Chaos at Kabul airport as Afghans try to flee — as it happened
Source: DW

Afghans scramble to the Kabul airport, which is being secured by US forces. The airport is the only way out for now as the Taliban encircled the capital. DW has the latest.
- The Taliban took control of the capital on Sunday
- Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled with no interim government in place
- Flights were halted at Kabul airport as international troops were working to clear fields
- Seven people died in Kabul airport chaos
- Angela Merkel called the situation ‘bitter, dramatic, terrifying’
- The UN Security Council urged immediate end to hostilities
Secretary-General of the UN Antonio Guterres has called on “all countries” to take in refugees from Afghanistan and to cease all deportations of Afghans who are already in their countries.
His comments were made over Twitter. He added that the people of Afghanistan “deserve our full support.”
German lawmaker fears return to the ‘dark ages’
DW spoke to German lawmaker Alexander Graf Lambsdorff from the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee about Afghanistan’s future.
“I fear that the country is going to slide back into the dark ages. That means that Germany will have to reduce relations with the country to a minimum,” he said.
He also criticized the government for failing to take responsibility for the Afghans who worked with the Bundeswehr. At the same time, he called for a limit on the number of people given refuge in Germany.
“It’s a moral failure of the German government not to have looked after the local employees. On the other hand, we do not have as Europe, as Germany, an obligation to take in all the refugees,” the FDP politician said.
German evacuation plane leaves Kabul
Germany’s Defense Ministry confirmed in a tweet that “the first A400M Bundeswehr aircraft has left Kabul airport again — the plane is now on its way to Tashkent, Uzbekistan with evacuees on board.”
“Bundeswehr security forces remained on the ground in Kabul to prepare further evacuation flights,” the ministry said.
US pledges to keep evacuating ‘eligible individuals’
The US State Department raised the possibility of imposing sanctions on any future Afghan government that “does not recognize the basic and fundamental rights of the people of Afghanistan, importantly the fundamental rights of half the population, the women and girls,” spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.
Price emphasized, however, that there has been no “formal transfer of power” to the Taliban, adding that the State Department is working with the international community regarding a political settlement in Afghanistan.
The State Department was also focused on continuing evacuation operations from Kabul airport.
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