The gates of hell: Afghan women beg US soldiers for help through the fence of Kabul airport as Taliban fire into the air and whip people to control crowds - while UK will evacuate 1,000 today... but White House FAILS to guarantee it will get citizens out
Panicked screams mixed with the sound of gunfire at Kabul airport today amid fresh chaos as tens of thousands of Afghans desperate to escape Taliban rule pleaded with troops to be allowed on the only planes out of the country.
Women were filmed reaching their hands through iron railings towards US troops while screaming 'the Taliban are coming' in footage being circulated on Afghan social media accounts.
It is thought the footage was filmed at the northern military side of Hamid Karzai airport, where around 25,000 people are gathered, with more footage revealing Taliban guards firing over the heads of men, women and children crouched in the road overnight.
Meanwhile those trying to get into the civilian south side of the airport - where another 25,000 are thought to have massed - faced patrols of Taliban gunmen on the roads leading up to the airport, before being funnelled between concrete barriers towards a large metal gate under the watchful eye of Taliban gunmen.
Britain is attempting to fly 1,000 people out of the airport today on seven flights, according to head of the armed forces General Sir Nick Carter, who warned the next 24 hours are 'critical' for getting people out of the country.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged to take on 25,000 Afghan refugees - a promise mirrored by the likes of Canada which says it will take 20,000,Germany which will take 10,000, and the US which says 80,000 visas may be issued - though serious questions are being asked over whether the targets are realistic.
At the current rate of evacuation - just a few hundred people each day - it would take months to evacuate that number, assuming all of those people can even reach the airport and convince guards to allow them in.
This morning in the Commons, Sir Keir Starmer confronted Mr Johnson with reports from NGOs that an evacuation plane left Kabul airport today with hardly any passengers because evacuees could not reach it.
Witnesses at the airport gates today said that very few people were being allowed through, with dozens trying to push through the gate each time it was opened - prompting nervy guard to fire into the air.
Once on the other side of the gate, a further four checkpoints await with one airport employee saying it took them two days to pass all the way through.
A source at the airport told MailOnline that some people trying to get into the airport are carrying documents, mostly for nearby Gulf states, but the vast majority were terrified citizens with no paperwork who hoped to get out of the country after seeing images of people running on to American planes on the news.
With Taliban fighters now effectively providing airport security. other sources have told MailOnline that translators and others with legitimate visas are too afraid to risk trying to get to the runway - fearing the Islamists will simply haul them away.
Some who have braved the gates told of how they were crushed, trampled and molested amid the crowds without making it on to a flight. Others said Taliban fighters beat the crowd with sticks, lengths of rubber hose, knotted rope, and rifle butts, often pointing guns at people and on at least on occasion opening fire.
In a sign of how dire the situation has become, White House spokesman Jen Psaki was forced to admit Tuesday that there is no guarantee that all US citizens and visa holders will be able to leave the country before troops pull out on August 31.
Women were filmed pleading with US troops that the 'Taliban are coming' in footage that appeared to have been taken at Kabul airport this morning as thousands of desperate Afghans try to flee Islamist rule
Taliban gunmen have surrounded the airport (pictured) with gunshots fired over the heads of arriving passengers, with British forces admitting that evacuations are only taking place with their 'consent'
Taliban fighters have now encircled the airport in Kabul and are deciding who gets to come in and who has to stay out. Checkpoints have been set up on both the civilian south side of the airport and the military north side, with gunshots fired in both locations to keep crowds back
While thousands of people have arrived at Kabul airport trying to get on flights out of the country (pictured), some western visa holders on the ground have said they are in hiding nearby for fear Taliban gunmen will target them
Taliban gunmen patrol through crowds of desperate Afghans at Kabul airport today, as people try to board planes out of the country fearing for their safety under Islamist rule
Crowds pictured outside the military north entrance Kabul airport on Wednesday morning, which is now the only viable route out of the country for thousands of refugees trapped in the capital
Shots are fired over the heads of terrified Afghan civilians by nervous Taliban guards at the northern side of Kabul airport overnight, as civilians try to get inside
Cars are seen parked along a road leading to the military northern side of Afghanistan's Haid Karzai airport overnight as an estimated 50,000 people try to board flights out of the country
Taliban gunmen opened fire on crowds late Tuesday, with images showing a bloodied child being carried by a man while a woman lay wounded in the road
'Our focus right now is on the task at hand, and that is day by day getting as many American citizens, SIV applicants, as many of the vulnerable population who are eligible to be evacuated to the airport and out on planes,' she told a press conference.
