Taliban open fire, beat up women, kids outside Kabul airport
Afghanistan Latest News: Although the Taliban promised safe passage to the Kabul airport for people trying to flee the country, there have been incidents of violence at the checkpoints on airport roads. Photographs of women and children being beaten and whipped by the Taliban fighters have surfaced showing the brutal face of the insurgents. Reports of civilians - women and children - being beaten, houses being ransacked have been pouring in since August 15 - the day the Taliban seized control of capital Kabul.
According to reports, the US troops who have taken over the control of the Hamid Karzai International airport in Kabul on Wednesday night opened controlled firing to disperse the crowd. However, Taliban fighters resorted to indiscriminate firing outside the Northern Gate at the airport, leading to chaos. Reports say that women and children were beaten as they passed through checkpoints set up by Taliban fighters to reach the airport to flee the country.
Reports say that Taliban fighters are checking the documents and forcibly turning some people around at the checkpoints, refusing to let them reach the airport. At least 40 people have lost their lives in violence at Kabul airport so far.
The US and other countries have resumed their flights to evacuate their citizens. Commercial flights are still not operating.
Reports said people of various ages, both women and men, some without passports, are seeking to board aircraft and evacuate the country. Large numbers of women are attempting to flee, saying the desperate situation in the country is compelling them to go.
Earlier this week, disturbing visuals emerged from Kabul airport showing people clinging to planes to escape the country. Two people even fell from the undercarriage of the plane while the flight took off from the airport.
Taliban entered Kabul on Sunday and took control of the presidential palace. Soon after the terror group claimed control over the Afghan capital, several countries started evacuating their diplomatic personnel and people from the country. President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, bringing a stunning end to a two-decade campaign in which the US and its allies had tried to transform the country. The fall of Kabul marked the final chapter of America’s longest war, which began after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. A US-led invasion dislodged the Taliban and beat them back, but America lost focus on the conflict in the chaos of the Iraq war.
For years, the US sought an exit from Afghanistan. Then-President Donald Trump signed a deal with the Taliban in February 2020 that limited direct military action against the insurgents. That allowed the fighters to gather strength and move quickly to seize key areas when President Joe Biden announced his plans to withdraw all American forces by the end of this month.
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