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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – A firefight at one of the gates of Kabul International Airport killed at least one Afghan soldier early Monday, German officials said, the latest chaos that engulfed Western efforts to evacuate those fleeing the takeover of the country by the Taliban.
The airport shooting came as the Taliban sent fighters north of the capital to eliminate pockets of armed resistance to their blitz earlier this month. The Taliban said it had recaptured three districts seized by opponents the day before and surrounded Panjshir, the last province that remains out of their control.
Afghan security forces collapsed in the face of the Taliban’s advance, despite 20 years of Western aid, training and assistance. Tens of thousands of Afghans have sought to flee the country since, fearing a return to the brutal rule imposed by the Taliban the last time they ruled Afghanistan. This has led to chaos at Kabul airport, the main route out of the country, where some Afghan troops are participating in Western evacuation efforts.
Gunshots erupted near one of the airport gates, where at least seven Afghans died a day earlier in a panicked stampede of thousands. The circumstances of the shooting, which took place around dawn, remained unclear.
The German army tweeted that a member of the Afghan security forces had been killed and three others wounded by “unknown attackers”. He then clarified that he was referring to “members of the Afghan army” involved in securing the airport.
The US military and NATO did not immediately recognize the shooting. There was no comment from the Taliban.
The tragic scenes around the airport cut through the world. Afghans spilled onto the tarmac last week, with some hanging onto a US military transport plane as it took off, later plunging into their deaths. At least seven people died that day, in addition to the seven killed on Sunday.
The Taliban blame the chaotic evacuation of the US military and say there is no need for the Afghans to flee. They are committed to bringing peace and security after decades of war and say they will not seek revenge on those who worked with the United States, NATO and the overthrown Afghan government.
But their fighters violently quelled the protests and beat people with batons as they tried to control the crowds outside the airport perimeter. There have also been reports in recent days Taliban hunting down their old enemies. It is unclear whether the Taliban leadership is saying one thing and doing another, or whether the fighters on the ground are taking matters into their own hands.
As the airlift continues, the US government has requested 18 planes from US commercial carriers to help transport the Afghan refugees to their final destination after their initial evacuation. The request was part of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program, which originated in the wake of the Berlin Airlift and can increase the military’s capabilities during crises.
Early Monday, a Delta Air Lines flight landed in Dubai and then took off for Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, where evacuees are crammed into hangars. A steady stream of military transport planes continues to transport people from Kabul to airfields across the Middle East.
Since August 14, the United States has evacuated or facilitated the evacuation of more than 30,000 people on military and coalition flights. Tens of thousands of people – Americans, other foreigners and Afghans who participated in the war effort – are still waiting to join the airlift, which has been slowed down by security concerns and obstacles from bureaucracy. American.
US President Joe Biden said on Sunday he would not rule out extending the evacuation beyond August 31, the date he had set to complete the withdrawal of American forces. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to press Biden for an extension.
But Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, in an interview with Sky News, said August 31 was a “red line” and that the expansion of the US presence “would provoke a reaction”.
There are fears that a local branch of the Islamic State group is targeting crowds outside the airport with suicide bombers or missiles firing at US planes. Military planes performed corkscrew landings and other planes fired flares on takeoff – two measures used to avoid missile attacks.
The Taliban and ISIS have different ideologies and have fought in recent years, but one of the concerns about the Taliban takeover is that they could once again harbor extremist groups. The Taliban sheltered al-Qaida while they orchestrated the September 11 attacks, leading to the US invasion in 2001. The Taliban now say they will not allow Afghanistan to be a base for attacks against other countries.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban faced limited armed resistance from fighters in Baghlan province, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Kabul. Anti-Taliban fighters claimed they took three neighborhoods in the Andarab Valley on Sunday, but the Taliban said Monday they evacuated them overnight.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the group’s forces also surrounded neighboring Panjshir, the only one of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces to have fallen to combatants.
Several Taliban opponents gathered there, including Amrullah Saleh, the deputy president of the overthrown government who claims to be the interim president. Ahmad Massoud, son of the assassinated Northern Alliance militia commander who partnered with the United States to oust the Taliban from power in 2001, is also in Panjshir.
In interviews with Arab media over the weekend, Massoud said his fighters would resist any attempt to take the province by force, but were open to dialogue with the Taliban.
Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said there had not yet been fighting in Panjshir and that his group was seeking a “peaceful solution” to the impasse.
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Faiez reported from Istanbul and Krauss from Jerusalem. Associated Press editors Geir Moulson in Berlin, Jill Lawless in London, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.
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More AP coverage of Afghanistan: https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan.
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