mission, but he did not rule out the possibility of similar operations in the future if local commanders believed they were warranted.
The security alert came as a 2-year-old girl was trampled to death in a stampede outside an airport gate about 10 a.m. Saturday, according to her mother, a former employee of a U.S. organization in Kabul.
The child was crushed when the crowd surged toward the gate, knocking over the woman and several members of her family, she said.
“My heart is bleeding,” the woman said. “It was like drowning and trying to hold your baby above the water.”
The embassy alert underscored the deteriorating security situation in the capital amid reports that Taliban gunmen were going door-to-door, searching for Afghans who had worked for the U.S. government or military, or for the U.S.backed government.
The militants are threatening to arrest or punish family members if they can’t find the people they are seeking, according to former members of the Afghan government, a confidential report prepared for the United Nations and U.S. veterans who have been contacted by desperate Afghans who served alongside them.
A 31-year-old Afghan who worked for four years as an interpreter for the U.S. military said he had managed to get out of the country earlier this month. But he said the Taliban destroyed his home in Kabul and threatened his parents, who fled and were now living on the street in Kabul.
The International Rescue Committee estimates that more than 300,000 Afghan civilians have been affiliated with the U.S. since 2001, but only a minority qualify for evacuation.
Biden said Friday that he would commit to airlifting Afghans who had helped the U.S. war effort, but that Americans were his priority.
“Any American who wants to come home, we will get you home,” he said.
The president said that he was unaware of any Americans who had been prevented by Taliban gunmen or other obstacles from reaching the airport. But two resettlement agencies in the U.S. reported that they had received panicked calls from Afghan American clients holding U.S. passports or green cards who had been unable to reach the airport.
In an interview Saturday morning, a 39-year-old Afghan, who said he worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military and the U.S. government, said an Afghan American friend holding a green card was unable to penetrate the crowds outside the airport gates and went back home in frustration.
The Afghan, who asked to be identified as Mike — the name assigned to him by his U.S. military colleagues — said the green card holder was turned away at an airport gate manned by British soldiers even after presenting the document.
Biden administration officials have said they do not have an accurate count of the number of U.S. citizens still stranded in Kabul and seeking to leave the country.
Biden has aimed to quell a global furor over the chaotic evacuation that has followed the Taliban’s return to power.
But with just 10 days until his deadline to withdraw all U.S. troops, Biden conceded that for many Afghans desperate to escape the Taliban and their history of brutality, “I cannot promise what the final outcome will be.”
The administration last week put out a call for volunteers across the government to help get visas processed for people from Afghanistan. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sent out an email describing the chance to help an “extraordinary initiative,” urging any employee in any position to apply.
More than 13,000 people have been evacuated since Aug. 14, the day before the Taliban seized Kabul, according to the Pentagon. Biden said Friday that 18,000 people had been flown out since July.
A Taliban official said Saturday that the group’s co-founder, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had arrived in Kabul for talks aimed a forming a new government. On Tuesday, Baradar, who oversaw the signing of a troop withdrawal agreement with the U.S. in Qatar in February 2020, arrived to a hero’s welcome in Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual birthplace.
Baradar was expected to begin talks with former President Hamid Karzai and other politicians.
“The negotiations are going on right now,” said Ahmadullah Waseq, deputy of the Taliban’s cultural affairs committee, who confirmed Baradar’s arrival. For now, he said, Taliban officials are largely talking among themselves in preparation for the negotiations.
Taliban leaders have not provided details on the type of government they envision, beyond saying that it would adhere to Islamic values, a clear indication the militants intend to impose their strict interpretation of Shariah law.