[UPI] A firefight erupted early Monday between unknown attackers and Afghan cops and Western allies at the north gate of the airport in Kabul, officials said.The German military said via Twitter that a shootout involving American, German and Afghan soldiers engaging unknown assailants began at 4:13 a.m.
At least one person was killed and multiple people were maimed. They were members of Afghan cops, the military said, adding that no German soldiers were harmed.
The White House said Monday that the U.S. military evacuated about 10,400 people on 28 flights from Kabul between Sunday and Monday morning. It said other coalition members evacuated almost 6,000 on 61 planes.
Since Aug. 14, the White House added, about 37,000 people have been evacuated and 42,000 have been relocated since the end of July.
| Khaama Press, which is in full “Don’t hurt me!” mode, reports: |
An unknown gunman reportedly opened fire at Afghan guards which prompted responsive fires both by Afghan forces and US troops.
The slain and those wounded are not yet fully confirmed, whether they are the Taliban members or the Afghan force members.
A special unit of the National Directorate of Security is not yet surrendered and is assisting the foreign troops in particular the US ones to evacuate people.
The incident happened at the northern gate of Kabul airport.
The Taliban officials have not commented on the gunfight yet and all the gates of the airport closed as thousands of men, women, and children are still awaiting a flight in blazing weather at the doors.
The chaos in Hamid Karzai International Airport has triggered anger among the Afghan people on social media and has called the situation to be a sheer impudence as women are hugged by US military personnel to cross barricades into the airport.
People have asked the applicants to be patient, wait for the order to prevail in the airport, and do not let such a shame which is defaming the people of Afghanistan on a global stage.
US sends helicopter into Kabul neighborhood to extricate stranded Americans
[IsraelTimes] The US military sent a helicopter into a Kabul neighborhood to pick up stranded Americans on Monday as the army reported its biggest day of evacuation flights out of Afghanistan by far.
With access still difficult, the US military went beyond the airport to carry out another helicopter retrieval of Americans. US officials said a military helicopter picked up 16 American citizens Monday and brought them onto the airfield for evacuation. This was at least the second such rescue mission beyond the airport; Kirby said that last Thursday, three Army helicopters picked up 169 Americans near a hotel just beyond the airport gate and flew them onto the airfield.
US President Joe
The Big GuyBiden
...46th president of the U.S. An incredibly corrupt version of Jar-Jar Binks, only well into his dotage. He also abandoned Afghanistan....’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said at the White House that talks with the Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
are continuing as the administration looks for additional ways to safely move more Americans and others into the Kabul airport.
In a reminder of the urgency felt amid a dizzying array of security threats to the evacuation effort, the Pentagon posted a video of a laser near the airport targeting a US Air Force C-17 aircraft and apparently attempting to disrupt the pilot during landing.
After more than a week of evacuations plagued by major obstacles, including Taliban forces and crushing crowds that are making approaching the airport difficult and dangerous, the number of people flown out met — and exceeded — US projections for the first time. The count was more than twice the 3,900 flown out in the previous 24 hours on US military planes.
Army Gen. Stephen Lyons, head of US Transportation Command, which manages the military aircraft that are executing the Kabul airlift, told a Pentagon news conference that more than 200 planes are involved, including aerial refueling planes, and that arriving planes are spending less than an hour on the tarmac at Kabul before loading and taking off. He said the nonstop mission is taking a toll on aircrews.
"They’re tired," Lyons said of the crews. "They’re probably exhausted in some cases."
On a more positive note, Lyons said that in addition to the widely reported case of an Afghan woman giving birth aboard a US evacuation aircraft, two other babies have been born in similar circumstances. He did not provide details.
The Pentagon said it has added a fourth US military base, in New Jersey, to three others — in Virginia, Texas and Wisconsin — that are prepared to temporarily house arriving Afghans. Maj. Gen. Hank Williams, the Joint Staff deputy director for regional operations, told news hounds there are now about 1,200 Afghans at those military bases. The four bases combined are capable of housing up to 25,000 evacuees, Kirby said.
Afghan evacuees continued to arrive at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington. A bus carried some of the latest arrivals from Dulles airport to another site for what would be one of many processing stops before they reach new homes in the United States.
Over 700 Indians evacuated from Afghanistan so far
[OneIndia] With six flights of the Indian Air Force and Air India undertaking missions in Afghanistan, the number of Indians evacuated from the war torn country has crossed 700.
Two more flights would be flying into Kabul today to evacuate more Indians. The evacuation mission began from August 16 onwards and in extremely tough conditions, scores of Indians were evacuated from Afghanistan that was taken over by the Taliban
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earlier this month.
The operation to bring back those stranded from Afghanistan was monitored by External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval. The first C17 had 40 Indians, while the second one comprised 100 which included Rudrendra Tandon, the Indian envoy to Afghanistan.
Sources tell OneIndia that there were several checkpoints that had to be manouvered. While most of them were being manned by the Taliban, there were some which had rogue elements. The problem was with these rogue elements who could have been detrimental to the operation to get the Indians out, the source cited above also said.
India also coordinated with several countries to ensure that this operation was a success. The other issues was that the Kabul Airport had no space and hence the C17 had to be parked for a while at Tajikistan.
As the operations began the C17 was flown from the airbase at Ayni from time to time. The C17 had to be diverted due to the turmoil on the ground at the Kabul airport. There were numerous countries which were trying to evacuate their citizens as a result of which the Kabul Airport had become extremely busy.
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