Video of the horrific incident, recorded by Afghan news media, were widely shared on social media. It showed stowaways looking like dots dropping from the plane.
Fear of Taliban conquering Kabul are overblown, says US envoy to Afghanistan 9 hours ago In this May 5, 2020, file photo, graffiti depicts Washington s peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, left, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the leader of the Taliban delegation, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Rahmat Gul/AP) WASHINGTON Predictions that the Taliban will quickly overrun Afghan government forces and conquer Kabul once U.S. and coalition forces have fully withdrawn are unduly pessimistic, Washington’s special envoy to Afghanistan said Tuesday. “I personally believe that the statements that their forces will disintegrate and the Talibs will take over in short order are mistaken,” Zalmay Khalilzad told the House Foreign Affairs Committee, whose members expressed deep worry that President Joe Biden’s decision to fully withdraw by September will lead to chaos and intensified civil war.
Getting wrong the right way to get out of Afghanistan Jeffrey A. Stacey 1 day ago Afghan National Army soldier stand on top of a hill during a visit by Afghan Deputy Defense Minister Dr. Yasin Zia and Resolute Support Commander Gen. Scott Miller in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 3, 2020. (Spc. Jeffery J. Harris/Army Reserve) With President Biden nears a decision on whether to keep American forces in Afghanistan, the president should be listening to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his U.S. Central Command generals, rather than follow the Trump model of pressuring military leaders to withdrawal for political reasons a move that would aid the foreign interests of Russia, China, Iran, and Pakistan.
Afghan official says security forces can hold their own against Taliban if US troops withdraw March 14 Afghan Interior Minister Masoud Andarabi speaks during an interview to the Associated Press at the Ministry of the Interior in Kabul, Afghanistan, March. 13, 2021. (Rahmat Gul/AP) KABUL, Afghanistan Afghanistan’s interior minister said Saturday that Afghan security forces can hold their ground even if U.S. troops withdraw, challenging a warning from the United States predicting a withdrawal would yield quick territorial gains to the Taliban. Masoud Andarabi’s comments in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press were the first government reaction to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s warning issued in a sharply worded letter to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani last weekend.