Update: Taliban renames country to Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
The Taliban has renamed Afghanistan the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ after its fighters swept into the capital, Kabul, a bustling metropolis of six million that has turned into a male-dominated city without police or traffic controls.
According to Aljazeera reports, several Afghans have ran alongside a US military plane as it taxied on the runway in a bid to elope the country while some clung to the side as the jet took off.
Senior US military officials confirmed to news correspondents that the chaos left seven dead, as well as several who fell from the flight.
CNN reports that hundreds of people poured onto the tarmac at Kabul’s international airport, desperately seeking a route out of Afghanistan on Monday after the Taliban’s sudden seizure of power sparked a chaotic Western withdrawal and brought to a crashing end the United States’ two-decade mission in the country.
US President Joe Biden also received a briefing by top security officials on the situation in Afghanistan, the White House said.
“This morning, the President was briefed by his national security team, including the Secretary of Defense and Chairman Milley, on the security situation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, and ongoing efforts to safely evacuate American citizens, US Embassy personnel and local staff, SIV (special immigrant visa) applicants and their families, and other vulnerable Afghans,” it said in a statement.
However, at a special session of the UN Security Council in New York, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, urged Taliban to show “the utmost restraint to protect lives” and demanded that anyone who wanted to leave the country must be able to do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment