Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has left the country

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Megaterio Llamas
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Re: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has left the country

Postby Megaterio Llamas » Thu Aug 19, 2021 12:19 pm

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Postby Edge Guerrero » Thu Aug 19, 2021 6:52 pm

Officials in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan fear that an influx of refugees from Afghanistan could undermine domestic security

Nothing seems to have changed in recent weeks in Tashkent, the bustling capital of ex-Soviet Uzbekistan that sits about 750 kilometres (466 miles) north of Kabul.

Many Uzbeks worry about the COVID-19 pandemic, the devastating heatwaves and rising prices – but not about the unexpected, stunning speed of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

[color=#00BF40]“There is no panic, it’s all business as usual,”[/color][/color][/color][/b] Mokhsira Abdullaeva, a mother of three, told Al Jazeera.

But officials and security agencies in Uzbekistan and four other ex-Soviet Central Asian nations do worry.

Their most immediate concern is a chaotic flood of Afghan refugees – and the presence of ISIL (ISIS) group fighters and other “radicals” and “religious extremists” among them.

Thousands of natives of Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states joined ISIL, and hundreds found refuge in northern Afghanistan.

Back in the 1990s, many more fled to Afghanistan to join the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a group that helped the Taliban fight the US-led coalition as it invaded in 2001 and later retreated to Pakistan’s tribal zone before eventually pledging allegiance to ISIL.

“The situation may become even more threatening if the Taliban don’t fight ISIL and its allies but strike a non-aggression pact [with them] thus turning Afghanistan yet again into a preserve for radicals,” Kazakh analyst Dosym Satpayev wrote on Facebook.
payev wrote on Facebook.



Some security officials believe that many refugees will be disguised fighters.

“Every other refugee could be a terrorist. We’re all tense,” a senior intelligence officer in Uzbekistan told Al Jazeera, on condition of anonymity.

An even bigger concern is the import of the Taliban’s austere ideology to the Central Asian states, whose secular rulers have for decades decried the dangers of “religious extremism”.

Nothing seems to have changed in recent weeks in Tashkent, the bustling capital of ex-Soviet Uzbekistan that sits about 750 kilometres (466 miles) north of Kabul.

Many Uzbeks worry about the COVID-19 pandemic, the devastating heatwaves and rising prices – but not about the unexpected, stunning speed of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

Afghans desperate to leave country remain stuck at Kabul airport
“There is no panic, it’s all business as usual,” Mokhsira Abdullaeva, a mother of three, told Al Jazeera.

But officials and security agencies in Uzbekistan and four other ex-Soviet Central Asian nations do worry.

Their most immediate concern is a chaotic flood of Afghan refugees – and the presence of ISIL (ISIS) group fighters and other “radicals” and “religious extremists” among them.

Thousands of natives of Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states joined ISIL, and hundreds found refuge in northern Afghanistan.


Back in the 1990s, many more fled to Afghanistan to join the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a group that helped the Taliban fight the US-led coalition as it invaded in 2001 and later retreated to Pakistan’s tribal zone before eventually pledging allegiance to ISIL.

“The situation may become even more threatening if the Taliban don’t fight ISIL and its allies but strike a non-aggression pact [with them] thus turning Afghanistan yet again into a preserve for radicals,” Kazakh analyst Dosym Satpayev wrote on Facebook.



Some security officials believe that many refugees will be disguised fighters.

“Every other refugee could be a terrorist. We’re all tense,” a senior intelligence officer in Uzbekistan told Al Jazeera, on condition of anonymity.

An even bigger concern is the import of the Taliban’s austere ideology to the Central Asian states, whose secular rulers have for decades decried the dangers of “religious extremism”.


After years of officially atheist Soviet rule, they tried to control the revival of Muslim traditions in the region that once spawned a string of renowned scholars and theologians such as Avicenna, al-Bukhari and al-Farabi.

“The Taliban’s ideas could become popular among masses, people will start sympathising with them and this could lead to various bad consequences,” said Timur Karpov, who runs a Tashkent art gallery that tackles taboo issues such as violence against women and the rights of minorities.
“On social media, one can already see huge amounts of comments and posts of Uzbeks sympathising with the Taliban. It can’t but frighten,” Karpov told Al Jazeera.

Border issues

Three Central Asian nations share a border with Afghanistan – Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

All three ramped up security, held military drills and moved more servicemen and weaponry to their borders with the war-torn nation in recent weeks.

