Military evacuation flights resume at Kabul airport
Tuesday, 17 August 2021 (14:59 IST)
Military evacuation flights for diplomats and civilians out of Afghanistan resumed on Tuesday after chaos enveloped Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport as thousands of Afghans desperate to flee flooded onto the tarmac.
A Western security official told Reuters, "Many people who were here yesterday have gone home."
Late Monday, the German Defense Ministry said an air force A400M transport aircraft was able to leave Kabul with German citizens and local Afghan employees on board. The Uzbek capital Tashkent is serving as Germany's evacuation hub with people being ferried there by military transport before catching commercial flights to Germany.
General Hank Taylor, a logistics specialist on the Pentagon's joint chiefs of staff told news agency AFP that US forces were running military and civilian air traffic control at the Kabul airport. He said 3,000 to 3,500 US troops were on the ground by the end of the day Monday Washington time to secure the airport.
General Taylor said flights out of Kabul resumed at 2:35 a.m. local time.
Indian embassy in Kabul to close
India is closing its embassy and recalling its ambassador.
The foreign ministry spokesman, Arindam Bagchi, wrote on Twitter, "In view of the prevailing circumstances, it has been decided that our ambassador in Kabul and his Indian staff will move to India immediately."
In view of the prevailing circumstances, it has been decided that our Ambassador in Kabul and his Indian staff will move to India immediately.
Monday's developments: airport chaos, Western leaders speak up
Chaotic scenes unfolded Monday at Kabul's airport as thousands of desperate Afghans struggled to board flights out of their country after the collapse of the central government in recent days. Some were so desperate they clung to a departing US air force C-17, with two falling from the sky and landing on homes near the airport, a US official and cell phone footage shared on social media showed.
TW: Disturbing images
A US military plane took off from Kabul airport with desperate locals still clinging to the aircraft. At least two people died after falling from the sky. pic.twitter.com/tQPK6UzmiF
For the first time since the fall of Kabul Sunday, Western leaders including US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the rapid fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
Merkel said it was the "wrong assessment" that the Afghan army would fight to defend the country. Macron called for "a robust, coordinated and united response" for handling the anticipated migrant outflows from Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in charge.
For his part, Biden said it was "the right decision" to withdraw from Afghanistan, noting "there was never a good time to withdraw forces."
He also delivered a sharp rebuke of the surge in 2009 under then President Barack Obama when he was vice-president and his immediate predecessor then Donald Trump's negotiations with the Taliban that reduced US forces to a skeletal 2,500 in Afghanistan and hemmed him in considerably. He also said US forces could not stand in forever for Afghan security forces who were unwilling to fight.
