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2021-08-29 Afghanistan
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Taliban largely seal off Kabul airport as airlift winds down
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[AlAhram] The Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
deployed extra forces around Kabul's airport Saturday to prevent large crowds from gathering after a devastating suicide kaboom two days earlier, as the massive U.S.-led airlift wound down ahead of an Aug. 31 deadline.
New layers of checkpoints sprang up on roads leading to the airport, some manned by uniformed Taliban fighters with Humvees and night-vision goggles captured from Afghan cops. Areas where large crowds of people have gathered over the past two weeks in hopes of fleeing the country following the Taliban takeover were largely empty.
A suicide attack on Thursday by an Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
affiliate killed 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members, and there are concerns that the group, which is far more radical than the Taliban, could strike again. Many Western nations have completed their evacuation operations ahead of Tuesday's deadline for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces.
An Afghan who had worked as a translator for the U.S. military said he was with a group of people with permission to leave who tried to reach the airport late Friday. After passing through three checkpoints they were stopped at a fourth. An argument ensued, and the Taliban said they had been told by the Americans to only let U.S. passport-holders through.
On Saturday, the Taliban fired warning shots and deployed some kind of colored smoke on a road leading to the airport, sending dozens of people scattering, according to a video circulating online that was consistent with AP reporting.
Order descends on Afghan evacuations after airport carnage
[AlAhram] "We have lists from the Americans... if your name is on the list, you can come through," one Taliban official told AFP near the civilian passenger terminal of Hamid Karzai International Airport. "If your name isn't here, then you cannot come through."
Order replaced chaos at Kabul airport Saturday with Taliban fighters escorting a steady stream of Afghans from buses to the main passenger terminal, handing them over to US troops for evacuation.
Gone are the tens of thousands clamouring to get inside the airport grounds in the hope of getting aboard a flight before August 31, when the US-led evacuation ends and the last foreign troops depart.
The deadly Islamic State suicide blast at a secondary entrance on Thursday likely scared away many looking for a way to escape the return to power of the hardline Islamists, but the Taliban have also sealed off all roads leading to the airport and are now only letting sanctioned buses pass.
On Saturday AFP saw more than a dozen small- and medium-sized buses disgorge tense-looking passengers at the main gate of the airport. It was unclear who had organised the buses -- or where they had come from -- and the Taliban officials and guards present would not allow the passengers to be interviewed.
ON AN ADVENTURE
The men and women were separated and made to walk on opposite sides of the road, but both groups carried infants or led children by the hand -- some oblivious to their ordeal and skipping as if on an adventure.
Everyone was stripped of their luggage apart from what they could keep in a plastic bag -- but a Taliban official was quick to offer an explanation.
"Because of the blast, the Americans won't let them take anything," he said.
"We tell them to take the money and the gold in their pockets. If they leave clothes we will give to other people."
Heavily armed Taliban fighters were seen throughout the grounds and auxiliary buildings of the airport complex, while US marines peered at them from the passenger terminal roof.
After a 20-year war, the foes were within open sight of each other, separated by just 30 metres (yards), and holding fire.
Also in view of the American troops were Badri special forces in humvees gifted to the Afghan defence forces, but now flying the white Taliban flag. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2021-08-29 01:47||
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File under: Taliban/IEA
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Posted by Blackbeard Barnsmell6454 2021-08-29 02:53||
2021-08-29 02:53||
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Posted by Besoeker 2021-08-29 03:54||
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Posted by Skidmark 2021-08-29 07:42||
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Posted by Besoeker 2021-08-29 08:40||
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Posted by Matt 2021-08-29 12:03||
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Posted by Besoeker 2021-08-29 14:30||
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Posted by Matt 2021-08-29 14:42||
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Posted by Besoeker 2021-08-29 14:47||
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Posted by Matt 2021-08-29 14:59||
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Posted by Matt 2021-08-29 15:13||
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Posted by Frank G 2021-08-29 15:15||
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Posted by Besoeker 2021-08-29 15:20||
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Posted by Matt 2021-08-29 15:33||
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