Taliban forces have sealed off the Kabul airport as NATO nations finish their evacuation flights from Afghanistan. Western leaders on Saturday acknowledged that their withdrawal would mean leaving some of their citizens and many Afghan locals who have helped them over the years. And they promised to try to work with the Taliban to allow local allies to leave even after the deadline for Tuesday set by President Joe Biden to withdraw from the country. Taliban forces reinforced perimeter checkpoints around the airport on Saturday, two days after a suicide attack by an Islamic State-affiliated group killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 US troops. Biden warned on Saturday that commanders believe another attack is “highly likely” within 24-36 hours.
Although most of their allies had finished their evacuation flights, the United States had planned to continue their flights 24/7 until deadline, saying 117,000 people had been evacuated since the Taliban claimed Kabul on Aug.15. .
The English case
Britain was carrying out its final evacuation flights Saturday, although Prime Minister Boris Johnson had promised to “move heaven and earth” to get more people at risk from the Taliban to Britain by other means. British Ambassador to Afghanistan, Laurie Bristow, said in a video from the Kabul airport and posted on Twitter that it was “time to close this phase of the operation now”. “But we haven’t forgotten the people who have yet to leave,” he said. “We will continue to do everything we can to help them. Nor have we forgotten the brave and honest people of Afghanistan. They deserve to live in peace and security.”
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Flights to all over the world
Meanwhile, as the flow of planes departing from Kabul slowed the pace, others arrived at locations around the world carrying Afghans who managed to secure seats on the latest evacuation flights, including in the Washington area, Philadelphia, Madrid, Birmingham, England. .
In Spain, Shabeer Ahmadi, a 29-year-old journalist targeted by the Taliban, said the United States condemned the work he and others did to make Afghanistan a better place by allowing the insurgent group to regain power. : “They have abandoned the new generation of Afghanistan,” Ahmadi said.
The child born in flight
An evacuation flight to Britain landed with an extra passenger on Saturday after cabin crew delivered a baby girl in mid-air, Turkish media reported. Her parents called her Havva, or Eve, and she was at least the fourth baby known to have been born to Afghan mothers who went into labor during evacuation flights.
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The victims
Meanwhile, the families of Afghans killed in Thursday’s suicide bombing at the airport by an affiliate of the Islamic State group continued to bury their dead: at least 169 Afghans and 13 members of the state service died in the attack. United. Among the victims was Belal Azfali, a 36-year-old contractor for a US-funded project who had gone to the airport alone, without his wife. His remains were so disfigured that it was only possible to identify him when someone answered repeated calls from the family on their cell phone, relatives said.
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