Taliban Takeover of AfghanistanAfghanistan: U.S. May Seek Airlines’ Help in Evacuation Effort

U.S. seeks to compel airlines to provide planes to speed evacuation of Afghans.

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Afghans waiting near the north gate of Kabul’s international airport on Saturday.Credit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

The Pentagon is moving toward compelling major American airlines to help transport tens of thousands of evacuees from Afghanistan, as the military struggles to meet the demand from Afghans seeking to leave Kabul, the capital, after the Taliban took control.

Military officials are poised to activate the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, or CRAF, created in 1952 in the wake of the Berlin Airlift, to provide several commercial airliners to bolster the American military operation to evacuate Afghans arriving at bases in the Middle East, Defense Department officials said on Saturday.

If the first stage of the activation is approved, nearly 20 airliners would join the more than 150 military cargo planes now involved in the evacuation efforts, military officials said. The potential use of civilian airliners was previously reported by The Wall Street Journal. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin must give final approval to the plan.

Civilian planes would not fly into or out of Kabul, where a rapidly deteriorating security situation has hampered evacuation flights. Instead, commercial airline pilots and crews would help transport thousands of Afghans who are arriving at U.S. bases in Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

The commercial airlines would ease the burden on these bases, which are filling up rapidly as the Biden administration rushes to increase the number of flights for thousands of Afghans fearing reprisals from Taliban fighters.

From the bases in the Middle East, the airliners would augment military flights carrying Afghans to Germany, Spain, Italy and other stops in Europe, and then ultimately to the United States for many of the Afghans, officials said.

The military’s U.S. Transportation Command issued a warning order to major airlines on Friday night that some of their fleets might be needed for the evacuation effort, according to Capt. John Perkins, a command spokesman.

Final approval rests with Mr. Austin. For the evacuation mission, one of the largest the Pentagon has ever conducted, the military has expanded beyond its fleet of C-17s, the cargo plane of choice in hostile environments, to include giant C-5s and KC-10s, a refueling plane that can be configured to carry passengers.

A Taliban leader has arrived in Kabul, as the group aims to form a new government.

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Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, center, traveled to Moscow in March. Mr. Baradar is emerging as the leader of what the group refers to as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.Credit...Pool photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko

The Taliban appeared closer to forming a government nearly a week after seizing the capital as one of their leaders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, arrived in Kabul to begin talks with former President Hamid Karzai and other politicians.

“The negotiations are going on right now,” said Ahmadullah Waseq, deputy of the Taliban’s cultural affairs committee, who confirmed Mr. Baradar’s arrival in the capital.

For now, he said, Taliban officials are largely talking among themselves in preparation for the negotiations.

“Then we will talk with other parties to form an inclusive government acceptable to all Afghans,” Mr. Waseq added. “It is not clear when will we have a new government, but we are trying to announce it as soon as we can.”

Other Taliban leaders met on Saturday with Mr. Karzai and a second, prominent ex-Afghan official, Abdullah Abdullah, a former chief executive of the government, to discuss life under the Taliban.

As talks got underway in serene, formal settings, scenes of havoc played out near the Kabul airport, where thousands of Afghans have thronged, desperate to find space on an evacuation flight.

The situation there was fueling concern about the Taliban’s ability to govern a war-weary nation besieged by a humanitarian crisis, growing dissent and fears about a return to the group’s harsh and violent rule.

Although U.S. troops are accelerating the evacuations, President Biden has made clear that the mission will not be open-ended, raising the risk that many Afghans will be left behind to face life under the new regime.

Since capturing Kabul, the Taliban have sought to rebrand themselves as more moderate, promising former rivals amnesty, urging women to join their government, pledging stability at home and trying to persuade the international community to see beyond a bloody past defined by violence and repression.

But many in Afghanistan and abroad are deeply skeptical of their professed transformation, recalling the Taliban’s mode of governance in the late 1990s, when they imposed a harsh interpretation of Islam that deprived women of basic rights like education and encouraged punishments like floggings, amputations and mass executions.

As the Taliban prepare the rough outlines of their new government, Mr. Baradar, one of the group’s founders, is emerging as a leader of what the group refers to as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

A longtime lieutenant to the Taliban’s founding supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, Mr. Baradar has a large and loyal following among the Taliban rank and file. He recently acted as chief negotiator in high-level peace talks in Qatar, where he presided over the agreement that cleared the way for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Mr. Baradar began making his way back to Afghanistan this week from Qatar.

The new government will face huge challenges, including a lack of legitimacy, as everyday Afghans, members of the security and intelligence services, foreign governments and the international community may not accept it as the rightful government of the Afghan people.

Basic services like electricity are under threat as many fearful state employees have not turned up for work for fear of Taliban retribution. And a humanitarian crisis is intensifying, with two-thirds of the country suffering from malnutrition.

