‘US damage’ delays opening of airport, says Taliban

Dashing the hopes of thousands of Afghans still seeking an escape route and escalating concerns over how to deliver aid.

A Taliban fighter sits in the cockpit of an Afghan Air Force aircraft at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International airport on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

The Taliban says extensive damage to Kabul airport caused by departing US troops could delay its reopening, dashing the hopes of thousands of Afghans still seeking an escape route and escalating concerns over how to deliver aid to a country on the verge of a ­“humanitarian catastrophe”.

Anas Haqqani, younger brother of the Taliban’s deputy leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, and an emerging figure among the insurgents’ new generation, condemned the scorched earth tactics of US troops, which he said would take time to repair.

“This is a civilian international airport,” he told The Times, flanked by bodyguards in the terminal buildings. “Yet unfortu­nately the Americans have left it destroyed and inoperable, which means it will be very difficult for us to start any flights without extensive work first.”

Infrastructure was also damaged in the first days after the Taliban entered Kabul on August 15, when thousands of panicked Afghans streamed into the airport and on to the tarmac. At least three Afghans died after falling from a departing US military cargo plane.

The airport has no air traffic control staff after a mass exodus of staff in the hours before the civilian government’s collapse, though the Turkish government confirmed it was still considering the Taliban’s offer to manage the airport.

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday AEST defended the chaotic evacuation of some 123,000 foreign nationals and Afghans in a speech in which he drew a line under any further US ­nation-building adventurism.

“To those asking for a third decade of war in Afghanistan, I ask: ‘What is the vital national interest?’ In my view, we only have one: To make sure Afghanistan can never be used again to launch an attack on our homeland,” he said in a hard-headed analysis that has drawn criticism at home and abroad.

“This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan – it’s about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries.”

The Taliban now controls more territory than it did before it was ousted from power in 2001 at the start of what Mr Biden described as America’s longest war — one that cost at least 170,000 lives and as much as $US2 trillion.

In the wake of the US withdrawal, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called on the international community to recognise Taliban rule and help them address the country’s multiple crises. 

“We are looking forward to the future with one goal in sight; rebuilding our country,” he said on Tuesday, promising — yet again — that a new government would be announced soon.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has said Afghanistan faced economic and humanitarian catastrophe, and on Wednesday he painted a bleak picture of the ­coming year; mass hunger, a steep slide into poverty for millions, and malnutrition for more than half of all Afghan children under five.

“People are losing access to basic goods and services every day. A humanitarian catastrophe looms,” Mr Guterres said, adding severe drought and looming winter meant extra food, shelter and health supplies would be ­“urgently” needed.

“I call on all parties to facilitate safe and unimpeded humanitarian access for life-saving and life-­sustaining supplies, as well as for all humanitarian workers — men and women.

“I urge all member states to dig deep for the people of Afghanistan in their darkest hour of need. I urge them to provide timely, flexible and comprehensive funding.”

An emergency aid corridor into Afghanistan — preferably through Kabul airport — has become critical as government services have stalled, millions of workers go unpaid and thousands form serpentine queues to withdraw money from banks facing a cash crisis.

Half of the former Afghan government’s budget came from international assistance, much of which has been frozen as the world waits to see whether the Taliban will honour its commitment to uphold the rights of all Afghans.

The US Treasury Department confirmed on Wednesday that the government had authorised the continued provision of humanitarian aid to people in Afghanistan, including the delivery of food and medicine, despite US sanctions on the Taliban.

But more than $US9bn in Afghanistan cash reserves held in the US remain frozen, as are billions of dollars in scheduled international aid and assistance payments.

Both Germany and Qatar — the Gulf country that for years hosted the Taliban political office and mediated talks with the US and other parties — have called for the urgent resumption of commercial flights from Kabul.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said keeping the terminal open was of “existential importance”, as Western nations consider how to aid the evacuation of tens of thousands of vulnerable Afghans left behind.