Chaos and deaths at Kabul airport as desperate Afghans climb US jet to escape
- Hundreds of Afghans jam Kabul’s airport after Taliban seize capital
- US troops at airport helping evacuation of embassy staff, other civilians
The crowds of people rushing the airport came as the Taliban enforced their rule over the wider capital after a lightning advance across the country that took just over a week to dethrone the country’s Western-backed government.
While there were no major reports of abuses, many stayed home and remained fearful as the insurgents’ advance saw prisons emptied and armouries looted.
The Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, bringing an end to a two-decade campaign in which the US and its allies had tried to transform Afghanistan.
Russia’s embassy in Kabul said on Monday that Ghani had fled with four cars and a helicopter full of cash and had to leave some money behind as it would not all fit in, the RIA news agency reported.
Residents raced to Kabul’s international airport, where the “civilian side” was closed until further notice, according to Afghanistan’s Civil Aviation Authority. The US military and other Western forces continued to organise evacuations.
Videos circulating on social media showed hundreds of people running across the tarmac as US troops fired warning shots in the air. One showed a crowd pushing and shoving its way up a staircase, trying to board a plane, with some people hanging off the railings.