The situation will be exacerbated by the lack of funding. Washington has frozen Afghan government reserves held in U.S. bank accounts, and the International Monetary Fund has blocked Afghanistan from accessing emergency reserves.

In recent days, Taliban leaders, including Amir Khan Muttaqi, a former information minister, have started conversations with onetime adversaries, including the former U.S.-backed president, Mr. Karzai, about the shape of a new government.

The involvement of Mr. Karzai and Mr. Abdullah, both well-known to world leaders, in any negotiations could help give a veneer of credibility to the new government. But observers have also looked on with alarm at the ascent of other figures like Khalil Haqqani, 48, a leader of one of the most powerful and violent Taliban factions, who is expected to play a prominent role.

Saturday’s preliminary talks came a day after the Taliban faced armed resistance to their rule in the mountains north of Kabul, according to former Afghan officials. They were driven out of three rural districts.

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The U.S. cites ‘potential security threats’ near Kabul’s airport, including from ISIS.

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Afghans waiting near the north gate of Kabul’s airport on Saturday, as members of the National Directorate of Security work to secure the perimeterCredit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul warned Americans to stay away from the Afghan capital’s airport on Saturday because of “potential security threats outside the gates,” in a sign of growing volatility at the choke point for thousands of Afghans desperate to escape the country’s new Taliban rulers.

U.S. officials said the most serious current threat was that Afghanistan’s branch of the Islamic State would attempt an attack that would hurt the Americans and damage the Taliban’s sense of control. It was unclear how capable ISIS is of such an attack, the officials said.

Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate, a rival of the Taliban, was defeated in its eastern stronghold in late 2019. But smaller elements of the organization have continued to operate with low intensity in the region, including in Kabul.

The U.S. warning advised American citizens “to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates” unless instructed to by the embassy. While all of the entrance gates to the airport appeared to be closed on Saturday morning, the Pentagon said later that military commanders were allowing some Americans and Afghans through with proper credentials for scheduled flights.

Nearly a week after the collapse of Afghanistan’s government, thousands of Afghans were clamoring for escape despite tear gas and Taliban checkpoints outside the fortresslike airport.

Taliban patrols control the road to the northern gate on the military side of the airport until the last few hundred yards, where an active Afghan military unit that has not surrendered guards the gate itself. That, in turn, is intended to provide security for the American forces that are deciding which Americans, Afghans and foreigners get through.

Crowds took shelter under overhangs in the midday heat across the street as Afghan soldiers fired shots into the air to disperse throngs of people. One man said he had been at the airport for six days trying to find a way out.

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Desperate to Flee, Thousands Surround Kabul Airport

Chaotic crowds pressed together at the Kabul airport as thousands tried to escape Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

“Sir ——” “You need to wait.” “Come get the passport.” “Come and get your passport.”

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Chaotic crowds pressed together at the Kabul airport as thousands tried to escape Taliban rule in Afghanistan.CreditCredit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

American troops have been accelerating the evacuation, and military flights were continuing to depart from the airport on Saturday afternoon. But hope is fading that the U.S.-led effort will include everyone who wants to flee, as President Biden insisted that the military mission would not be open-ended.

Mr. Biden reinforced on Friday that the United States would rescue all Americans and Afghans who helped the U.S. government, aiming to quell a global furor over the chaotic evacuation that has followed the Taliban’s return to power.

But with just 10 days until his deadline to withdraw all U.S. troops, Mr. Biden conceded that for many other Afghans desperate to leave the country, “I cannot promise what the final outcome will be.”

The president’s words, delivered at a White House news conference, summed up the anguish and uncertainty in Afghanistan as its new Taliban rulers cement their grip on a poor, war-weary nation.

Mr. Biden has insisted on a full troop withdrawal, arguing that it is time to end the United States’ longest war. After fighting the Taliban for two decades, U.S. military commanders are now working with their former adversaries to ensure safe passage to the airport, an arrangement that the Biden administration has acknowledged might not hold.

The airport, the last major exit point for foreigners and Afghans, is now encircled by concrete blast walls and razor wire, and watched over by Taliban soldiers waving weapons.

The situation at Kabul’s airport deteriorates as diplomats warn of threats.

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U.S. Continues Evacuations as Conditions Worsen at Kabul Airport

Pentagon officials said the U.S. military was continuing to process evacuations of Americans, Afghan allies and others at Kabul’s airport, even as the State Department warned Americans to avoid travel to the airport because of security threats.

