Taliban AGREE to let 200 Americans and foreigners working in Afghanistan fly out of Kabul Airport on charter planes Thursday after rescuers claimed State Department was frustrating evacuation efforts
- Taliban authorities have agreed to let 200 Americans and foreigners leave
- New charter flights out of Kabul will ferry the evacuees, a US official said
- It follows a standoff with charter plans stuck on the tarmac at Mazar-i-Sharif
- Organizers claimed State Department was not doing enough to facilitate flights
- But Secretary of State Blinken blamed the standoff on the Taliban
- It's unclear if the flights out of Kabul will carry those stranded in Mazar-i-Sharif
Taliban authorities have agreed to let 200 American civilians and other non-Afghans to depart on charter flights from Kabul airport, a U.S. official said.
The Taliban were pressed to allow the departures by U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad, said the official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity on Thursday.
The departures were expected on Thursday, and an exact breakdown of how many US citizens and people from other nations will be on the flight has not been shared.
The official could not say whether these Americans and third-country nationals were among people who have been stranded for days in Mazar-i-Sharif 260 miles north of Kabul on charter flights that were barred from taking off.
Planes chartered to carry people out of Afghanistan have been stuck at Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport, with some organizers saying the State Department was not doing enough to facilitate their departure.
The criticism came after an email leak suggested that the agency prevented several private flights from leaving Afghanistan with U.S. citizens and Afghan allies on board.
Comments
Post a Comment