Evacuation flights halted in chaos at Kabul airport as Afghans try to flee

Gunshots rang out at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on Monday as Afghans flooded the tarmac in hopes of fleeing the country following the lightning-fast takeover by the Taliban. US troops opened fire as they tried to control the crowd, but all evacuation flights were halted as the situation deteriorated, with desperate Afghan civilians swarming the planes as they took off.

A US military official later told CBS News’s David Martin that US troops killed two armed Afghans who were part of the huge crowd that passed the perimeter of the airport. Reports say seven people have died in total. While the cause of the other deaths was not immediately clear, at least one person was seen falling from a plane after it took off.

Sunday saw the culmination of the Taliban’s surprisingly rapid return to power as the United States withdrew its forces after the 20-year-old war waged by the United States in Afghanistan. Taliban fighters have taken control of the presidential palace. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled Kabul.

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan for years before the US-led invasion, enforcing a strict form of Islamic Sharia law that kept women under the control of male family members and out-of-school girls. It was not clear on Monday whether the group intended to reintroduce such a harsh version of the Islamic regime in Afghanistan, or whether it could moderate to gain international legitimacy.

The United States Embassy in Kabul was completely evacuated on Sunday evening and State Department spokesman Ned Price said all staff had been transferred to Kabul airport. Price said on Sunday the airport perimeter had been secured by the US military, but Monday’s scenes showed little order outside the airport buildings.

A Defense Department official said 1,000 more US troops were being sent to Afghanistan to help evacuate the Americans, bringing the total to 6,000, of which 3,000 are currently on the ground.