“August 14, we began this evacuation operation, which really is exactly one week ago today. Since then, we have rapidly deployed thousands of troops into Afghanistan. Our footprint continues today to stand at approximately 5,800 troops on the ground, continuing to provide and secure the Kabul airport to allow for evacuation operations. The airport remains secure. U.S. military personnel currently oversee flight operations. Both U.S. military contracted aircraft as well as foreign aircraft continue to operate within Kabul airport. Additionally, the U.S. military has maintained the gate security at major gates and supported our State Department colleagues in the processing of individuals [inaudible] to prepare for evacuation flights out of Afghanistan. We are continuing to process people throughout the last 24 hours. The commanders are metering how many people come in and out of the gate to ensure the safe and ability to screen applicants as they come on to [inaudible].” Reporter: “It was a security alert that came out of the embassy this morning, it says, ‘because of potential security threats outside the gates at Kabul airport, we’re advising US citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and avoid airport gates at this time, unless you receive a specific call to come there.’ So can you explain what is this threat?” “What you’re seeing out of our State Department colleagues, I think, is a prudent notification to make sure that whatever movement there is to the gates from outside the airport is done as safely as possible. And you have seen the images over the last 24 to 48 hours yourself of the situation outside the perimeter of the airport. And it changes, it changes almost by the hour and it changes in locations around the airport. It’s very, very fluid and dynamic.”

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Pentagon officials said the U.S. military was continuing to process evacuations of Americans, Afghan allies and others at Kabul’s airport, even as the State Department warned Americans to avoid travel to the airport because of security threats.CreditCredit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

The State Department and Pentagon on Saturday gave conflicting messages to Americans seeking to flee Afghanistan through Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, as security conditions continued to deteriorate at the remaining gateway out of the country.

Even as the State Department warned Americans to avoid traveling to the airport because of security threats there, including risks of terrorist attacks, Pentagon officials said several gates at the airport were open intermittently to allow Americans with proper credentials to come inside.

Maj. Gen. William Taylor of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff told reporters on Saturday that military commanders at the airport were “metering” the flow of Americans, Afghan allies and other foreigners with proper credentials to ensure everyone entering the airport to board flights out was screened and vetted.

“As American citizens come into the gates. we are continuing to process them and get them to safety,” General Taylor said. “I mean that’s our mission.”

The general acknowledged that some of the gates to the airport had temporarily closed and reopened over the past 24 hours to permit the safe flow of people trying to gain entry.

Pentagon officials said there was a security threat posed by the large unruly throngs gathered at several airport entrances, including the potential risks of attacks from Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

John F. Kirby, the chief Pentagon spokesman, declined to comment on any specific threat because of operational security, but said that the security situation at the airport was extremely volatile, changing every hour at different locations around the airfield.

Mr. Kirby said there had been no additional helicopter rescues of Americans in Kabul seeking to flee the Afghan capital since a mission on Thursday, but he did not rule out the possibility of similar operations if local commanders believed they were warranted.

“We continue to explore options to help Americans, as needed,” Mr. Kirby said.

While refusing to acknowledge that the window for evacuation flights out of Kabul may be closing as security outside the airport gates worsens, Mr. Kirby did say, “We know we’re fighting against both time and space.”

General Taylor said that in the past 24 hours, three Air Force C-17 transport planes and 32 chartered jets had departed Kabul, carrying 3,800 passengers, roughly half of them Americans. That figure is down from 6,000 evacuated two days ago, before the Pentagon had to pause flights from Kabul on Friday for up to seven hours when facilities in Qatar, the main receiving station for evacuees, filled up.

Flights later resumed to other intermediate stops for the evacuees in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Germany. Since the airlift operation began last Sunday, General Taylor said that 17,000 people had been evacuated, including 2,500 Americans.

In the past 24 hours, General Taylor said, three more flights landed at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, carrying Afghan visa applicants bound for American military bases in Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin, where they will complete their visa applications before being resettled permanently in the United States.

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A former Pence aide says Trump and Miller tried to stymie Afghan refugee efforts.

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Stephen Miller at the White House last year.Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times

A homeland security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence accused the Trump administration of distorting the truth about Afghan refugees, writing on Twitter that the former president and Stephen Miller, his top immigration adviser, sought to prevent the refugees from entering the United States.

In an interview, Olivia Troye recalled sitting in meetings where Mr. Miller demanded restrictions on refugees, including those from Afghanistan and Iraq. She said the reductions in the refugee program during the Trump years hollowed out the government’s ability to bring the interpreters and others to the United States.

“Now we are in this crisis and they are saying Trump would have evacuated them,” Ms. Troye said. “But he didn’t in four years. You don’t get to play revisionist history here. There are people who know what the situation is.”

President Donald J. Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed in recent days that his administration would have handled a withdrawal from Afghanistan better than President Biden, whom he criticized for failing to evacuate Americans and Afghans who worked with the United States. Top conservative commentators, including Ben Domenech, have tweeted in support of Mr. Trump.

