Taliban block Kabul airport to most as foreign airlifts wane [View all]

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By SAYED ZIARMAL HASHEMI, RAHIM FAIEZ, JILL LAWLESS and ELLEN KNICKMEYER

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban forces sealed off Kabul’s airport on Saturday to most Afghans hoping for evacuation, as the U.S. and its allies wound down a chaotic airlift that will end their troops’ two decades in Afghanistan.

Western leaders acknowledged that their withdrawal would mean leaving behind some of their citizens and many locals who helped them over the years, and they vowed to try to continue working with the Taliban to allow local allies to leave after President Joe Biden’s Tuesday’s deadline to withdraw from the country.

Although most of its allies had finished their evacuation flights, the U.S. planned to keep its round-the-clock flights going until the deadline, saying 117,000 people had been evacuated since the Taliban claimed Kabul on Aug. 15.

Britain was carrying out its final evacuation flights Saturday, though Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to “shift heaven and earth” to get more of those at risk from the Taliban to Britain by other means.



Taliban fighter patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/europe-business-afghanistan-united-nations-957bdc5ded58a337572313d27be13e73