Flights that were supposed to be carrying thousands of people out of the country each day have so-far been taking off with just a few hundred aboard, with the UK having evacuated just 306 citizens and 2,052 Afghans so far - with thousands more waiting.
At least 12 military flights took off from Kabul yesterday, including three UK planes as the Ministry of Defence aims to ferry up to 7,000 Britons and Afghan allies out. Most are heading to other stable parts of the Middle East, where the passengers catch charter flights back to Britain.
Some 370 UK embassy staff and British nationals were flown out by the RAF on Sunday and Monday, adding to the 289 Afghan nationals transported last week.
There are at least 56,000 people who need evacuating from Afghanistan - including 22,000 flying on US special immigrant visas, 4,000 British nationals, 10,000 refugees Germany has said it will accept, and 20,000 bound for Canada. In reality, that number is likely to be far higher once diplomatic staff from other countries with relations with Afghanistan's former government are taken into account.
The US said it may issue 80,000 special immigrant visas to those who helped with combat operations and are likely to face revenge attacks from the Taliban, while 7,500 troops guarding the airport - including 6,000 Americans and smaller numbers of British, Turkish and Australians - will also need to leave.
Spain, France and India confirmed their diplomatic staff were evacuated yesterday. Russia and Indonesia said their embassies will be partially evacuated, while the EU mission said staff including its ambassador Andreas Von Brandt are still in the country and will need to leave.
Tempers were already fraying around the airport on Tuesday as gunmen opened fire into crowds, with harrowing images showing a young child with a bloodied head being carried by a man while a woman lay wounded in the road behind them.
The US army's General Frank McKenzie is leading 6,000 US troops and 900 British soldiers who are trying to evacuate as many as 50,000 Afghan refugees and thousands of other foreign citizens, including aid workers and diplomats, who live in Kabul.
For the moment, the Taliban say they are giving 'amnesty' to foreigners who wish to leave. But amid tense scenes at the capital, which fell to insurgents with astonishing rapidity, fears are growing that the tentative calm could fall apart at any moment.
Vice Admiral Sir Ben Key, who is running the British evacuation operation, told the BBC the UK will be bringing back as many people as it can, as quickly as possible, until either demand is met or 'the security situation means that we're no longer operating with consent'.
But eligible individuals have to make the trip to the airport themselves when called to do so, and the Taliban now control the access points, he added.
Sir Ben said that his forces face a race against time, and they are 'alive to the uncertainty' of the situation.
Tories hammered Boris Johnson over the 'catastrophic failure' in Afghanistan today - as the PM swiped at Joe Biden saying the 'successful' Afghan mission could not continue without 'American might'.
As the desperate evacuation effort continues in Kabul, the PM defended his handling of the chaos insisting there was a 'hard reality' as a result of the US stance.
Mr Johnson told the recalled chamber - packed out for the first time since last year after Covid restrictions were dropped - that the 'sacrifice' of British troops was 'seared into our national consciousness'. He said the 'core mission' had been achieved as Afghanistan had not been a hotbed for terrorism.
However, he was immediately assailed by Tories, with defence committee chair Tobias Ellwood saying the West had 'ceded the country to the very insurgents we went to defeat'. Theresa May said Afghanistan would now be a breeding ground for extremism, accusing the PM of operating 'on a wing and a prayer' and hoping it would be 'alright on the night'. Former chief whip Mark Harper said there had been a 'catastrophic failure'.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said the premier had displayed 'staggering complacency', pointing out that his last visit to Afghanistan as Foreign Secretary in 2018 had been a ploy to avoid a vote on Heathrow Airport expansion.
There were also calls for the government to go further and faster in providing safe haven for Afghans who face the threat of persecution under the new Taliban regime. Labour's Chris Bryant said only 5,000 of 20,000 refugees were set to be accepted this year, raging that the rest were being asked to 'hang around and wait until they have been executed'.
Gen. McKenzie, whose forces now operate in a country almost completely dominated by the Taliban, has warned that his troops will respond forcefully to defend the airport if necessary, as US troops, backed by British SAS and Royal Marines special forces, guard the perimeter with snipers on rooftops, and machine gunners and armored cars guard the runway.
No comments