Ms. Troye sought to rebut those claims on Twitter and in an interview, claiming instead that Trump administration officials had worked to undermine the immigration system that brings Afghan and Iraqi allies into the country by granting them a Special Immigrant Visa indicating they had supported the American war effort.

Mr. Miller “& his enablers across gov’t would undermine anyone who worked on solving the SIV issue by devastating the system at DHS & State,” she wrote on Twitter.

In a statement sent to The Times on Saturday night, Mr. Miller responded to Ms. Troye’s accusations by blaming Mr. Biden for the chaotic evacuation of Americans and Afghans as the United States pulls out of its longest-ever war after two decades.

“The sole reason that anyone is stranded in Afghanistan is because Joe Biden stranded them there in the single most imbecilic act of strategic incompetence in human history,” Mr. Miller said. “All the desperate lying liars in the world can’t change that one inescapable fact.”

Katie Miller, Mr. Pence’s former spokeswoman and Mr. Miller’s wife, questioned Ms. Troye’s assertions about Mr. Miller’s involvement in blocking Afghans who qualify for the special visa category.

@OliviaTroye What meeting? Who were the attendees? Where did this ‘meeting’ happen?” Ms. Miller wrote. “It didn’t happen. Stephen did not even work on SIV policy.”

Ms. Miller also linked to a government study showing that the number of Special Immigrant Visas granted to Iraqi and Afghans during the four years of Mr. Trump’s administration — a total of about 44,000 — was almost 6,000 more than during the final four years of President Barack Obama’s time in office.

During his time in the White House, Mr. Miller successfully pressed for deep cuts to the number of refugees that the United States let into the country, though the Trump administration did seek to prioritize the more limited visas for those for Afghans and Iraqis near the end of the president’s term.

In 2017, when Mr. Trump imposed a travel ban on foreigners, including Iraqis, H.R. McMaster, the former national security adviser, was furious that it would block Iraqi allies who helped the military during the war there. After repeated clashes between Mr. McMaster and Mr. Miller, Mr. Trump reluctantly agreed to take Iraq off the travel ban.

The Biden administration has said it is only allowing fully vetted Afghans into the United States. But in a series of tweets last week, Mr. Miller warned against bringing “millions” of Afghans to the United States.

“Bottom line: if we are not careful, all we could have to show for 20 years in Afghanistan is a failed terror state, a humanitarian catastrophe, and an immigration policy that has brought the threat of jihadism inside our shores,” Mr. Miller wrote.

“If we want to safely and effectively assist the *millions* of people likely leaving Afghanistan,” he added, “the focus must be on regional resettlement — not mass relocation inside the United States.”

Desperation sets in for Afghans after return of Taliban.

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A woman displaced by violence in Afghanistan at a park in Kabul on Friday.Credit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

For many Afghans, desperation is deepening. At least a quarter of a million people have fled their homes since the end of May as the Taliban marched steadily across the country. About 80 percent of them are women and children, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

At a park in central Kabul on Saturday morning, people who had escaped the Taliban’s march across northern Afghanistan in recent weeks were stuck in dust-blown makeshift settlements, washing their clothes in a stream and unsure of where to turn.

Days after they reached Kabul, the Taliban seized the city of six million, and now they may be stranded without assistance as international aid groups try to evacuate staff members who they worry are at risk of Taliban reprisals.

Known for barring girls from school and chopping off the hands of thieves when the group led the country in the late 1990s, the Taliban have presented conflicting signals of how they intend to govern this time. Top leaders have pledged to protect the rights of women and the free press, even as fighters beat protesters and search for supporters of the former government or its Western allies, according to the United Nations and witnesses.

The former insurgents have also demonstrated little aptitude for administering basic services in a country that is heavily reliant on foreign aid. A third of the population is now going hungry, according to the United Nations.

The International Rescue Committee estimates that more than 300,000 Afghan civilians have been affiliated with the United States since 2001, but only a minority qualify for refugee status.

Mr. Biden said on Friday that he would commit to airlifting Afghans who had helped the U.S. war effort, but that Americans were his priority.

“Any American who wants to come home,” he said, “we will get you home.”

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Evacuating Afghans is becoming a global effort, but not all countries are welcoming them.

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Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, dozens of countries have been working to evacuate their citizens and vulnerable Afghans, including those who have worked for the U.S. military or embassy.CreditCredit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

The evacuation of foreigners and vulnerable Afghans from Kabul is building into a global effort, with dozens of countries now flying people out, serving as transit points or agreeing to resettle refugees.

The assistance represents only a fraction of what would be needed to bring to safety the many Afghans wanting to escape the Taliban takeover, including those among the 300,000 people who have worked for the U.S. military or embassy in Afghanistan since 2001, according to the International Rescue Committee.

And the growing number of countries involved in the evacuations shows how the global outcry over wrenching scenes from the Kabul airport in recent days has propelled governments to act.