Uzbekistan’s is 150 kilometres long (93 miles), and the main crossing across the Amu Darya River is the Soviet-built Friendship Bridge that has for decades been a major transport hub.

So far, more than a thousand refugees, including servicemen, have been let in since the fall of Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif that lies only 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the border.

But official reports sometimes offer little clarity.

Uzbek prosecutors said on Monday that two dozen Afghan planes and helicopters carrying hundreds of servicemen crossed “illegally”, and at least one plane collided with an Uzbek Mig-29 fighter jet.
But they retracted their statement hours later saying it wasn’t “fully checked” – while the Defence Ministry reportedly said that at least one Afghan plane was shot down on late Sunday.

Hundreds of refugees crossed the river, hundreds more entered Uzbekistan via the bridge, and some flew in, Uzbek and Russian media reports suggest.

Some civilians, including women and children, were placed in tents in the sun-scorched steppes between the Friendship Bridge and the town of Termez.

Hundreds more, including soldiers loyal to exiled President Ashraf Ghani, are understood to be concentrated near the Friendship Bridge.

Independent media reports claim that Uzbeks let in former Afghan vice president and chameleonic strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum, a 67-year-old ethnic Uzbek who sided with the Soviets, the US-backed mujahideen, the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance and the US-led NATO coalition.

The Taliban seized Dostum’s luxurious palace in Mazar-i-Sharif and drank tea from a golden tea set.

Desperation and fear

The border situation in Turkmenistan and Tajikistan is even more vague.


Turkmenistan has never been at odds with the Taliban, and hundreds of them frequented the resource-rich country to buy fuel and enjoy the secular lifestyle since the late 1990s, as witnessed by this journalist in the capital, Ashgabat, on previous reporting trips.

However, after the Taliban seized a border checkpoint in the southern Mary region and reportedly killed 18 servicemen in early July, Ashgabat amassed heavy artillery along the poorly protected border that stretches 800 kilometres (500 miles) across the desert.

Tajikistan, whose Afghan border stretches almost 1,400 kilometres (870 miles) across the Pamir Mountains, alerted 100,000 soldiers, 130,000 reservists – and the Russian servicemen stationed there.

Its ruler Emomali Rahmon has first-hand knowledge of the Afghan threat – during the 1992-97 civil war, his opponents often found refuge across the border.

Only desperation and fear for their lives forces Afghans to flee to Central Asia, where they have never been welcome.

The Taliban’s resurgence has prompted concerns of a looming humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the surrounding region [Reuters]
Uzbekistan, where Afghans were omnipresent in the late 1990s, offers the perfect example.

Former Afghan pro-Soviet government officials, engineers and university professors subsisted there selling foodstuffs, jewellery and Pakistan-made leather jackets, frying kebabs and paying higher-than-usual prices for rented apartments.

Police officers routinely raided their shops and apartments or herded them into vans, reportedly to seize cash and extort more for their “release.”

Many refugees were ethnic Uzbeks or Tajiks, and some were Soviet-educated. But none managed to stay because Uzbek authorities distrusted them and suspected them of “radicalism”.

The Uzbek government created a “legal vacuum” for them by being the only former Soviet republic that did not sign the 1951 refugee convention and the 1967 protocol on refugee rights, a United Nations official said.

“I have not heard about a single case when an Afghan refugee became an Uzbek national,” Abdul Karim Gul, chief of mission for the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees at the time, told this reporter back in 2005.

A year later, Uzbek authorities closed down his office.

The overwhelming majority of the refugees relocated to third countries, from Russia to Canada.

One was Hammasa Kohistani, who was crowned Miss England and Miss World in 2005.

No welcome mats

Western governments and international rights campaigners have urged Central Asian governments to accept refugees from Afghanistan, especially the former staffers of Western or Western-funded organisations that promoted democracy and human rights.

“Countries like Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have both the economy and the geography to host refugees, [and] particular focus should be on Afghans who are in danger of repercussions from the Taliban,” said Ivar Dale, a senior policy adviser with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, a rights watchdog.

“Their lives are in danger, and Central Asian republics can literally save lives,” he told Al Jazeera.

But even after reports about refugee camps being organised in southern Kazakhstan, the oil-rich nation said it will not accept any.

Neighbouring Kyrgyzstan said it would issue 500 student visas for young Afghans.

Uzbekistan said it would close down one of its airports in Tashkent to accept planes from Kabul – and immediately transfer their passengers to Germany-bound flights following an agreement with Berlin.

