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Thousands of Afghans desperate to leave the country swarmed Kabul airport where five people were killed on Monday after Taliban fighters took the capital, prompting the US military to halt evacuations to clean up the airfield.
Crowds converged on the airport seeking to escape, some of them clinging to a U.S. military transport plane as it taxied down the runway, according to images released by a media company.
The United States has temporarily halted all evacuation flights from Kabul to remove people who had converged on the airfield, a US defense official told Reuters news agency.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not specify how long the break would last.
Taliban officials have declared the 20-year war over and issued statements aimed at calming panic that gripped Kabul as the group, which ruled from 1996 to 2001, routed the backed Afghan army by the United States as the foreign forces withdrew.
President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday as the Taliban entered Kabul with virtually no opposition, saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed.
It is not immediately clear how the five people died at the airport on Monday. A US official said troops fired in the air to deter people trying to make their way to a military flight that was to take US diplomats and embassy staff out of town.
A witness, waiting for a flight for more than 20 hours, said it was not clear whether the five were shot or killed in a stampede. US officials at the airport were not immediately available for comment.
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