Twelve countries have been or will be acting as brief transit stops for U.S. military flights out of Afghanistan, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Friday. In addition to the Gulf state of Qatar, where a U.S. military base has served as a transit point since evacuations began, the assisting countries include Bahrain, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Tajikistan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.

In addition, Mr. Blinken said, 13 countries have pledged to help resettle Afghans: Albania, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Kosovo, Mexico, North Macedonia, Poland, Qatar, Rwanda, Uganda and Ukraine.

The expanded effort comes as the U.S. military accelerates evacuation flights. The stepped-up pace created a new obstacle on Friday when the Udeid Air Base in Qatar, where thousands of Afghans are being processed for resettlement in other countries, reached its limits. That forced American flights out of Kabul to pause for six hours.

Pentagon officials said that the evacuation later resumed, with some flights heading to bases in other countries, including Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Officials at Ramstein said that about 300 evacuees had arrived on Friday night aboard two military transport planes from Qatar. The evacuees will stay in temporary lodging in aircraft hangars before being transferred to permanent resettlement locations, according to a statement from the base.

On Saturday, U.S. military personnel based at Ramstein helped an Afghan woman deliver a baby in the cargo bay of an Air Force C-17 after she went into labor during a flight from a Middle East staging base, an Air Force command said on Twitter. It said the woman and her baby, a girl, were in good condition.

Despite the delays, the U.S. military flew about 6,000 people out of Kabul in a 24-hour period from Thursday to Friday, bringing the total number evacuated since last Saturday to 13,000 people, Maj. Gen. William Taylor of the military’s Joint Staff said at a Pentagon briefing on Friday. Seventeen military transport planes took off in that 24-hour period, in addition to aircraft from other countries and civilian flights.

In recent days, other countries have also stepped up evacuation efforts.

The Indonesian air force flew 26 of its citizens, two Afghans and five others out of Afghanistan, the country’s foreign minister said on Friday. Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul said on Friday that his government would evacuate 350 Pakistanis, Afghans and others on two chartered commercial flights.

Other countries, however, have been less welcoming.

India has said it will give priority to Hindu and Sikh refugees from Afghanistan — which is more than 99 percent Muslim — in issuing special emergency visas.

The Greek government said on Friday said that it had completed a 25-mile fence on the Turkish border to deter asylum seekers, after the country’s migration minister, Notis Mitarachi, said that his country “would not be a gateway” to Europe for Afghan migrants.

More than a million migrants arrived in Greece in 2015 and 2016, many of them fleeing wars in Iraq and Syria.

The U.S. military rescues Americans from a hotel in Kabul.

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A U.S. military helicopter flying above Kabul this week.Credit...Wakil Kohsar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Pentagon said on Friday that 169 Americans had been rescued from a hotel in Kabul, a rare U.S. military rescue mission beyond the airport grounds since the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital nearly a week ago.

Three UH-47 helicopters based near Hamid Karzai International Airport ferried the group to safety on Thursday, John F. Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman told reporters.

The Americans had gathered at the Baron Hotel, a designated meeting point for evacuees in Kabul, from which they intended to walk the 200 yards to the Abbey Gate entrance to the airfield, Mr. Kirby said.

But officials expressed concern about a large crowd at the entrance, and U.S. commanders at the airport decided to pick up the Americans instead.

The helicopters landed next to the hotel, loaded up the passengers and flew the short hop back to the nearby airfield without incident, Mr. Kirby said.

Earlier Friday, President Biden said he did not want to expand the perimeter around the airport to help with the rescue effort, because he feared that doing so would open the floodgates.

“There will be judgments made on the ground by the military commanders,” he added, “and I cannot second-guess those judgments.”

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A baby passed over a wall in Kabul is reunited with his family, the military says.

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Baby Passed Over Razor Wire in Dramatic Scene at Kabul Airport

The international airport in Kabul has been a scene of chaos since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. Footage shows crowds gathered outside the airport on Thursday as an infant was passed over a fence to a U.S. solider.

“Guys, guys, guys.” “Hey, baby, baby.” [Gunshots]

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The international airport in Kabul has been a scene of chaos since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. Footage shows crowds gathered outside the airport on Thursday as an infant was passed over a fence to a U.S. solider.CreditCredit...Omar Haidari/Reuters

Outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Thursday, a frenzied crowd of Afghans gathered on the Taliban-controlled side of a concrete wall topped with razor wire to beg a group of Marines to give them access to freedom.

Suddenly, the mass of outstretched hands produced a baby, no more than a few months old, and held the child up for the soldiers to see. As if handling a piece of luggage, a Marine plucked the infant by a single arm, passing the child behind him before turning back to the crowd.

