Americans left behind in Afghanistan cling to hope

ARMY TIMES:

Congressional offices and outside advocacy groups are fielding a flood of frantic calls from American citizens and foreign allies desperate to escape from Afghanistan amid unfolding chaos there.

On Sunday, staffers from Sen. Tom Cotton’s office set up a hotline for Americans stranded in Afghanistan who have not yet been able to receive any clear communication from State Department officials or other government resources.

In less than 24 hours, several hundred individuals had contacted the line, including a number of Americans trapped behind Taliban lines.

“The situation is dire, but we’ll do everything in our power to help keep you informed and to help get you out,” Cotton, R-Ark. and an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

Staffers said they do not have any special inside information on evacuations or State Department planning, but have been able to consolidate contact information and streamline communications with appropriate officials on the ground.

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., offered similar assistance through his office.

For many panicked individuals there, that’s an improvement over the current lack of information.

State Department officials have set up their own hotline at 1-888-407-4747 for domestic calls and 1-202-501-4444 for overseas calls, as well as a Repatriation Assistance Request form for individuals seeking emergency flights out of Afghanistan.

But because of a crush of requests, officials have not been able to respond to every inquiry, leaving many confused as to whether they are awaiting further instructions or caught outside the system.

“Do not call the U.S. Embassy in Kabul for details or updates about the flight,” the department’s official advisory states. “Do not travel to the airport until you have been informed by email that departure options exist.”

Officials from No One Left Behind — which for years has advocated for better policies regarding immigration and assistance for Afghan nationals who helped U.S. military forces — said on Monday that they spent most of the weekend fielding calls from veterans trying to help former interpreters get on one of the last few American flights out of Afghanistan.

“State and [International Organization for Migration] aren’t returning calls,” group officials wrote on social media. “We are working as fast as possible to answer all communications. You are not alone.”

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Russian transport aircraft Il-112V crashes near Moscow, killing all three people on board

RT: 
A prototype of a Russian military transport plane has crashed just outside Moscow, killing all three people on board, media reported on Tuesday. The Ilyushin Il-112V aircraft was undergoing a test flight to the Kubinka air base.

The incident has been reported by the plane’s developer United Aircraft Corporation, which has not confirmed the fatalities so far.

According to a source for TASS, there were three people on board, including Honored Test pilot Nikolay Kuimov, who holds the status of Hero of Russia. Before the plane crashed, the aircraft’s right engine went on fire, causing the Il-112V to tilt to the right side. The aircraft began to lose speed before flipping over and falling to the ground, the news agency reports.

Photos? USAF C-17 saves 800 fleeing from Taliban

 The first (UN VERIFIED) photos are surfacing from inside A USAF C-17 callsign RCH 871 packed bulkhead to bulkhead with Afghans fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan. The flight left Kabul last night.  

Posted on Twitter  the authenticity of this photos have not been verified. 

click to enlarge 

metal57 · RCH 871

Kabul in chaos as Taliban move in...

KABUL, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Thousands of civilians desperate to flee Afghanistan thronged Kabul airport on Monday after the Taliban seized the capital, prompting the U.S. military to suspend evacuations as the United States came under mounting criticism at home over its pullout.

Crowds converged on the airport seeking to escape, including some clinging to a U.S. military transport plane as it taxied on the runway, according to footage posted by a media company.

U.S. troops fired in the air to deter people trying to force their way on to a military flight evacuating U.S diplomats and embassy staff, a U.S. official said.

Five people were reported killed in chaos at the airport on Monday, although a witness said it was unclear if they had been shot or killed in a stampede. A U.S. official told Reuters two gunmen had been killed by U.S. forces there over the past 24 hours.

The Taliban's rapid conquest of Kabul follows U.S. President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw U.S. forces after 20 years of war that cost billions of dollars.

The speed at which Afghan cities fell in just days and fear of a Taliban crackdown on freedom of speech and women's rights gained over 20 years have sparked criticism.

