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re: TALIBAN/ISIS Kabul Airport Bomb Attack-Biden WARNS 'We Will Hunt You & Make You Pay'
Chaos as Kabul Airport Closes After Fatal Crush at The Barricades
Former British ambassador to Afghanistan: 'Talk to the Taliban, talk with allies, and put this on a properly organised basis'
Former British MP Tony Blair slams Joe Biden's 'imbecilic' retreat from Afghanistan
The Telegraph UK, 22 AUG 2021.
Shocking images have shown babies passed over barded wire walls Credit: AFP
British troops save a woman during a stampede at the airport Credit: Sky News
Bodies covered in white sheets amid evacuation scramble
Kabul airport was shut down on Saturday and US citizens were urged not to head there in their attempt to flee Afghanistan, as the situation in the country degenerated further.
The US State Department announced it was closing the airport for at least 48 hours to concentrate on processing the hundreds already inside.
With the scenes outside the besieged airport growing ever more desperate, the US military had resorted to dispatching helicopters into the Afghan capital to ferry terrified evacuees unable to reach the terminal.
On Saturday afternoon it locked the airport gates, saying no more people would be allowed in until the huge backlog of refugees and fleeing nationals had been cleared.
The British military says seven Afghan civilians have been killed in the crowds near the airport.
The Defense Ministry said in a statement on Sunday that "conditions on the ground remain extremely challenging but we are doing everything we can to manage the situation as safely and securely as possible."
In an advisory notification, the US Embassy warned its nationals: "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 instruction was a sign of the chaos surrounding the operation to evacuate foreign nationals from the country, along with thousands of refugees desperate to flee the Taliban.
Outside the airport perimeter fence tensions grew, with families – several waving UK passports – begging British soldiers and Afghan security guards to let them onto the runway.
British squaddies were forced to scream “get back, get back” at parents and children fleeing their homes for fear of what the new Islamist regime will bring.
Among them was Khalid, a former interpreter for the British army, whose wife gave birth just two weeks ago. He fears the baby could now die amid the heat and crowds outside the airport.
“I've been here since the morning," he said, "The Taliban lashed me on the back on my way."
In the skies above a fleet of US helicopters ferried over 150 Americans who had been unable to reach the airport gates, in the first sign that US forces were willing and able to go beyond the US-secured compound to help people seeking evacuation.
Three US Chinooks had been deployed due to concerns for the Americans' safety in crossing a huge crowd that had gathered outside the airport's Abbey entry gate.
The helicopter evacuation came as it emerged that private contractors are planning to evacuate Afghan special forces commandos and their families.
'Moral obligation to our fellow Afghan Warriors'
A US group based in Alabama has been given clearance to fly privately chartered planes into Kabul to extract members of the Afghan commando anti-terrorism units, trained by SAS and US Special Forces since 2003, along with family members, in a deal brokered by Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and the Taliban Sunni representatives at the behest of a Trump-appointed US lobbyist Richard Hohlt.
The Telegraph has learned that the flight, originating out of Istanbul, would not be permitted to return to Turkey, which has barred Afghan refugees, but would in all likelihood bring them to Bahrain or Dubai.
Ark Salus, described as a US special operations veterans-based charity, said it had chartered a Boeing 737 "to save 4,650 women and children" in an operation it has called "Wings of Eagles."
Organisers say they have raised $500,000 toward the costs of the mission to date.
"We have a moral obligation to our fellow Afghan Warriors to safeguard them, their wives and children, and rescue them from Kabul, just as they have brought us home to our families," the organisation announced on its website.
Peter Quinn, an organiser with Ark Salus and a veteran of five combat tours in Afghanistan, told The Telegraph the units have gone to ground but they're still there and still communicating. "They've shed their uniforms. They are in hiding, and waiting to know when to get to the airport."
In a reflection of tensions within the US and UK operations, the former British ambassador to Afghanistan has said the urgency with which the evacuation is being conducted is adding to the panic.
Evacuation 'will take weeks, not hours and days'
Sir Nick Kaye said: “We should release Afghans from the panic by saying this will take some time and we are committed to completing it. This is somehow being portrayed as a race against time. But who has set that time and why? I think that there should now be an acknowledgement that this is a process that will take weeks, not hours and days.”
He added: “The point of failure is access to the airport. People are panicking. Now, everybody needs to take a deep breath, stand back, get organisations involved, who know how to do these things, like the international organisation for migration, the UN body, talk to the Taliban, talk with allies and put this on a properly organised basis.”
Afghans civilians are evacuated by the US military on August 19, 2021, at an undisclosed location.
Meanwhile, German armed forces are sending two more helicopters to Kabul to rescue individual German citizens or local workers.
At Ramstein air base in south western Germany, 11 aircraft have arrived since Friday, carrying 1,550 evacuees.
Here they are taken to a processing centre, registered and tested for Covid-19, before being given shelter. A total of 2,000 people have been airlifted out of Kabul by the German military.
But Switzerland has postponed a charter flight to Uzbekistan aimed at helping the evacuation effort. Its foreign ministry said the worsening security situation has hindered access on the ground to Kabul airport.
The White House is considering activating the Civil Reserve Air Fleet and using up to 20 commercial jets from five airlines to move thousands of evacuees stranded at US bases in Qatar, Bahrain and Germany, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Back outside the airport Helmand Khan, an Uber driver from west London, who had arrived with his young children in Afghanistan a few months ago to visit relatives, was beseeching soldiers to give his family access.
Trying to get into a secure compound for refugees with his two sons he showed his UK passport to the British troops guarding it. Mr Khan said soldierrs would not let them in, even though the British embassy had told him to take his family to the airport.
“I came here this morning, 5 am. Three days I’m trying to get inside,” he told the BBC. “You've seen my British passport, these are my children.”
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