The scene is harrowing to watch, which is precisely why a video of it was quickly transmitted around the world, fueling anger at a haphazard evacuation process. By Friday, the U.S. military was eager to share that the infant had been safely reunited with a family member.

“The baby seen in the video was taken to a medical treatment facility on site and cared for by medical professionals,” Maj. James Stenger, a spokesman for the Marines, wrote in an email. “I can confirm the baby was reunited with their father and is safe at the airport.”

Major Stenger did not provide additional details, including how many children had been taken to similar treatment facilities in recent days. But he sent a series of photos showing Marines playing with children at military checkpoints and giving children water.

“This is a true example of the professionalism of the Marines on site, who are making quick decisions in a dynamic situation in support of evacuation operations,” he said.

For two decades, Americans have understood the human cost of the war in Afghanistan primarily through the deaths of thousands of American and Afghan soldiers. But this week, images of babies and young children hoisted into the arms of U.S. commandos highlighted what the toll has been to the innocent, prompting emotional reactions from people around the globe.

The quick resolution to a heart-wrenching and viral photo belied a chaotic and rapidly unfolding scene in which multiple children were placed into the care of American troops in last-ditch attempts to get them to freedom.

Seeking to restore calm in the face of what he called “heartbreaking” images, President Biden said on Friday that about 6,000 U.S. troops were working to restore order. He said he was committed to the evacuation of Afghans as well as Americans, before adding that rescuing U.S. citizens would come first.

“We have seen gut-wrenching images of panicked people acting out of sheer desperation,” Mr. Biden said. “It is completely understandable. They are frightened. They are sad. I don’t think anyone of us can see these pictures and not feel that pain on a human level.”

Responding to a question about why he had not authorized the military to expand the perimeter around the airport so that more people could reach flights out, Mr. Biden said he didn’t want to open the floodgates.

The military cannot expand the perimeter without authorization from the president.

The Taliban will be under pressure to keep Afghanistan’s fragile economy afloat.

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Money changers at their stalls in Kabul on Saturday. The city’s main money exchange center has been closed since the Taliban took power almost a week ago.Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

As the Taliban attempt the precarious shift from insurgent movement to functioning government, Afghanistan is facing the heightened risk of a financial collapse after being propped up for the past two decades by foreign aid that now accounts for nearly half of its legal economy.

The fate of the Afghan economy will be determined by decisions that the Biden administration and other countries must make on whether to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government. In the meantime, the United States and the international community are shutting the flow of money, leaving Afghanistan in the stranglehold of sanctions that were designed to cut the Taliban off from the global financial system.

Analysts say the looming shock threatens to amplify a humanitarian crisis in a country that has already endured years of war.

Signs of strain were evident this week as the value of Afghanistan’s currency, the afghani, plunged to record lows and the nation’s most recent central bank governor, Ajmal Ahmady, warned that inflation would likely send food prices soaring.

The United States, which has poured about $1 trillion into Afghanistan over 20 years, moved to block the Taliban’s access to Afghanistan’s $9.4 billion in international reserves. And the International Monetary Fund suspended plans to distribute more than $400 million in emergency reserves to the country.

“In the short term,” said Justin Sandefur, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, “it’s potentially catastrophic.”

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Risking retaliation, an Afghan woman uses the national flag to protest the Taliban.

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In Afghanistan, raising the national flag has become an act of resistance. We filmed a woman risking her safety to protest the Taliban.CreditCredit...Jordan Bryon for The New York Times

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, raising the national flag instead of the white Taliban flag has become an act of resistance.

We filmed with Crystal Bayat, an activist who helped lead Kabul’s Independence Day protests just days after the Taliban took the city. One of seven women at a protest of roughly 200 people, she led the pack, shouting, “Our flag is our identity!”

Ms. Bayat has been a vocal critic of the Taliban, and despite threats against her, did not want The New York Times to conceal her identity. She says she continues to speak out on behalf of Afghan women who are too scared to leave their homes.

The U.N. sounds the alarm about Afghanistan’s broader humanitarian crisis.

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The malnutrition ward at a children’s hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, last year.Credit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

Even as fear and chaos grip Afghanistan after the Taliban’s takeover, years of war, the Covid-19 pandemic and drought linked to climate change have created a broader humanitarian crisis in which 14 million people — a third of the country’s population — are going hungry, according to the United Nations food agency.

The World Food Program said this week that two million Afghan children were among the malnourished. “The combined effects of drought and the coronavirus pandemic, on top of years of conflict, look set to worsen the food security situation,” the organization said.

Mary Ellen McGroarty, the agency’s country director for Afghanistan, said this week that the second devastating drought in three years had severely affected food resources, destroying crops and livestock. She said the war had displaced many Afghans and that a harsh winter could make things worse.

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, and the Security Council appealed on Monday for more humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. Before the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, the capital, Mr. Guterres had warned that the country was “spinning out of control.”

