Mon 16 August 2021:
At least five people were killed at Kabul’s airport on Monday as some Afghans raced to flee the country while the Taliban consolidated its grip on the country, according to witnesses cited by Reuters.
US troops are in charge at the airport, helping in the evacuation of embassy staff and other civilians.
One witness said he had seen the bodies of five people being taken to a vehicle, while another witness said it was not clear whether the victims were killed by gunshots or in a stampede.
Officials were not immediately available to comment on the deaths.
The developments came a day after Afghanistan’s capital fell to the Taliban.
Another day begins in Kabul, a sea of people rushing into the Kabul airport terminal. #AFG pic.twitter.com/UekpGJ2MWd
— Jawad Sukhanyar (@JawadSukhanyar) August 16, 2021
“It was unclear how the people were killed. We do not know who has been shooting at the airport. It may have been airport staff trying to control the crowds or Taliban forces,” Al Jazeera’s Charlotte Bellis, reporting from Kabul, said.
“But people have died in this panic. Outside of that [the airport], things have been relatively smooth. The streets are very quiet,” she said.
The Al Jazeera correspondent said: “Scenes of utter chaos at the airport started last night [Sunday]”.
“Thousands of people trying to get into the airport. They essentially overran the airport after they clambered on the tarmac.”
Officials at the US Central Command weren’t immediately available for comment.
A US official told Reuters earlier that forces fired in the air at the airport to prevent hundreds of civilians running onto the tarmac.
“The crowd was out of control,” the official told Reuters by phone. “The firing was only done to defuse the chaos.”
Hundreds of Afghans have jammed the airport trying to get out of the country after Taliban insurgents entered the capital on Sunday.
Photo reportedly of victims of shooting at Kabul international airport this morning. #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/1KWz5j0qlG
— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) August 16, 2021
Afghan translator sending me photos of Kabul airport. He says the US won’t allow anyone to leave. People are getting frustrated. @abcnews pic.twitter.com/A4gVS9IdCU
— Sowaibah Hanifie (@SowaibahH) August 16, 2021
Commercial flights cancelled
The media office of Hamid Karzai International said in a statement that all civilian flights from the airport had been suspended.
The Taliban, for their part, urged people gathered at the airport to “go home”, as Taliban leaders at the site announced that “civilians will not be harmed.”
Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said on Twitter that the group has ordered its fighters not to enter homes without permission.
“Life, property and honor of none shall be harmed but must be protected by the Mujahedeen,” he said.
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