Women and children were trampled as gunshots rang out at Kabul airport today – while a German civilian was shot trying to reach the airstrip and the UK warned that evacuation flights could stop in just a few days and some people who have been promised sanctuary will end up being left behind.
Footage taken outside the north gate of Hamid Karzai airport showed how families were shoved to the floor as crowds surged away from the gates as soldiers let off smoke grenades and fired into the air, with young children trodden on as screams pierced the air.
It is just the latest in a shameful string of videos to come from the airport that has included babies being passed over barbed wire, women being whipped, and men plunging to their deaths from planes as western nations are chased out of Afghanistan by the Taliban.
Meanwhile the German government said a male civilian was shot on their way to their airport but their injuries are not thought to be life-threatening and they will be evacuated ‘soon’
US President Joe Biden is facing mounting fury across the world for abandoning Afghans to their fate – and yesterday it emerged that his administration last month that the Afghan capital would quickly fall to the Taliban after an American withdrawal.
British SAS troops are now being sent outside the airport perimeter to find and extract those who are trapped, but it is almost certain the ‘small teams’ will not be able to reach everyone who needs help in time.
And Germany said it has flown special forces helicopters into the country in the hopes that they can fly rescue missions to retrieve German citizens and others who are trapped in Kabul and bring them to the airport.
Tokhi, 34, a former British interpreter, told The Times that he has been to the airport three times since UK forces emailed him early this week to say he had a seat on a flight out – but has so-far failed to get past even the first of two Taliban checkpoints blocking the entrance he needs to reach.
Meanwhile Shafiqa, who trained with British special forces near Kabul, said she and two female colleagues have filled out forms requesting space on UK flights but have yet to be called to the airport even as the Taliban tries to hunt them down.
The 26-year-old said she has fled her home due to rumours that Islamist fighters have accessed lists of British collaborators and are now using them as hit-lists. She is now moving between houses in the city in the hopes she can dodge the jihadists long enough for space on an evacuation flight to free up.
Evacuation flights are continuing to depart today with the US hoping to take some 2,000 people out and the UK another 1,000.
Britain has promised to evacuate some 7,000 UK citizens and Afghan staff from the country, in addition to 5,000 refugees, but armed forces minister James Heappey warned today that not everyone who needs help will get it.
‘The sad truth is, we don’t have it in our gift to stay there until absolutely everyone is out,’ he told BBC Radio 4. ‘The air bridge could last two more days, five more days, ten more days.’
Responding to criticism that British aircraft are leaving the airfield under-capacity, he said the armed forces are ‘working hard’ to make sure each plane is filled.
On Thursday 963 people were taken out of Kabul, he said, and added that another 1,000 were due to leave on Friday – though that is below the government’s initial 1,200-a-day target.
The US has evacuated some 7,000 people since Sunday, a Pentagon spokesman said Thursday, bringing the total since July to 12,000 with a target of at least 22,000 – though aid groups have said 80,000 would need to be flown out to keep Biden’s promise to provide sanctuary to all those who helped US forces.
NATO said a total of 18,000 people have been flown out of the country since Sunday which includes staff of smaller missions – far short of promises by western countries to take more than 100,000 Afghan refugees between them and even as some 50,000 wait for salvation outside the airport gates.
One image laid bare the extent of the empty promises – showing what is thought to be a Norwegian mercy flight taking off from Kabul carrying the wife of a British ex-Marine who is still stranded in Afghanistan, but almost nobody else.
Posting the image on Twitter last night, Paul ‘Pen’ Farthing wrote: ‘Kaisa is on her way home! BUT this aircraft is empty… scandalous as thousands wait outside Kabul airport being crushed as they cannot get in. Sadly people will be left behind when this mission is over as we CANNOT get it right.’
