Order replaced chaos at Kabul airport yesterday with Taliban fighters escorting a steady stream of Afghans from buses to the main passenger terminal, handing them over to US troops for evacuation.
Gone are the tens of thousands clamouring to get inside the airport grounds in the hope of getting aboard a flight before August 31, when the US-led evacuation ends and the last foreign troops depart.
The deadly Islamic State suicide blast at a secondary entrance on Thursday likely scared away many looking for a way to escape the return to power of the hardliners, but the Taliban have also sealed off all roads leading to the airport and are now only letting sanctioned buses pass.
“We have lists from the Americans... if your name is on the list, you can come through,” one Taliban official told AFP near the civilian passenger terminal of Hamid Karzai International Airport.
“If your name isn’t here, then you cannot come through.”
Yesterday AFP saw more than a dozen small- and medium-sized buses disgorge tense-looking passengers at the main gate of the airport.
It was unclear who had organised the buses — or where they had come from — and the Taliban officials and guards present would not allow the passengers to be interviewed.
The men and women were separated and made to walk on opposite sides of the road, but both groups carried infants or led children by the hand — some oblivious to their ordeal and skipping as if on an adventure. Everyone was stripped of their luggage apart from what they could keep in a plastic bag — but a Taliban official was quick to offer an explanation.
“Because of the blast, the Americans won’t let them take anything,” he said.
“We tell them to take the money and the gold in their pockets. If they leave clothes we will give to other people.”
Heavily armed Taliban fighters were seen throughout the grounds and auxiliary buildings of the airport complex, while US marines peered at them from the passenger terminal roof.
After a 20-year war, the foes were within open sight of each other, separated by just 30m, and holding fire. Also in view of the American troops were Badri special forces in humvees gifted to the Afghan defence forces, but now flying the white Taliban flag.
Afghan evacuees sit inside one of Italy’s last military aircraft, C130J, to fly out of Kabul airport yesterday. (Reuters)
