Afghanistan: 200 foreigners leave Kabul in first airlift since US withdrawal

Dozens of foreigners, including Americans, boarded a commercial flight at Kabul airport on Thursday in the first large-scale evacuation since US and Nato forces withdrew from Afghanistan at the end of last month. The departure of some 200 Westerners on a Qatar Airways flight to Doha marked a significant breakthrough in the bumpy coordination between the US and Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers. The Taliban have promised to allow foreigners and Afghans with valid travel documents to leave, but a days-long stand-off over charter planes at another airport had cast some doubt on Taliban assurances. Earlier in the day as the group prepared to board, Qatari special envoy Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani declared it a “historic day.” “Call it what you want, a charter or a commercial flight, everyone has tickets and boarding passes,” al-Qahtani said from the Kabul airport tarmac, adding that another commercial flight would take off on Friday. “Hopefully, life is becoming normal in Afghanistan.” A senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to brief the media, provided the number of Westerners expected on board and said that two very senior Taliban officials had helped facilitate the departure. The 200 includes Americans, green card holders and other nationalities, the official said. “We are very appreciative of the Qataris,” one man told Al Jazeera TV, giving his nationality as Canadian. The flight represents the first to depart from Kabul airport since American forces left the country at the end of August, their departure accompanied by a frantic airlift of tens of thousands of foreign citizens and Afghans fleeing the Taliban. The scenes of chaos, including Afghans plunging to their deaths after clinging to military aircraft that was taking off and a suicide bombing that killed 169 Afghans and 13 US service members, came to define the fraught end to America’s two-decade war. Key players in the Taliban’s new Afghanistan government A foreign diplomat, likewise speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to brief the media, said another 200 foreigners, including Americans, would depart in the next couple of days. It remains uncertain what the resumption of international flights over the next few days will mean for the tens of thousands of Afghans desperate to flee Afghanistan’s new Taliban leaders over fears of what their rule will hold. Hundreds of other Afghans at risk after the Taliban takeover because of their past work with Americans have gathered for more than a week in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, waiting for permission to board privately chartered evacuation flights out of the country. The Taliban have said they will not prevent anyone who wishes to from leaving the country, even as they have urged skilled Afghans, such as doctors and engineers, to remain. The Islamist hardliners have pledged a more moderate brand of rule than in their notoriously oppressive 1996-2001 reign. However, they have shown clear signs that they will not tolerate opposition. Earlier this week armed Taliban militants dispersed hundreds of protesters in cities across Afghanistan, including Kabul, Faizabad in the northeast and in Herat in the west, where two people were shot dead. Late Wednesday, they moved to snuff out any further civil unrest, saying protests would need prior authorisation from the justice ministry, adding that no demonstrations were allowed “for the time being”. Women’s protests keep pressure on Taliban, which responds again with force One protest organiser said rallies in Kabul had been cancelled because of the overnight ban. A Taliban interim government, drawn exclusively from loyalist ranks, formally began work this week with established hardliners in all key posts and no women – despite previous promises of an inclusive administration for all Afghans. All the top positions have been handed to key leaders from the movement and in particular the Haqqani network – the most violent Taliban faction, known for devastating attacks. The dreaded Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice – previously responsible for arresting and punishing people for failing to implement the movement’s restrictive interpretation of sharia – is being reinstated. And on Thursday Cricket Australia said it would cancel a historic maiden Test match against Afghanistan unless the Taliban backtracks on a reported ban on women playing sport. Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

Afghanistan: 200 foreigners leave Kabul in first airlift since US withdrawal

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} The Qatar Airways flight is heading to Doha A diplomat said another 200 passengers, including Americans, would depart in the next couple of days

The Qatar Airways flight is heading to Doha

A diplomat said another 200 passengers, including Americans, would depart in the next couple of days