Afghanistan: US warns citizens to avoid Kabul airport amid security threats as thousands try to flee
- The Taliban denied responsibility for the chaos outside Kabul airport, saying the West ‘could have had a better plan to evacuate’
- Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar, who was part of the negotiating team in Qatar, has arrived in Kabul for talks on a new Afghan government
The advisory came after Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar arrived in Kabul for talks with other leaders to hammer out a new Afghan government after the Taliban’s lightning advance across the country.
Images circulated on social media this week of Afghans rushing towards a US C-17 transport plane and clinging to its side. A separate video showed what appeared to be two people falling from a military plane as it flew out of Kabul.
Since then, crowds have grown at the airport where armed Taliban have urged those without travel documents to go home. At least 12 people have been killed in and around the single runway airfield since Sunday, Nato and Taliban officials said.
“Because of potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport, we are advising US citizens to avoid travelling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a US government representative to do so,” the US embassy advisory said.
The chaos was not the responsibility of the Taliban, said an official of the group. “The West could have had a better plan to evacuate.”