...mindless ferocity in a turban...have agreed to allow up to 200 US citizens and citizens of other countries to fly from Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
...A product, and probably the sole product, of the
Southern Alliance...
International Airport HKIA based in Kabul.
The foreign civilians are said to be flown out in a chartered plane from the Afghan capital on Thursday, September 9.
After the completion of the evacuation by the US and their full withdrawal on August 31, the Taliban banned international flights from Afghanistan and said that those with the documents can fly out after their cabinet is announced.
Source has told Rooters that the permission from the Taliban was taken by the mediation of Zalmay Khalilzad but has not said whether the 200 people are those prevented to fly out from Mazar-e-sharif.
Earlier, reports were that the Taliban have not allowed up to one thousand foreign people and Afghans to fly from Mazar-e-sharif airport in northern Balkh province.
Kabul airport to be ready for international flights in three days
[KhaamaPress] Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
officials and foreign technical teams in Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
...A product, and probably the sole product, of the
Southern Alliance...
International Airport HKIA said that the airport will be fully ready for international flights in the upcoming three days.
Technical experts from Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
and
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
are busy working in HKIA along with the Afghan engineers.
HKIA was mostly sabotaged and was inflicted up to $20 million worth of damage by the US marines after they completed their evacuation on August 31.
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan asked Qatar and Turkey to send their experts and help them in repairing the airport which was made ready for domestic flights in three days but international flights are yet to take off and land from the airport.
Big screens, computers, scanners, and other electronics have been donated by Qatar and UAE and the technical teams are now busy installing them in terminals.
In the meantime, the Taliban allowed those who have documents to travel abroad after they announced their caretaker cabinet.
This comes as the international community is busy lobbying for convincing the Taliban to provide safe path for those who want to go abroad.
| According to Al Ahram, the 200 actually left the country, so I lost that bet: |
Thursday afternoon's Qatar Airways flight took some 200 people from Kabul's airport -- the first since a mammoth, chaotic airlift of more than 120,000 people came to a dramatic close with the US pullout.
An Afghan-American dual citizen, waiting to board the flight with his family, said the US State Department had called him in the morning and told him to go to the airport.
"We got in contact with the State Department, they gave me a call this morning and said to go to the airport," the father, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
- WAITING WITH SUITCASES -
Footage broadcast by Al Jazeera TV on Thursday showed families including women, children and elderly people waiting with suitcases at the airport for their turn to leave.
It was not immediately clear whether any countries other than Qatar had played a role in organising the airlift.
Qatar has acted as the central intermediary between the Taliban and the international community in recent years, and numerous countries, including the United States, have relocated their embassies from Kabul to Doha in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover.
"We are very appreciative of the Qataris," one man told the channel, giving his nationality as Canadian.
Away from the airport, there was a noticeably stronger Taliban presence on the streets of Kabul as armed fighters -- including special forces in military fatigues -- stood guard on street corners and manned checkpoints, according to AFP journalists.
Earlier Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said only around 100 Americans remained in Afghanistan.
"It's right around 100 right now and we're working to get those American citizens who want to depart out of the country, as well as legal permanent residents and other key partners," Psaki told MSNBC.
White House says Taliban was ‘businesslike and professional’ in new evacuation
| No doubt. |
“The Taliban have been cooperative in facilitating the departure of American citizens and lawful permanent residents on charter flights from HKIA,” US National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne says of today’s flight from Kabul to Qatar.
“They have shown flexibility, and they have been businesslike and professional in our dealings with them in this effort,” Horne adds, stressing that efforts to facilitate such evacuations of Americans and Afghans who worked with the US mission will continue.