But the Uzbek foreign ministry warned that any attempts to “illegally” cross the border will be “suppressed harshly.”

Only Tajikistan said in late July it was ready to shelter up to 100,000 refugees – but offered no further comments after the fall of Kabul.

SOURCE: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/19/afghanistans-ex-soviet-neighbours-panic-reject-refugees
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Postby Edge Guerrero » Thu Aug 19, 2021 6:54 pm

- Sorry for the botched move. Posting from a old cellphone is hard
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Postby Edge Guerrero » Sat Aug 21, 2021 12:38 pm

Rifles, Humvees and millions of rounds of ammo: Taliban celebrate their new American arsenal

By Zachary Cohen and Oren Liebermann, CNN

(CNN)US national security officials are working to account for more than 20 years worth of weapons provided to the Afghan military as images of Taliban fighters brandishing American-made rifles and riding in abandoned Humvees are raising concerns about what else was left behind.

The Taliban's newfound American arsenal is likely not limited to small arms, as the group captured sizable stockpiles of weapons and vehicles held at strongholds once controlled by US-backed forces, including modern mine-resistant vehicles (MRAPs) and Humvees.
Initial estimates suggest the Taliban may now also possess several Black Hawk helicopters and other US-funded military aircraft, according to a congressional source familiar with early assessments provided by defense officials.

That potentially includes roughly 20 A-29 Tucano attack planes, the source said, noting there are some indications that only a small number of aircraft were relocated from a base in Kandahar before it was overrun by the Taliban.

"We are also concerned that some may end up in the hands of others who support the Taliban's cause," the congressional source told CNN. "My biggest fear is that the sophisticated weaponry will be sold to our adversaries and other non-state actors who intend to use it against us and our allies."

It's unclear exactly how much equipment fell into Taliban hands during the collapse of the Afghan military, and the US is unlikely to get a perfect and precise answer to that question because there is no longer a US troop and intelligence presence throughout the country, two defense officials told CNN.

"There's no exact accountability on what's left," one official said.
The Biden administration has faced a wave of criticism for failing to anticipate the Taliban's rapid takeover of Afghanistan and for the chaos unfolding at Kabul's airport as thousands of people attempt to flee the country.

Evacuation operations remain the administration's primary focus but officials at the Pentagon and the State Department are also beginning to take stock of the American weapons that have fallen into Taliban hands, an effort that sources tell CNN will likely take weeks or months due to the sheer volume of arms provided to Afghan forces over the last two decades.

In the interim, photographs and videos showing Taliban fighters carrying US-supplied M4 carbines and M16 rifles are fueling questions about how much American firepower the militant group now has at its disposal after seizing military bases across Afghanistan.
While US officials stress it is too early to provide details about specific weapons and vehicles now under Taliban control, Pentagon officials have already expressed concerns.

"When it comes to U.S.-provided equipment that is still in Afghanistan and may not be in the hands of ANSF [Afghan National Security Force], there are several options that we have at our disposal to try to deal with that problem set," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday.

"We don't, obviously, want to see our equipment in the hands of those who would act against our interest or the interest of the Afghan people, and increase violence and insecurity inside Afghanistan," he added.

At the moment, there are no plans for the US to take any action to destroy the weapons by using airstrikes or other means, unless something poses a direct threat to American troops at the airport, administration officials told CNN.

The destruction and removal of US equipment in Afghanistan started in earnest shortly after the Trump administration signed the Doha agreement in February 2020, and the military began reducing its footprint from 8,500 troops to 2,500. But it began, at a slower pace, even before that, when in 2018 US force levels dropped below 14,000.

Between 2013 and 2016, the US gave Afghan forces more than 600,000 light weapons, such as M16 and M4 rifles and nearly 80,000 vehicles, as well as night vision goggles, radios and more, according to a 2017 Government Accountability Office report.

Even more recently, the US Defense Department supplied the Afghan military with 7,000 machine guns, 4,700 Humvees and more than 20,000 grenades between 2017 and 2019, a report from the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction found. (The GAO and the special inspector general removed these reports at the request of the State Department to protect any Afghans identified within.)

