Aug. 20 (UPI) — The White House said a few thousand American workers, Afghan aides and civilians were evacuated from Afghanistan on Thursday and nearly a dozen charter flights took even more out of the country, amid growing tensions over the new reign of the Taliban.
A White House official said U.S. forces evacuated about 3,000 people from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on more than a dozen C-17 transport planes.
The official said the total included about 350 American citizens. Others who were evacuated included special international visa applicants and their families and vulnerable Afghans.
“Additionally, in the last 24 hours, the U.S. military facilitated the departure of 11 charter flights,” the official said.
“We have evacuated approximately 9,000 people since Aug. 14. Since the end of July, we have evacuated approximately 14,000 people.”
The new evacuations came four days after the Taliban overtook Kabul and seized control of the Afghan government. The militant group had been on a lightning sweep throughout Afghanistan, taking over almost all provincial capitals nationwide as American forces withdrew and returned to the United States.
A boy is processed at an Evacuee Control Checkpoint at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday. Photo by Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/USMC/UPI
In recent days, there have been reports of deadly clashes between the Taliban and civilian demonstrators who oppose their rule. During their last reign in the 1990s, the Taliban forced women and girls to live by a strict set of Islamic rules and many fear the group will return to such suppressive control.
President Joe Biden has defended his decision to withdraw U.S. forces by the end of this month. In light of the swift Taliban takeover, however, he’s said that a contingent of American troops will remain in Afghanistan until all U.S. citizens are out. He also said everything will be done to help Afghan aides and their families.
Biden on Friday was scheduled to meet with his national security team for an update on the situation in Afghanistan. He will give an update at 1 p.m. EDT, the White House said.
Vice President Kamala Harris will also be part of the briefings.
A number of people have died during the chaos in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over on Sunday. Several died on the first day attempting to board U.S. military flights out of the country. Some even clutched onto the planes as they took off. The remains of one Afghan civilian were found in the wheel well of one of the planes when it landed in Qatar.
One of Afghanistan’s top young soccer players, Mohammad Zaki Anwari, was among the dead at the Kabul airport. Officials said he was clutching onto the wing of one of the evacuation planes when it departed.
Anwari, 19, and others went to the airport on Sunday when the Taliban entered Kabul.
“He was also a brilliant student and his dream was to be a world-class footballer and he dreamed of making Afghanistan a big name on the world stage,” teammate Rahil Abid told CBS News. “I wasn’t able to see his body or able to go to his funeral because of the current situation in Kabul, but apparently he is one of the Afghans who fell from the plane’s wing or tires after takeoff.”
Other civilians died this week during clashes with the Taliban when the group tried to shut down protests, including two in Jalalabad and Asadabad.
Afghan civilians display the national flag at a protest against the Taliban rule in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday, which was independence day in the country. Photo by Bashir Darwish/UPI
Taliban fighters have been patrolling across Kabul and in other provinces, mainly as a show of force and to quell any potential uprisings.
German news outlet Deutsche Welle reported Thursday that Taliban fighters killed a reporter’s relative during a house-to-house search. Another person was injured.
“The killing of a close relative of one of our editors by the Taliban yesterday is inconceivably tragic and testifies to the acute danger in which all our employees and their families in Afghanistan find themselves,” Deutsche Welle Director General Peter Limbourg said.
“It is evident that the Taliban are already carrying out organized searches for journalists, both in Kabul and in the provinces. We are running.”
The Taliban in the past have cracked down on journalists they view as critical of Islam and severely restricted press freedoms in Afghanistan. They said at a news conference on Tuesday that they will allow a free press in Afghanistan. They also said women will be allowed to work and study and there will be no reprisals against former enemies.
Experts have been skeptical of the Taliban’s promises.
“There is little evidence to suggest the insurgents have changed their hard-line views in their 20 years of opposition,” Raffaello Pantucci, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said, according to Voice of America.