Shabia Mantoo, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency, said on Friday that 550,000 Afghans had been displaced this year. Even before the recent scenes of desperate people hoping to board flights out of Kabul, many people had been trying for weeks to get out of Afghanistan as the Taliban advanced through the countryside.

The exodus has raised alarm in neighboring countries and in Europe. In Germany and other countries, many politicians fear that an influx of Muslim asylum seekers could fan far-right populism and an anti-immigrant backlash, as happened after large numbers of refugees from wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria came to Europe in 2015.

Afghans already make up one of the world’s largest populations of refugees and asylum seekers, and account for more asylum claims in Europe than any other national group, except for Syrians.

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How the Taliban are using social media to secure power.

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Tens of millions of Afghans now have mobile phones, connecting them with the outside world in ways that were impossible when the Taliban last ruled.Credit...Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times

In one video, a Taliban official reassured female health workers that they could keep their jobs. In another, militants told Sikhs, a minority religious group, that they were free and protected. Still others suggested a new lawfulness in Kabul, with Talib fighters holding looters and thieves at gunpoint.

The Taliban, who banned the internet the first time they controlled Afghanistan, have turned social media into a powerful tool to tame opposition and broadcast their messages. Now firmly in control of the country, they are using thousands of Twitter accounts — some official and others anonymous — to placate Afghanistan’s terrified but increasingly tech-savvy urban base.

The images of peace and stability projected by the Taliban contrast sharply with the scenes broadcast around the world of the chaotic American evacuation from the Kabul airport or footage of protesters being beaten and shot at.

They demonstrate the digital powers the militants have honed over years of insurgency, offering a glimpse of how the Taliban could use those tools to rule Afghanistan, even as they cling to their fundamentalist religious tenets and violent proclivities.

Afghan social media may be a poor indicator of public sentiment. Many of the Taliban’s critics and supporters of the U.S.-backed government have gone underground. But already, with a social media campaign in recent weeks that may have helped encourage Afghan security forces to put down their weapons, the Taliban have shown that they can effectively sell their message.

Khalil Haqqani, long on America’s terrorist list, is welcomed by cheering crowds in Kabul.

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Khalil Haqqani, a leader of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network, delivering remarks after Friday Prayer at the Pul-i-Khishti Mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Friday.Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

Kabul’s largest mosque, a grand, blue-domed building in the heart of the old city, was overflowing with the faithful for Friday prayers when a group of Taliban fighters entered.

These were special forces fighters — and an escort for Khalil Haqqani, a member of one of the most powerful networks behind the Taliban’s rise to power and now an integral part of their moves to set up a government.

His protection detail dressed like the commandos in the military of the now deposed Afghan government. They wore uniforms and helmets, had night-vision goggles and carried themselves with a professional deportment.

They cleared a space for Mr. Haqqani in the front row, where he watched — a new American-made M4 assault rifle at his side. After the sermon by the imam of the mosque ended, Mr. Haqqani rose to address those present.

“Our first priority for Afghanistan is security,” he told the crowd, which flowed out onto the street. “If there is no security, there is no life. We will give security, then we will give economy, trade, education for men and women. There will be no discrimination.”

He was greeted by rapturous cheers.

The scene was a reminder that the Taliban enjoy broad support in many pockets of Afghanistan, although it is hard to know how deep that support runs, as Afghans have long learned to survive by cheering on those who seize power.

“People are happy now, because the Taliban brought security,” said a security guard near a money exchange booth, who declined to give his name. “But these are only the first days. It depends on how they rule whether the people will support them.”

For the moment, Mr. Haqqani basked in the reception. He was the victor and carried himself as such.

In the long and twisted tale of the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, few groups have played as important a role as the Haqqani network.

Founded by the renowned mujahedeen commander Jalaluddin Haqqani in the late 1970s, the family’s network is suspected of aiding in Osama bin Laden’s escape from Tora Bora in 2001. Khalil Haqqani is Jalaluddin’s brother, and the uncle of the Taliban’s deputy leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani.

After the U.S. invasion, the Haqqani family ran an operation that vexed and complicated the war effort for years.

During the conflict, the Haqqanis refined a signature brand of urban terrorist attacks and cultivated a sophisticated international fund-raising network. It was a major factor in the United States military’s push to keep troops in Afghanistan.

The Haqqani network has kidnapped and held for ransom many foreigners over the years, including a New York Times journalist, his interpreter and their driver, in 2008. The reporter and interpreter escaped after eight months, and the driver a month later.

Khalil Haqqani is on both the U.S. and United Nations terrorist lists. And along with several members of the family, he is now playing a prominent role in the new Taliban regime.