Rifles, Humvees and millions of rounds of ammo: Taliban celebrate their new American arsenal
By Zachary Cohen and Oren Liebermann, CNN

Updated 1017 GMT (1817 HKT) August 21, 2021
Taliban post video showing seized US weapons

MIAN POSHTEH, AFGHANISTAN - JULY 14: U.S. Marine Sergeant Nathan Harris from Yadkinville, North Carolina (C) with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, RCT 2nd Battalion 8th Marines Echo Co. speaks to an Afghan man through a Marine interpreter (L) after seeing suspicious activity near their base on July 14, 2009 in Mian Poshteh, Afghanistan . The Marines are part of Operation Khanjari which was launched to take areas in the Southern Helmand Province that Taliban fighters are using as a resupply route and to help the local Afghan population prepare for the upcoming presidential elections. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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Taliban fighters patrol in Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. The Taliban declared an "amnesty" across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government Tuesday, seeking to convince a wary population that they have changed a day after deadly chaos gripped the main airport as desperate crowds tried to flee the country. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
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MIAN POSHTEH, AFGHANISTAN - JULY 14: U.S. Marine Sergeant Nathan Harris from Yadkinville, North Carolina (C) with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, RCT 2nd Battalion 8th Marines Echo Co. speaks to an Afghan man through a Marine interpreter (L) after seeing suspicious activity near their base on July 14, 2009 in Mian Poshteh, Afghanistan . The Marines are part of Operation Khanjari which was launched to take areas in the Southern Helmand Province that Taliban fighters are using as a resupply route and to help the local Afghan population prepare for the upcoming presidential elections. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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An Afghan woman walks through an alley in the old quarters of Kabul on July 12, 2021. (Photo by Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP) (Photo by SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images)
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screengrab Seven Network, CNN, CNN TURK, CNN Prima
See how global leaders reacted to the Taliban's takeover
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Taliban post video showing seized US weapons
CNN's Clarissa Ward reports Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport as thousands of people try to evacuate Afghanistan as the Taliban consolidate their control.
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Watch chaos unfold at Kabul airport's north gate

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Gen. Petraeus: The Taliban will be in an extraordinary bind
Taliban fighters patrol in Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. The Taliban declared an "amnesty" across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government Tuesday, seeking to convince a wary population that they have changed a day after deadly chaos gripped the main airport as desperate crowds tried to flee the country. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
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(CNN)US national security officials are working to account for more than 20 years worth of weapons provided to the Afghan military as images of Taliban fighters brandishing American-made rifles and riding in abandoned Humvees are raising concerns about what else was left behind.

The Taliban's newfound American arsenal is likely not limited to small arms, as the group captured sizable stockpiles of weapons and vehicles held at strongholds once controlled by US-backed forces, including modern mine-resistant vehicles (MRAPs) and Humvees.
Initial estimates suggest the Taliban may now also possess several Black Hawk helicopters and other US-funded military aircraft, according to a congressional source familiar with early assessments provided by defense officials.
That potentially includes roughly 20 A-29 Tucano attack planes, the source said, noting there are some indications that only a small number of aircraft were relocated from a base in Kandahar before it was overrun by the Taliban.
"We are also concerned that some may end up in the hands of others who support the Taliban's cause," the congressional source told CNN. "My biggest fear is that the sophisticated weaponry will be sold to our adversaries and other non-state actors who intend to use it against us and our allies."
Taliban fighters stand guard at an entrance gate outside the Interior Ministry in Kabul on August 17, 2021.
Taliban fighters stand guard at an entrance gate outside the Interior Ministry in Kabul on August 17, 2021.
It's unclear exactly how much equipment fell into Taliban hands during the collapse of the Afghan military, and the US is unlikely to get a perfect and precise answer to that question because there is no longer a US troop and intelligence presence throughout the country, two defense officials told CNN.
"There's no exact accountability on what's left," one official said.
The Biden administration has faced a wave of criticism for failing to anticipate the Taliban's rapid takeover of Afghanistan and for the chaos unfolding at Kabul's airport as thousands of people attempt to flee the country.
Evacuation operations remain the administration's primary focus but officials at the Pentagon and the State Department are also beginning to take stock of the American weapons that have fallen into Taliban hands, an effort that sources tell CNN will likely take weeks or months due to the sheer volume of arms provided to Afghan forces over the last two decades.
In the interim, photographs and videos showing Taliban fighters carrying US-supplied M4 carbines and M16 rifles are fueling questions about how much American firepower the militant group now has at its disposal after seizing military bases across Afghanistan.
While US officials stress it is too early to provide details about specific weapons and vehicles now under Taliban control, Pentagon officials have already expressed concerns.
Biden administration embroiled in internal blame-shifting amid Afghanistan chaos
Biden administration embroiled in internal blame-shifting amid Afghanistan chaos
"When it comes to U.S.-provided equipment that is still in Afghanistan and may not be in the hands of ANSF [Afghan National Security Force], there are several options that we have at our disposal to try to deal with that problem set," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday.
"We don't, obviously, want to see our equipment in the hands of those who would act against our interest or the interest of the Afghan people, and increase violence and insecurity inside Afghanistan," he added.
At the moment, there are no plans for the US to take any action to destroy the weapons by using airstrikes or other means, unless something poses a direct threat to American troops at the airport, administration officials told CNN.
The destruction and removal of US equipment in Afghanistan started in earnest shortly after the Trump administration signed the Doha agreement in February 2020, and the military began reducing its footprint from 8,500 troops to 2,500. But it began, at a slower pace, even before that, when in 2018 US force levels dropped below 14,000.
Between 2013 and 2016, the US gave Afghan forces more than 600,000 light weapons, such as M16 and M4 rifles and nearly 80,000 vehicles, as well as night vision goggles, radios and more, according to a 2017 Government Accountability Office report. Even more recently, the US Defense Department supplied the Afghan military with 7,000 machine guns, 4,700 Humvees and more than 20,000 grenades between 2017 and 2019, a report from the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction found. (The GAO and the special inspector general removed these reports at the request of the State Department to protect any Afghans identified within.)