Biden, who said Afghan forces had to fight back against the Islamist Taliban, was due to speak on Afghanistan at 1945 GMT.


Five people were reported killed in chaos at the airport on Monday, although a witness said it was unclear if they had been shot or killed in a stampede. A U.S. official told Reuters two gunmen had been killed by U.S. forces there over the past 24 hours.

The Taliban's rapid conquest of Kabul follows U.S. President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw U.S. forces after 20 years of war that cost billions of dollars.

The speed at which Afghan cities fell in just days and fear of a Taliban crackdown on freedom of speech and women's rights gained over 20 years have sparked criticism.

Biden, who said Afghan forces had to fight back against the Islamist Taliban, was due to speak on Afghanistan at 1945 GMT.

NO ONE SHALL BE HARMED'

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled on Sunday as the Islamist militants entered Kabul virtually unopposed, saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed.

The United States and other foreign powers have rushed to fly out diplomatic and other staff but the United States temporarily halted all evacuation flights to clear people from the airfield, a U.S. defense official told Reuters.

Suhail Shaheen, a spokesperson for the Taliban, said in a message on Twitter that their fighters were under strict orders not to harm anyone.


"Life, property and honour of no one shall be harmed but must be protected by the Mujahideen," he said.

It took the Taliban just over a week to seize control of the whole country after a lightning sweep that ended in Kabul as government forces, trained for years and equipped by the United States and others at a cost of billions of dollars, melted away.

U.S. officers had long worried that corruption would undermine the resolve of badly paid, ill-fed and erratically supplied front-line soldiers.


Al Jazeera broadcast footage of what it said were Taliban commanders in the presidential palace with dozens of fighters.

Mohammad Naeem, spokesman for the Taliban's political office, told Al Jazeera TV the form of Afghanistan's new government would be made clear soon. He said the Taliban did not want to live in isolation and called for peaceful international relations.

The militants sought to project a more moderate face, promising to respect women's rights and protect both foreigners and Afghans.

But many Afghans fear the Taliban will return to past harsh practices. During their 1996-2001 rule, women could not work and punishments such as public stoning, whipping and hanging were administered.


"Everyone is worried," a former government employee now in hiding in Kabul said. "They're not targeting people yet but they will, that's the reality. Maybe in two or three weeks, that's why people are fighting to get out now."

Both the United Nations and the United States said last week they had received reports that Taliban fighters were executing surrendering government soldiers.

INEWS: 

Civilians accused foreign governments of “abandoning” Afghanistan on Monday as at least five people were killed scrambling to flee Kabul after the Taliban declared victory in the country.

Videos circulated online showed people falling from the sky as civilians clung to planes in desperate attempts to leave the capital ahead of the anticipated return to a brutal regime.

One video posted by Twitter account AEROSINT Division PSF showed Afghan citizens swarming a US Air Force plane taxiing on the Kabul tarmac. Another showed bodies falling from a plane that had already taken off.

“I can’t believe the world abandoned Afghanistan,” one woman told the ANI news agency upon arrival in New Dehli after fleeing Kabul. 

“Our sons are going to get killed. They’re going to kill us. Our women are not going to have any more rights,” she added.

As tensions escalate, US soldiers shot and killed two people at the airport on Monday after they opened fire on troops stationed there to assist evacuations.

All flights from the airport, which is currently under the control of the US military, were later halted “out of an abundance of caution”. A Pentagon spokesperson said US forces are working with Turkish and other international troops to clear the airport and allow evacuation flights to resume.

Afghan civilians expressed fury at the US focus on evacuating its own citizens, warning that it would leave the local population at the mercy of the insurgents.

There were reports that US troops fired gunshots into the air on Monday morning to disperse surging crowds at the civilian portion of Kabul airport. 

A warning boomed over the airport radio in Pashto: “Please go back, please go back.”

CNN reports that US forces shot and killed two armed men at the airport on Monday, in what is described as an isolated incident. The Pentagon did not clarify whether the men were Taliban militants.