He said that he had been consulting with Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of Afghanistan’s National Reconciliation Council, and former President Hamid Karzai. One of Mr. Haqqani’s other nephews, Anas Haqqani, was part of the Taliban’s recent diplomatic delegation in Qatar and has also been in direct talks with Mr. Abdullah and Mr. Karzai.

After the sermons concluded and the crowds thinned on Friday, Mr. Haqqani asked to speak with a New York Times photographer working in Kabul.

He said that journalists would be safe now that the country was at peace, and that women, too, would be protected.

“We have good intentions,” he said.

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Was the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan doomed from the start?

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An Afghan security forces outpost on the edge of Kunduz in July.Credit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

President Biden and his advisers say that the Afghan military’s total collapse vindicated the American withdrawal from the country. But the extraordinary melting away of government and army, and the bloodless transition in most places so far, point to something more fundamental.

The war the Americans thought they were fighting against the Taliban was not the war their Afghan allies were fighting. That made the American war, like other such neocolonialist adventures, most likely doomed from the start.

When it comes to guerrilla war, Mao once described the relationship that should exist between a people and troops. “The former may be likened to water,” he wrote, “the latter to the fish who inhabit it.”

And when it came to Afghanistan, the Americans were a fish out of water.

Just as the Russians had been in the 1980s. Just as the Americans were in Vietnam in the 1960s. And as the French were in Algeria in the 1950s. And the Portuguese during their futile attempts to keep their African colonies in the ’60s and ’70s. And the Israelis during their occupation of southern Lebanon in the ’80s.

In fact, the Taliban were never actually beaten. Many had been killed by the Americans, but the rest simply faded into the mountains and villages, or across the border into Pakistan.

By 2006, they had reconstituted sufficiently to launch a major offensive. The end of the story played out in the grim and foreordained American humiliation that unfolded over the past week — the consecration of the U.S. military loss.

How the Taliban came to be, and what they aim to achieve.

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Taliban fighters in Kabul on Monday. The Taliban arose in the early 1990s amid the turmoil that followed the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989.Credit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

Here is a look at the origin of the Taliban; how they managed to take over Afghanistan not once, but twice; what they did when they first took control — and what that might reveal about their plans for this time.

When did the Taliban first emerge?

The Taliban arose in the early 1990s amid the turmoil that followed the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989.

The Soviets were defeated by Islamic fighters known as the mujahedeen, a patchwork of insurgent factions. The country fell into warlordism, and a brutal civil war.

Against this backdrop, the Taliban, with their promise to put Islamic values first and to battle the corruption that drove the warlords’ fighting, quickly attracted a following. Over years of intense fighting, they took over most of the country.

Why did the U.S. invade Afghanistan?

When they were in power, the Taliban made Afghanistan a safe harbor for Osama bin Laden, a Saudi Arabia-born former mujahedeen fighter, while he built up a terrorist group with global designs: Al Qaeda.

On Sept 11, 2001, the group struck a blow that rattled the world, toppling the World Trade Center towers in New York and damaging the Pentagon in Washington. Thousands were killed.

President George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban hand over Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. When the Taliban balked, the United States invaded.

What will the Taliban do next?

The early days of Taliban control have seemed restrained in some places. But enough reports of brutality and intimidation have surfaced to send waves of refugees to the Kabul airport in a desperate attempt to flee.

In Kunduz, a major provincial capital, residents were unconvinced by promises of peace from their new rulers.

“I am afraid, because I do not know what will happen and what they will do,” one resident said.

A correction was made on 
Aug. 24, 2021

An earlier version of this item misstated the year of the Sept. 11 attack. It was in 2001, not 2011.

How we handle corrections

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Videos show injuries, desperation as Afghans rush to enter Kabul airport.

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“I need a female medic now! Sit down.” “You need to calm down. Calm down.” [baby crying] “Please call someone.” [baby crying] [gunshots]

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CreditCredit...Sky News Exclusive via Associated Press

Videos from Kabul airport on Saturday showed scores of injuries and adults passed out as Afghans clamored to be evacuated from Afghanistan.

The video clips, which are believed to have been recorded sometime Saturday morning, suggest that almost a week after the Taliban seized control of Kabul, conditions near the airport are not improving and may be worsening.

The videos showed a soldier urging a man sprawled out on the ground to “calm down” as she tried to give the man liquid to drink.

The recordings also show people pouring water onto the head of a screaming child and soldiers using a hose to cool people at the gate. Soldiers are seen hoisting people over a barrier. A Sky News journalist at the scene reported that near the front of the crowd, people were being “crushed.”

The grim scenes are the latest to emerge in a week that has been filled with desperate moments. On Monday, a crowd of Afghans surged onto the tarmac at the airport and tried to climb onto aircrafts as they departed. Some were killed.

And in another jarring scene, a baby was passed over a concrete wall topped with razor wire to a Marine. The baby was eventually reunited with his family.

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