In the last two years alone, the US has also given the Afghan military more than 18 million rounds of 7.62mm and .50-caliber ammunition, according to a tally of the special inspector general's quarterly reports.

Some of this no doubt fell into Taliban hands, officials say. In the final weeks of the withdrawal, a number of the strikes the US carried out in Afghanistan were designed to destroy American equipment about to be overrun by the Taliban, two officials said. The US didn't destroy all of the equipment left for the Afghan military because it believed, until it was too late, that Afghan forces would fight back.

However, the fact that a significant number of weapons and vehicles were left behind is a symptom of the broader lack of planning that went into the withdrawal itself, according to Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal.

"There were so many problems with the decision to withdraw, and as soon as the decision was made by President Biden the military's singular focus was to draw down," he told CNN.

"He had no time to consider how to transition -- things like how the Afghan would operate on its own and maintain its own aircraft. How the US would transition weapons systems to the Afghans and to assess the viability of the Afghan security forces," Roggio added.

Even before Biden's withdrawal announcement earlier this year, US officials acknowledged that even if the initial withdrawal deadline of May 1 were extended, some equipment may have to be destroyed or handed off to the Afghan military -- noting the latter carried an obvious risk of it being seized by the Taliban, according to a source familiar with internal planning discussions about Afghanistan at the time.

Striking the right balance between leaving enough resources for Afghan forces to continue fighting and mitigating the risk of weapons falling into the wrong hands was always going to be a difficult challenge for the US military, but it was compounded by the fact that the Biden administration was seemingly caught off guard by the speed of the Taliban advance -- something the President and top officials have acknowledged publicly.

While the Taliban can certainly make immediate use of US-made small arms and armored vehicles, officials are skeptical they can turn American aircraft into a viable fighting unit.
"Our soldiers, sailors, and airmen spend months and months training to use their aircraft," one official said. "The Taliban doesn't."

"The more sophisticated weaponry is a far greater challenge for the Taliban,"
Roggio told CNN.

"The helicopters and planes are going to be very difficult for them to maintain as viable over a long period of time. Less so the Russian aircraft, which they have more experience with, and the Pakistanis could help with those too," he added. "They may be able to use the aircraft in the short and medium term but without some type of supply chain it makes their life span relatively short."

"What they really gained in combat power is the armored vehicles and the light armored vehicles and even some tanks and artillery pieces," Roggio said.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/21/politics/us-weapons-arsenal-taliban-afghanistan/index.html
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Postby Canuckster » Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:27 pm

Why Biden isn't being strung up and hung from a bridge is amazing to me. America is fucked
People say they all want the truth, but when they are confronted with a truth that disagrees with them, they balk at it as if it were an unwanted zombie apocalypse come to destroy civilization.