The US embassy issued an alert that the situation at the airport was fast deteriorating, with political commentators comparing the scene to Saigon – when the Viet Cong captured the Vietnamese city in 1975. 

An emergency Nato evacuation operation involving 6,000 US marines and 600 British troops is still underway. 

Smoke rose from the American compound in Afghanistan on Sunday as staff burnt sensitive documents and the US flag was lowered and removed.

Taliban seize Kandhar - control half of Afghanistan

WGAL: The Taliban have seized Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, and a number of other provincial capitals, as the insurgent group accelerates its rapid advance towards the capital Kabul.

Afghan Member of Parliament Gul Ahmad Kamin told CNN on Friday that Kandahar had been taken. The city, which lies in the south of the country, has been besieged by the Taliban for weeks, and many observers consider its fall as the beginning of the end for the country's U.S.-backed government.

Later on Friday the militants took charge of a handful of other cities. According to CNN analysis they now control 17 of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals, all of which have been captured in the last week.

The group has made territorial gains in the north of the country, which has traditionally been an anti-Taliban stronghold. And it now controls towns and territories within 62 miles of Kabul, including the capital of Logar province, which also fell on Friday.

In a statement Friday, the Taliban said they had taken control of the governor's office, police headquarters, as well as other key operational centers throughout the city of Kandahar. "Hundreds of weapons, vehicles and ammunition were seized," the Taliban statement said.

Kamin said he and many others had made their way to a military base close to the city's international airport and were awaiting a flight out. "Many (government) soldiers surrendered and the rest fled," Kamin said.

Kamin had earlier told CNN that Taliban fighters had been able to break through the city's frontline and were engaging in sporadic confrontation with government forces.

Kandahar, which lies on the junction of three major highways, is of particular strategic importance and was formerly a major hub for U.S. military operations. Its seizure marks the most significant gain yet for the Taliban.

Elsewhere on Friday, the government lost control of the nearby capital of Urozgan province, Tarin Kot.

A local journalist told CNN that the governor's office, police headquarters and the central jail were now in the Taliban's hands. The journalist said the city had fallen to the Taliban without any fighting as tribal elders had decided not to resist their advance.

Afghan news network TOLO quoted the governor of Uruzgan, Mohammad Omar Shizad, as saying that after days of fighting around the city, the elders had urged him to cease fire because of the likely damage of further combat.


The vast majority of the Taliban's territorial gains have come since the withdrawal of American forces, which began in May and is scheduled to be completed by late August.

A senior administration official familiar with the most recent U.S. intelligence assessment on Afghanistan told CNN Wednesday that Kabul could fall into the hands of the Taliban within 30 to 90 days.

Taliban makes rapid gains

The city of Herat, Afghanistan's third-largest city and a major urban center in western Afghanistan, fell to the Taliban on Thursday evening local time, with the group taking control of the governor's office and Herat police headquarters, according to Afghan officials.
'We should be concerned': Top US general in Afghanistan says about Taliban

The head of the Herat Provincial Council, Kamran Alizai, said Friday the whole city, except the army corps base, had been seized. Another provincial council member from Herat who did not want to be named said that the Taliban broke into the Herat prison, freeing a large number of inmates.

Qala-I-Naw city, the provincial capital of the northwest Badghis province also fell to the militant group on Thursday evening, a Badghis provincial council member confirmed to CNN.

The city of Ghazni, a key provincial capital on the road to Kabul, also fell to the militant group earlier on Thursday, after "long and intense fighting," according to Nasir Ahmad Faqiri, head of Ghazni provincial council.

Ghazni lies around 93 miles south of Kabul, on a major highway connecting the capital with Kandahar.

With the capture of Ghazni, the Taliban is now in control of key locations both to the north and south of Kabul. Their earlier capture of areas of the Baghlan province, which lies to the north of Kabul, raised alarms among U.S. officials because the location is considered essential for the defense of the capital.