New York Times media reporter Katie Robertson reports that people who worked with the New York Times in Afghanistan have “made it to safety” with their families.
In an all-staff note, the paper’s managing editor for international said, “We must help all of these families make the transition to new lives abroad… for now, even if just for a beat or two, we can all breathe a bit easier, knowing that 65 families – 128 men, women and children – are headed to freedom.
Katie Robertson (@katie_robertson)
Here’s the note from NYT’s @meslackman to staff tonight on our colleagues from Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/u7dHr8PNTG
More now on the Taliban parading US-bought arms.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday, “Obviously, we don’t have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us.”
Republicans seized on the admission to pounce on Biden, AFP reports.
“Thanks to Biden’s botched withdrawal, the Taliban is better equipped today than they ever have been,” said Republican national chair Ronna McDaniel.
According to official figures, the US military supplied the Afghan army with more than 7,000 machine guns, 4,700 Humvees and 20,000 grenades in recent years. The Afghans have also received artillery and reconnaissance drones from Washington, as well as more than 200 aircraft, both fixed-wing and helicopters.
Their continued operation depended heavily on US technical support and parts, however.
According to photographs published Wednesday by Janes, the defense specialists, some 40 Afghan military aircraft were flown into Uzbekistan over the past week to escape the Taliban advance, including five UH-60 Black Hawk and 16 Russia Mi-17 helicopters and 10 A-29 Super Tucano attack airplanes.
In its 16-month drawdown, the Pentagon removed huge amounts of its own equipment from Afghanistan, and handed some of it to the Afghan army. But hardware supplied to the Afghan forces that is now in Taliban hands has raised concerns. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that the department is looking at the issue.
Videos of Taliban fighters parading in US-made armored vehicles, wielding US-supplied firearms and climbing on American Black Hawk helicopters after the defeat of Afghan government forces have embarrassed the White House, AFP reports.
The Islamist insurgents, who easily captured control of the country after a months-long campaign, seized huge amounts of weaponry, equipment and munitions from the Afghan armed forces, most of it supplied over the past two decades by Washington.
Social media showed Taliban fighters carrying M4 and M18 assault rifles and M24 sniper weapons, driving around in the iconic US Humvees and, in one video, apparently wearing US-style special forces tactical uniforms.
The images are underpinning a political attack on President Joe Biden for alleged mishandling of the US withdrawal from the country after 20 years of war.
Most of the equipment has been seized from the Afghan forces who, despite two decades of training and tens of billions of dollars from the United States, conceded the capital Kabul at the weekend without a fight.
“We don’t have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone. But certainly, a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban,” said White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Tuesday.
Human Rights Watch is has appealed to the Australian government to “urgently help protect Afghan civilians who are at heightened risk under the new Taliban authorities”.
“The government should also increase assistance for refugees and civil society groups, and support resolutions at the United Nations Human Rights Council for human rights fact-finding and reporting in Afghanistan,” the organisation says.
On Wednesday, Australia’s first evacuation mission to Afghanistan rescued just 26 people.
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said he hopes those numbers will ramp up with further flights in coming days. Morrison also signalled his government intended to resettle about 3,000 Afghan nationals through the existing humanitarian program this year:
Yesterday a a former Afghan interpreter for the Australian military was shot in the leg as he tried to pass a Taliban checkpoint outside Kabul airport, in an attempt to board an Australian evacuation mission out of Afghanistan:
Ahmad Massoud, the leader of Afghanistan’s National Resistance Front, has written an opinion piece in the Washington Post calling for help for the mujahideen resistance:
I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my father’s footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban. We have stores of ammunition and arms that we have patiently collected since my father’s time, because we knew this day might come.
We also have the weapons carried by the Afghans who, over the past 72 hours, have responded to my appeal to join the resistance in Panjshir. We have soldiers from the Afghan regular army who were disgusted by the surrender of their commanders and are now making their way to the hills of Panjshir with their equipment. Former members of the Afghan Special Forces have also joined our struggle.
But that is not enough. If Taliban warlords launch an assault, they will of course face staunch resistance from us. The flag of the National Resistance Front will fly over every position that they attempt to take, as the National United Front flag flew 20 years ago. Yet we know that our military forces and logistics will not be sufficient. They will be rapidly depleted unless our friends in the West can find a way to supply us without delay.