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Postby Edge Guerrero » Sat Aug 21, 2021 9:27 pm

Canuckster wrote:Why Biden isn't being strung up and hung from a bridge is amazing to me. America is fucked


- He was always a war-hawk.
There's talking of private contractors going around rescuing people!
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Postby Edge Guerrero » Sun Aug 22, 2021 12:39 am

US tells citizens to avoid Kabul airport

The US has warned its citizens to avoid Kabul airport amid continued chaos outside the terminal.

A security alert issued on Saturday told US citizens to stay away due to "potential security threats outside the gates".

Only those individually told to make the journey by a US government representative should do so, it said.

The advice comes as thousands try to escape from Afghanistan via the airport following the Taliban takeover.

The militant group swept across the country and captured the capital, Kabul, on 15 August. Since then, tens of thousands of Afghans - as well as foreign nationals - have headed to the airport in a bid to flee the country.

Crowds have been gathering daily, hoping to be allowed on to a flight. Those who work with the US and its allies, as well as people who have campaigned on issues like human rights, fear they may face reprisals at the hands of the Taliban if they are unable to leave.


What exactly has been happening at the airport gates on Saturday remains unclear.

However, Sky News' chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay said that people at the front of the crowd of thousands were being "crushed to death", with British soldiers pulling those in danger from the throng.

He has described it as "the worst day by far", and said they believed people had died at the scene.

In a briefing on Saturday, the US Department of Defense said 17,000 people have been flown out of the airport, including some 2,500 US citizens.

An official said a "small number" of Americans and Afghans the US wanted to evacuate had faced harassment. In some cases, they had been beaten on their way to the airport.

A spokesperson for the US State Department later told the BBC they issued the guidance to avoid large crowds outside the airport gates.

It is also because they now have the capacity to communicate with US citizens "on a personalised basis", to give them "tailored instructions" on how to travel, the spokesperson said.

Other countries have also warned about the situation on the ground.

Germany's government issued a statement saying the airport remains "extremely dangerous and access to the airport is often not possible", while the Swiss foreign ministry announced the security situation had "deteriorated significantly in the last few hours" and postponed a chartered evacuation flight from Kabul.

US forces are currently controlling the international airport. They are helping to evacuate their own citizens and those of other countries, including Afghans who worked with Western forces and fear for their safety under the Taliban.

But the US has set a withdrawal date of 31 August for their troops, and it is unclear what will happen after this date.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says several countries from the alliance have proposed that Kabul airport remain open for evacuations beyond 31 August to allow them to get more people out.

The BBC understands the UK is one of these countries, and is requesting an extension of a few days.

Some fear they will not be able to evacuate all their citizens, or all the Afghans they believe to be in danger, as they struggle to process all those queueing at the airport and to step up the number of evacuation flights.

Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, told AFP news agency that it was "mathematically impossible" for the US to evacuate all Afghans with travel permits by 31 August.

The EU had "complained" to the US that their security was too strict and was stopping Afghans who had worked for Europeans to enter the airport, he said.

On Friday, US President Joe Biden vowed that "any American who wants to come home, we will get you home". But he admitted the evacuation was "not without risk of loss", declaring it "one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history".

The Taliban, meanwhile, are trying to consolidate their control over Afghanistan.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group's co-founder, has now arrived in Kabul and is set to join talks on establishing a new government.

He is the most senior Taliban leader now in the country and is likely to become a leading figure in any Taliban-led government.

A Taliban official told Reuters news agency that they hoped to have a model for governing Afghanistan within the next few weeks.

It will not be a democracy like in the West but it will "protect everyone's rights", he told the agency.

Mr Baradar signed an agreement with the US in 2020, in which the US agreed to withdraw all its forces from Afghanistan.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58293832
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Megaterio Llamas
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Postby Megaterio Llamas » Sun Aug 22, 2021 1:38 am

Canuckster wrote:Why Biden isn't being strung up and hung from a bridge is amazing to me. America is fucked


That might be the point of this debacle. To push Biden out and usher in the unelectable Kamala Harris regime.

That's one theory making the rounds.
el rey del mambo

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Edge Guerrero
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Location: Smackdown Hotel at "the corner of Know Your Role Blvd

Postby Edge Guerrero » Sun Aug 22, 2021 4:53 pm

- Biden is gonna get a Nobel Prize
- I rent this space for advertising

Don't be selfish, preserve this world for the next generations.

I'll never long for what might have been
Regret won't waste my life again
I won't look back I'll fight to remain

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Megaterio Llamas
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Postby Megaterio Llamas » Mon Aug 23, 2021 10:19 am

el rey del mambo


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