19:00 20/08/2021
Dramatic developments at Kabul airport
Around the airport of the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, chaos continues to prevail. Thousands flock to the airport grounds to secure a seat on the evacuation planes.
Bundeswehr General Jens Arlt, who heads the German evacuation mission, spoke of dramatic scenes. "It's all very, very turbulent," Arlt described the situation in an online press conference from Kabul. "You see the desperate eyes of citizens from different nations, who are simply trying to penetrate the internal environments of the airport."
The general reports on the control rings of the Taliban Islamists around the airport and its entrances, which are maintained by the US and other countries. People must first reach the outer territory of the airport. Checkpoints have also been set up in the city.
Local helpers of German aid organizations announce that the roads are blocked and partially impassable. In addition, US soldiers do not allow them to pass, two local employees told the DPA news agency. "American soldiers allow only their own people to pass." Another employee states that he tried from 20:00 in the evening until 02:00 in the morning to reach the airport. A US soldier told him that someone should come to verify and prove that he really worked for the Germans. Shots are constantly heard in the air. Tear gas was also thrown. Only a few foreign journalists are on the scene, among them CNN reporter Clarissa Ward. She speaks of a "tornado of stupidity" describing desperate Afghans throwing their children over the airport fence to safety. Taliban militants are in the streets with whips and guns, to prevent people from leaving.
"A situation worse than death awaits outside the airport"
Thousands of people - local and from other nations - flock to the airport grounds, hoping to find a plane to leave the country. "I came with my children and family to the airport", says a man who until recently worked for a foreign non-governmental organization. US soldiers and the Taliban have fired. However, people try to enter the airport, because they know that a situation worse than death awaits them outside the airport". Even in the embassy buildings in the city, according to eyewitnesses, people have gathered. Before, there were rumors that they could get visas there to travel abroad.
The foreign ministers of the countries of the G7 group asked the Taliban for guarantees for people who want to leave the country as well as for foreigners. Militias must guarantee security for all people who want to leave the country, said British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, whose country holds the next presidency of the G7 group of industrialized countries.
With their attack, the Taliban effectively took power in the Hindu Kush on Sunday. Many Afghans fear the return of the Islamist terror regime of 1996 and 2001. Germany, the US and other countries are meanwhile evacuating their own nationals and the Afghan auxiliaries of their organizations. The US Army, according to its own data, is mobilized at the airport with about 5200 soldiers./DW
Source of information @TvKlan: Read more at: www.botasot.al
