Afghanistan crisis: Taliban enter Kabul as president flees country; evacuation of Aussies resumes
The Taliban has declared “the war is over” in Afghanistan amid the evacuation of foreigners including Australians and chaotic scenes at Kabul airport.
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The Taliban has declared “the war is over” in Afghanistan.
“We assure everyone that we will provide safety for citizens and diplomatic missions. We are ready to have a dialogue with all Afghan figures and will guarantee them the necessary protection,” Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem told Al Jazeera.
It comes after Afghanistan’s president fled the country as Taliban fighters swarmed through the gates of the city of Kabul, capping their return to power two decades after being forced out by US-led forces.
The Taliban infiltrated the presidential palace in Kabul on Sunday, with government forces collapsing without the support of the US military, which is finalising its withdrawal in alignment with an August 31 deadline set by US President Joe Biden.
An interim government led by Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is now in control of the country.
In a brief video statement, Baradar said that the real test of governing would begin with meeting the expectations of Afghans and resolving their problems.
Mohammad Naeem, a spokesman for Taliban’s political office, also called for peaceful international relations.
“Thanks to God, the war is over in the country,” he said.
“We have reached what we were seeking, which is the freedom of our country and the independence of our people,” he added. “We will not allow anyone to use our lands to target anyone, and we do not want to harm others.”
In a Facebook post following his departure from the country, former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he will “always continue to serve” the nation.
“I will always continue to serve my nation through offering ideas and programs,” Ghani, 72, wrote.
“Today, I came across a hard choice; if I should stand to face the armed Taliban who wanted to enter the palace, or leave the dear country that I dedicated my life to protecting and caring for the past twenty years,” he said.
“The Taliban have made it a point to remove me, they are here to attack all Kabul and the people of Kabul. In order to avoid the flood of bloodshed, I thought it was best to get out,” he added.
Footage broadcast by the Al Jazeera Network showed armed militants roaming the palace then sitting in and around the seat relinquished by President Ashraf Ghani just hours after he fled.
“The former president of Afghanistan left Afghanistan, leaving the country in this difficult situation,” Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah said in a video statement earlier in the day. “God should hold him accountable.”
Ghani said he believed “countless patriots would be martyred and the city of Kabul would be destroyed” if he had stayed behind.
“The Taliban have won … and are now responsible for the honour, property and self-preservation of their countrymen,” he said in a statement posted on social media.
“They are now facing a new historical test. Either they will preserve the name and honour of Afghanistan or they will give priority to other places and networks.”
My message to the people of AFGHANISNAN, to the security forces and to the Taliban: https://t.co/MiFk0zaNRJ
— Dr. Abdullah Abdullah (@DrabdullahCE) August 15, 2021
He did not say where he had travelled to, but leading Afghan media group Tolo news suggested he had gone to Tajikistan, with an Afghan source adding it would not be his final destination. Al Jazeera reports he fled to Uzbekistan together with his wife, chief of staff and national security adviser.
The Taliban has since freed thousands of its prisoners from jails and they have now joined its ranks as militants and captured huge stockpiles of weapons.
Several journalists on the ground reported that a local television station was airing Taliban songs and footage.
AUSSIES AMONG EVACUEES
Australians are among diplomats that were being evacuated from Afghanistan.
According to Reuters, a US official said that most Western diplomats have now left Kabul. Some support staff remain, the official added.
The US military has secured the perimeter of Kabul airport, the State Department said, adding that Washington’s embassy in the Afghhan capital has been completely evacuated.
“All embassy personnel are located on the premises of Hamid Karzai International Airport, whose perimeter is secured by the US Military,” spokesman Ned Price said in a statement, hours after the Taliban took control of the city.
Earlier, the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to CNN they were working on evacuating diplomatic staff from Australia, France, the UK, EU, Canada, the Office of the UN Food Program, the US, Germany and Egypt.
