WRAP - Firefight involving Western forces erupts amid Kabul airport evacuation chaos

Record ID: 1633364

  • Title: WRAP - Firefight involving Western forces erupts amid Kabul airport evacuation chaos
  • Date: 23rd August 2021
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (AUGUST 23, 2021) (REUTERS) TOKYO 2020 PRESIDENT, SEIKO HASHIMOTO (LEFT), AND INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE (IPC) PRESIDENT, ANDREW PARSONS (RIGHT), SEATED AT NEWS CONFERENCE TOKYO 2020 PARALYMPIC GAMES LOGO (SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE (IPC) PRESIDENT, ANDREW PARSONS, SAYING: "But one thing that I would like to inform you is that we will include the Afghanistan flag in the (opening) ceremony as a sign of solidarity." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS
  • Embargoed: 6th September 2021 13:55
  • Keywords: Afghanistan Andrew Parsons Ben Wallace David Martinon Kabul Taliban U.S. Joe Biden airport anti-Taliban
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: Various
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA009ERI1DFR
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A WRAP OF HIGHLIGHTS OF EDITS THAT HAVE ALREADY MOVED. THERE IS NO NEW MATERIAL IN THIS EDIT
    A firefight involving Western forces erupted at Kabul airport on Monday (August 23) when Afghan guards exchanged fire with unidentified gunmen, Germany's military said, adding to the evacuation chaos as Washington faces pressure to extend its deadline to withdraw.
    Thousands of Afghans and foreigners have flocked to the airport for days, hoping to catch a flight out after Taliban fighters captured Kabul on August 15.
    U.S.-led forces aim to complete their pullout from the country by the end of the month.
    The United States will get U.S. citizens and at-risk Afghans to safety out of Afghanistan, President Joe Biden said, as Taliban fighters beat back thousands desperate to flee outside Kabul airport on Sunday (August 22).
    A flight of evacuees from Kabul arrived at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire in central England in the early hours of Monday.
    Last Tuesday (August 17), the country announced plans to welcome up to 5,000 Afghans fleeing the Taliban during the first year of a new resettlement programme that will prioritise women, girls and religious and other minorities.
    A video published on Twitter early on Monday by French Ambassador to Afghanistan David Martinon showed European Union Delegation staff queuing at Kabul airport to be evacuated from the country.
    In his Twitter post, Martinon says French special forces, in coordination with U.S. forces, gathered 260 members of the EU delegation, which represents the European Union in foreign countries, and brought them to Kabul airport and the French embassy waiting zone before they were airlifted.
    Turkish soldiers on Sunday assisted humanitarian aid efforts at the airport as families continued to camp in the hope of catching flights out of the country.
    Twenty people have been killed in the chaos at the airport, most in shootings and stampedes in the heat and dust, penned in by concrete blast walls, as U.S. and international forces try to evacuate their citizens and vulnerable Afghans.
    One person was killed in Monday's clash, the German military said.
    The Taliban seized power just over a week ago as the United States and its allies withdraw troops after a 20-year war launched in the weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks, when U.S. forces hunted al Qaeda leaders and sought to punish their Taliban hosts.
    The administration of Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, struck a deal with the Taliban last year allowing the United Sates to withdraw its forces in exchange for Taliban security guarantees.
    Britain's Defence Minister Ben Wallace said Britain and its allies were "down to hours now, not weeks" in their evacuation plan for people from Kabul.
    International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Andrew Parsons said on Monday (August 23) the opening ceremony for the Paralympic Games would include the Afghanistan flag as a message of solidarity, after Afghan athletes were unable to get to Japan due to ongoing turmoil in their country.
    (Production: Paul Warren, Polly Rider)
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