The United States and its allies have left the battlefield, but America can still be a “great arsenal of democracy,” as Franklin D. Roosevelt said when coming to the aid of the beleaguered British before the U.S. entry into World War II.
To that end, I entreat Afghanistan’s friends in the West to intercede for us in Washington and in New York, with Congress and with the Biden administration. Intercede for us in London, where I completed my studies, and in Paris, where my father’s memory was honored this spring by the naming of a pathway for him in the Champs-Élysées gardens.
In hiding with his family in Kabul, Nowroz Ali says he is consumed by fear. He can hear gunfire in the darkness. He cannot sleep, getting up every time he hears a door slam.
“At night time, I am shivering. I can’t control myself. The more days I spend here, the more worried I get – the Taliban have started looking for people who worked with coalition forces.”
Ali is one of at least 37 Afghans who assisted New Zealand forces and now believe they could face torture or death if found by the Taliban. This week, the New Zealand government committed to evacuating Afghans who worked for New Zealand forces, and a C-130 defence plane left on Thursday morning to assist.
But the mission faces huge logistical difficulties; scenes of chaos at Kabul’s airport, and prospective evacuees dispersed in hiding. Joe Biden said on Thursday that US troops may stay beyond 31 August to assist with evacuations, but Britain has concerns that US forces may pull out of Kabul international airport within days, putting it at risk of closure and raising concerns about airlifts:
Reuters has compiles several graphics showing the challenges faced by people in Kabul trying to reach the airport and get flights.
Those alarming videos we posted earlier were taken on the civilian side of the airport, shown below:
You can find the graphics and article here.
Yalda Hakim (@BBCYaldaHakim)
Who is to blame for the Afghan military collapse? I ask NATO Secretary General @jensstoltenberg whether @NATO bears any of the blame #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/67dtaH7jqG
US secretary of state Anthony Blinken also says the Biden administration and international partners are calling “on those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan to guarantee the protection of women and girls and their rights.”
Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken)
Together with our international partners, we call on those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan to guarantee the protection of women and girls and their rights. We will monitor closely how any future government ensures their rights and freedoms.
UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab has spoken with US secretary of state Anthony Blinken for a second time this week.
“Spoke to @SecBlinken again this evening to discuss continued UK & US efforts to co-ordinate our response to the situation in Afghanistan, including bringing the international community together on an international strategy,” he tweeted.
“I am also working closely with US Aid Administrator @SamanthaJPower on the humanitarian response to ensure aid reaches the most vulnerable.”
Raab dismissed criticism from Labour leader Keir Starmer of his handling of the situation in Afghanistan on Wednesday, saying the Labour leader has no “credible” alternatives to the government’s approach.
The foreign secretary told the House of Commons:
The leader of the Labour Party made clear his support for the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, I think that is clear. He listed a range of things he wants the government to do, quite rightly, including supporting the UN efforts, taking action in the UN Security Council, support through Nato, support for ordinary Afghans and not allowing money aid to go to the Taliban. We are doing all of those things, and rightly so.
The right honourable gentleman did not give a single example of an action he would have taken that we have not – not one. But then issued a series of searing criticisms. The shadow foreign secretary took a similar approach in her speech.
The leader of the Labour Party agreed the decision to withdraw, but now, with his predictable proclivity for hindsight, the right honourable gentleman criticises the consequences of a decision that he backed. He does so with no serious or credible alternative of his own, not even a hint, a reminder of Shakespeare’s adage, the empty vessel makes the greatest sound.
Blinken said of their conversation on Wednesday, “I discussed diplomatic efforts to help ensure the safety and security of all Afghan and international citizens with @DominicRaab and reiterated U.S. support for the upcoming virtual G7 leaders meeting.”
On Wednesday in Jalalabad, 150km (90 miles) east of Kabul, at least three people were killed in anti-Taliban protests, witnesses said. The protests provided an early test of the Taliban’s promise of peaceful rule.
Two witnesses and a former police official told Reuters that Taliban fighters opened fire when residents tried to install Afghanistan’s national flag at a square in the city, killing three and injuring more than a dozen.
Taliban spokespeople could not be reached for comment.
Here is a video from the protests, via Reuters:
Reuters (@Reuters)
At least three people were killed and more than a dozen were injured in anti-Taliban protests in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, as the Islamist militants moved to consolidate power and Western countries stepped up evacuations of diplomats and civilians https://t.co/tCfcemXeDb pic.twitter.com/XPufkYbG2s
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