The UAE MFA said several planes from a “variety of nations” are leaving Kabul airport Sunday local time and are due to arrive to the UAW Sunday night and Monday morning local time.
A spokesperson for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, said that flights in and out of the airport will be allowed to proceed as normal. There has been no Taliban effort to take the airport. “We assure all embassies, diplomatic missions, institutions and residences of foreign nationals in Kabul that there is no danger is posed to them,” Mujahid said in a statement.
But a senior US military official told The Associated Press news agency that the airport has been closed to commercial flights.
United Airlines said it was rerouting flights to avoid Afghanistan airspace. Emirates and Flydubai suspended all flights to Kabul.
“Due to the dynamic nature of the situation we have begun routing affected flights around Afghanistan airspace,” a United spokeswoman said in a statement.
It comes as witnesses say the situation at Kabul airport is deteriorating as people try to flee the country on foreign flights.
“The departure hall turned into chaos after people said boarding passes were being printed secretly for officials and high-profile people who showed up at the airport,” an eyewitness told the BBC.
“I saw three former MPs, a few deputy ministers and some celebrities queuing up. Some didn’t even have a booking. We waited for almost eight hours, until airport staff started leaving their desks – first the check-in counters and then the migration and passport desks … different rumours created chaos. Some escaped from the airport and some rushed towards the gates.”
Kabul Airport this morning
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) August 16, 2021
Too many people, too few planes pic.twitter.com/rReyvBG5Lc
NATO Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance “was helping keep Kabul airport open to facilitate and co-ordinate evacuations” after consulting member countries.
According to CNN, a defence spokesman said 6000 US troops that were earmarked for security duty in Kabul will now have the task of securing the entire perimeter of the airport.
Earlier, the US Embassy in Afghanistan said the “security situation in Kabul is changing quickly including at the airport” as countries rushed in troops to evacuate their citizens.
Convoys of helicopters landed in the US embassy to evacuate staff in a scene reminiscent of the fall of Saigon during the Vietnam War.
Embassy officials were understood to have been on the rooftop burning sensitive intelligence documents as Black Hawk choppers landed in the grounds.
Throughout the day, shuttle flights of Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters were ferrying staff and citizens out to awaiting military flights.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Taliban fighters have entered Kabul because Afghan government security forces had abandoned their posts in parts of the city, and called on the people not to be afraid of the Taliban.
“The fact of the matter is we’ve seen that that force has been unable to defend the country,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Jake Tapper on State of the Union, referring to Afghanistan’s national security forces.
“And that has happened more quickly than we anticipated,” he said.
Only 48 hours ago the US military predicted the Taliban would mount an assault and perhaps take the city in a month but they were left stunned when it was confirmed they had passed through the gates of the ancient capital.
Australia too was also caught out by the speed of the Taliban’s nationwide offensive, with troops still on standby to assist coalition efforts in a mass evacuation, including of Australian citizens and Afghan interpreters who worked with the ADF.
They entered through gates and the districts of Kalakan, Qarabagh and Paghman and then stopped, with Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen saying an unconditional surrender and a peaceful transfer was being negotiated.
Taliban negotiators were last night at the presidential palace to discuss the terms.
“The Afghan people should not worry … There will be no attack on the city and there will be a peaceful transfer of power to the transitional government,” Afghan Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal said in a recorded speech.
The UN is set to call an emergency meeting of its Security Council.
MORRISON ‘DEVASTATED’; WORLD REACTS
Scott Morrison said he was “devastated” when asked how he felt about women and children under the control of the Taliban.
“Devastated. Absolutely devastated about it. It’s a terrible – it’s a terrible situation,” the prime minister told ABC TV on Monday.
Asked if the US and allies had been caught out, Mr Morrison said “it’s a very challenging situation”.
“When you look at the history and that is the story of Afghanistan, it is a tragic place, it is a tragic country that has borne such terrible hardships and catastrophes over a very long period of time. And, sadly, that story continues.”
Mr Morrison also defended Australia's involvement in the war in Afghanistan.
“Freedom is always worth it. Fighting for it. Whatever the outcome. But importantly, the reason that we went there was to track down Osama bin Laden and to ensure that we denied al-Qaeda a base of operations out of Afghanistan,” he said.
Australia has joined 60 countries to call for the safe departure of Afghans that wish to leave the country.
In a joint statement, the group which includes France, Canada and the UK, said:
“Afghans and international citizens who wish to depart must be allowed to do so; roads, airports and border crossing must remain open, and calm must be maintained.
The Afghan people deserve to live in safety, security and dignity. We in the international community stand ready to assist them.”
Mala Yousafzai, a campaigner for female education after surviving a gunshot to the head by Taliban terrorists in Pakistan in 2012, said she was “in complete shock”.
We watch in complete shock as Taliban takes control of Afghanistan. I am deeply worried about women, minorities and human rights advocates. Global, regional and local powers must call for an immediate ceasefire, provide urgent humanitarian aid and protect refugees and civilians.
— Malala (@Malala) August 15, 2021
Former US President Donald Trump called for his successor Joe Biden to resign.
“It is time for Joe Biden to resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen to Afghanistan,” Trump said in a statement.
It was under Mr Trump that the US brokered a deal with the Taliban in Doha in 2020 that would have seen the US withdraw all its troops by May 2021, in exchange for various security guarantees from the group.
President Biden has yet to make a statement.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the “vast bulk” of remaining embassy staff in Kabul would return to the UK.
“Our priority is to make sure that we deliver on our obligations to … all those who have helped to the British effort in Afghanistan over 20 years, and to get them out as fast as we can,” said Johnson.
He is to hold fresh crisis talks on Wednesday, recalling parliament from its summer break to discuss what Britain, which lost 457 troops in the two-decade-long war, should do next.
European Council President Charles Michel tweeted that he was in close contact with Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief.
“Security of EU citizens, staff and their families is priority in short term,” he added. “Equally clear that many lessons will need to be drawn.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the “Taliban and all other parties to exercise utmost restraint in order to protect lives” and ensure humanitarian needs can be addressed, his spokesman said in a statement.
“He calls on the Taliban and all other parties to ensure that international humanitarian law and the rights and freedoms of all people are respected and protected,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
AUSSIE MISSION TO RESCUE AFGHAN FRIENDS
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday said the National Security Committee had reconvened to discuss the co-ordination of the largest evacuation from Afghanistan since Australia’s 2001 engagement in the conflict.
Mr Morrison said the situation in the country was “volatile” and getting those locals who worked alongside our troops was a priority as well as Australian nationals.
“This has been a program which we have been moving along very urgently, very quickly, it is a very complex exercise and we have been continuing to keep our pace on those processes, both of accrediting, assessing, issuing visas and bringing people to safety here in Australia,” Mr Morrison said.
For security reasons he would not go into detail but it is understood to involve ADF Special Forces troops as well as DFAT and Immigration officials to process the some 1800 Afghan interpreters and their families now in Kabul looking to Australia.
Mr Morrison said lots of blood had been shed, and the ADF’s contribution, including the dead and injured, would not be forgotten.
“To the 41 Australians, thank you for the sacrifice of your sons. They have fallen under our flag, under our name, wearing a uniform, serving. We are forever in their debt. They did not die in vain,” he added.
“They don’t get to decide where they go or what mission they are asked before. They know that. Yet they sign up as they go anyway. They knew what they had to do and they went out there and did it.”
It came as Australian troops and officials joined American, British and Canadian counterparts in co-ordinating mass evacuations from the Afghanistan capital Kabul.
It is known there are Australian citizens and others linked to Australia’s war effort in Kabul, some have declined offers to return to Australia.
Originally published as Afghanistan crisis: Taliban enter Kabul as president flees country; evacuation of Aussies resumes
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