Calm at Kabul Airport after 12 killed since Sunday, Taliban give safe passage to fleeing Afghans

Gulf Today Report

As the United States and other Western powers pressed on with the evacuation of their nationals and some Afghans on Thursday, a total of 12 people have been killed in and around the airport in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

According to Sky News, new UK paratroopers have been sent to Kabul Airport on Thursday amid gunfire as evacuees await flights.

The Taliban seized the city on Sunday, triggering a rush of fearful people trying to leave.

The deaths were caused either by gunshots or in stampedes, the Taliban official said on Thursday, and he urged people still crowded at the gates of the facility to go home if they did not have the legal right to travel.

READ MORE

Chief of Talibans political office arrives in Kandahar province

UAE welcomes Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his family on humanitarian grounds

"We don't want to hurt anyone at the airport," said the Taliban official, who declined to be identified.

As the airlift of Western citizens and Afghans who worked for foreign governments sought to ramp up, President Joe Biden said US forces would remain until the evacuation of Americans was finished, even if that meant staying past the Aug. 31 US deadline for complete withdrawal.

Spanish and Afghan citizens who were evacuated from Kabul arrive at Torrejon airbase in Madrid. Reuters

Witnesses said Kabul's airport was calm early on Thursday.

In total, at least 8,000 people have been evacuated since Sunday, a Western security source in Kabul said.

A day earlier armed Taliban members prevented people from getting into the airport compound.

"It's a complete disaster. The Taliban were firing into the air, pushing people, beating them with AK47s," said one person who was trying to get through on Wednesday.

A Taliban official said commanders and soldiers had fired into the air to disperse crowds outside Kabul airport, but told Reuters: "We have no intention to injure anyone."