The Taliban will completely take control of Kabul airport after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan on Tuesday, August 31, the Al Jazeera TV channel announced on Monday, citing a source in the movement.
According to the TV channel, the Taliban is holding consultations with Turkey and Qatar regarding the technical management of operations at the airport. The sides have not come to an agreement yet.
Earlier, the Spokesman for the Taliban Political Office in Qatar, Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, said in an interview with NHK WORLD-JAPAN that the radical movement was optimistic about the upcoming complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Kabul airport.
After the US announced the end of its 20-year-long operation in Afghanistan and the beginning of its troop withdrawal, the Taliban launched an offensive against Afghan government forces. On August 15, Taliban fighters swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance, establishing full control over the Afghan capital within a few hours.
Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani left the country, while Vice President Amrullah Saleh declared himself acting head of state and called for armed resistance to the Taliban. Many countries are currently evacuating their citizens and embassy staff.
Source: TASS
Header: Taliban stand guard outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, 29 August 2021.
The process of withdrawing the 5,000 United States military personnel deployed to Kabul’s airport for the evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies is under way in the face of ‘very real’ threats of additional attacks such as the one two days ago that left some 200 people dead, the Pentagon said 28 August.
More than 117,000 people have departed from the Kabul airport since the ‘massive military, diplomatic, security and humanitarian undertaking’ began following the fall of the capital to the Taliban on 15 August.
EPA-EFE/STRINGER