Visa bungle costs Australian ally a chance to escape the Taliban

A visa bungle has cost an Afghan who worked with Australian soldiers the chance to escape the Taliban. PLUS watch a video of the Taliban trying to fly a seized US Black Hawk helicopter.

An Afghan interpreter who worked with Australian soldiers fears his family will not escape the Taliban after a visa bungle at the airport gates, and a “very high threat” of terror attacks stalls evacuations.

The man, who cannot be named for security reasons, was still hiding with his pregnant wife and two children overnight after being mistakenly turned away from the Kabul airport by an Australian Defence Force member.

He said the ADF officer mistook the family’s approved visas to be only a “letter of offer” and would not let them onto the tarmac, and by the time they tried again all ­evacuees were being ordered to leave the area.

Crowds of people wait outside the airport in Kabul. Picture: Twitter/David_Martinon via Reuters

Australia and other allied forces told all visa holders and citizens not to travel to the Hamid Karzai Airport due to the terror risk on Wednesday.

The Taliban seized upon the ensuing chaos to move their checkpoint perimeter closer to the airport, effectively trapping the interpreter and his family in a no-man’s land.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the terror risk ­assessment was based on “credible” intelligence, while also acknowledging reports of attacks on women, children and threats at checkpoints.

“Our clear travel advice is now do not travel to Hamid Karzai Airport,” she said.

Australians and Afghans with visas have been told to “move to a safe location” away from the airport and “wait for advice”.

An extra 1200 people were still able to get out of Kabul on Wednesday across six flights, bringing the total number of people Australia has rescued to more than 4000 in partnership with New Zealand and the UK.

THE Taliban have taken a captured US Black Hawk chopper for a joy ride, but couldn't get the aircraft off the ground.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia would keep working to evacuate as many people as possible, but the government was making arrangements for a “post-evacuation resettlement phase”.

He said the 4000 evacuees were “probably more than three times what we would have anticipated” achieving a week ago.

“That has been done by Australians who have been putting themselves at great risk, for whom I also have a very personal responsibility as Prime Minister to do everything I can to ensure that I am … putting their safety very high, extremely high in our ­assessments,” he said.

There are 639 evacuees now in Australia quarantining.

The chaos at Kabul airport came as film surfaced of the Taliban trying to take off in a captured a US Black Hawk helicopter. Footage shows the chopper bouncing around a tarmac but unable to lift-off.

It is not known if the Taliban have been trained to fly Black Hawks, which can travel at 360km/h and weigh 6000kg.

The captured US Black Hawk chopper.

It is estimated the Taliban has captured about $25 billion of vehicles and weapons left by allied forces, including 20,000 Humvees and 200,000 weapons.

Last month the US transported seven Black Hawks to Afghanistan, valued at about $29 million.

The US fear there are about 150 helicopters and planes in the country, 45 of those are Black Hawks.

More than 200,000 firearms were donated to the Afghan army, including M24 snipers and assault weapons, according to a Department of Defence report.

The US has also funded more than 20,000 humvees and 40,000 light tactical vehicles, including Ford pick-up trucks, to Afghan defence forces.

The Taliban’s distinctive white flags are often seen flying from the four-wheel-drive military trucks.

Afghan troops were also given around 1000 wrecker trucks including hundreds of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.

It comes after pictures released by the propaganda arm of the Taliban showed their fighters armed with American guns and riding in US armoured vehicles.