Taliban blame US for airport chaos as Afghans face impossible race to flee

The Taliban on Sunday blamed the United States for the chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans and foreigners from the capital, one week after the hardline Islamist group returned to power in a rapid victory that stunned the world.

The United States has warned of security threats and the European Union admitted it was "impossible" to evacuate everyone at risk from the Taliban, who have vowed a softer version of their brutal rule from 1996-2001.

But terrified Afghans continue to try to flee, deepening a tragedy at Kabul airport where the United States and its allies have been unable to cope with the huge numbers of people trying to get on evacuation flights.

"America, with all its power and facilities... has failed to bring order to the airport. There is peace and calm all over the country, but there is chaos only at Kabul airport," Taliban official Amir Khan Mutaqi said.

A NATO official said on Sunday at least 20 people have died in the past seven days in and around the Kabul airport during the evacuation effort.

"The crisis outside the Kabul airport is unfortunate. Our focus is to evacuate all foreigners as soon as we can," the official, who sought anonymity, told Reuters.

Britain's defence ministry said Sunday seven people had died in the crowds, without giving further details.

A journalist, who was among a group of other media workers and academics lucky enough to get to the airport on Sunday for a flight, described desperate scenes of people surrounding their bus on the way in.

"They were showing us their passports and shouting 'take us with you... please take us with you'," the journalist told AFP.

"The Taliban fighter in the truck ahead of us had to shoot in the air to make them go away."

Britain's Sky News on Saturday aired footage of at least three bodies covered in white tarpaulin outside the airport. It was not clear how they had died.

Reporter Stuart Ramsay, who was at the airport, called the deaths "inevitable" and said people were being "crushed", while others were "dehydrated and terrified".

The footage was the latest imagery of utter despair, after video of a baby being lifted over a wall at the airport and horror scenes of people hanging onto departing planes.

'Impossible' deadline

The United States, which has thousands of troops trying to secure the airport, has set a deadline to complete the evacuations by 31 August.

But there are up to 15,000 Americans and 50,000 to 60,000 Afghan allies who need to be evacuated, according to the Biden administration.

Countless others fear repression under the Taliban and are also trying to flee.

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US President Joe Biden has described the evacuation operations as "one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history".

The situation was further complicated on Saturday when the US government warned its citizens to stay away from the airport because of "security threats".

No specific reason was given, but a White House official later said Mr Biden had been briefed on security threats, including from the Islamic State jihadist group.

In the days following the fall of Kabul to Taliban movement, there are scenes of chaos and panic at the airport.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell gave a bleak assessment of whether the airlift would succeed.

"They want to evacuate 60,000 people between now and the end of this month. It's mathematically impossible," he told AFP.

Mr Borrell added that "we have complained" to the Americans that their airport security was overly strict and hampering attempts by Afghans who worked for the Europeans to enter.

On Saturday, the Pentagon said 17,000 people had been taken out since the operation began on 14 August, including 2,500 Americans.

Thousands more have left on other foreign military flights.

The Taliban have been publicly content with the US military overseeing the airlift, while focusing on forming a government.

The group's co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar flew into Kabul and planned to meet jihadi leaders, elders and politicians in the coming days, an official told AFP.

Among them are leaders of the Haqqani network, a US-designated terrorist organisation with million-dollar bounties on its leadership.

The Taliban stunned the world when they swept into Kabul last week, ending two decades of war, facing virtually no opposition from government forces that had been trained and equipped by the US-led alliance.

However, there have been since been flickers of resistance with some ex-government troops gathering in the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, long known as an anti-Taliban bastion.

One of the leaders of the movement, named the National Resistance Front, is the son of famed anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

The NRF is prepared for a "long-term conflict" but is also still seeking to negotiate with the Taliban about an inclusive government, its spokesman Ali Maisam Nazary told AFP in an interview.

"The conditions for a peace deal with the Taliban is decentralisation, a system that ensures social justice, equality, rights, and freedom for all."

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