Taliban allows at least 200 Afghan dual nationals, including Americans, to leave the country

3 yıl önce

KABUL — Roughly 200 Afghans dual nationals — including about 30 Americans — have been granted permission to leave the country Thursday, two diplomats based in Kabul confirmed.

The flight manifest granted permission for 211 Afghans to leave from Kabul, but it is unclear how many people reached the convoy in time for safe passage to the airport. The diplomats spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

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The dual nationals on the manifest also included passport holders from the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Canada and Germany.

This is the first such large-scale evacuation of Afghans since the U.S. airlift concluded with the departure of foreign forces from Afghanistan just over a week ago.

The Taliban pledged that once the airlift was complete, Afghans with travel documents would be free to leave the country. But in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, a number of planes chartered to evacuate at-risk Afghans have been stuck on the tarmac for days. Organizers of that evacuation effort say the Taliban have not granted the planes permission to take off. The Taliban said technical issues and the lack of an Interior or Foreign ministry has held up the effort.

This week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was working with the Taliban to move U.S. citizens and other allies out of the country safely but that complications had arisen over some passengers’ travel documents.

“It’s my understanding that the Taliban has not denied exit to anyone holding a valid document, but they have said those without valid documents, at this point, can’t leave,” Blinken said in a news conference in Doha.

The situation in Afghanistan remains unstable, with protests breaking out across the country in recent days as the Taliban announced a caretaker government in the capital.

On Wednesday, Taliban forces cracked down on a protest in Kabul, detaining several Afghan journalists and severely beating two who work for Etilaatroz, an Afghan newspaper, the outlet said on Twitter. Photos shared on social media showed their backs covered with lash marks.

The Interior Ministry later announced a ban on protests, saying participants have been “harassing people and disrupting normal life.”

“All citizens are informed that for the time-being, they should not trying to hold demonstrations under any name or title,” the statement said.

“For the past few days, a number of people in Kabul and other provinces have taken to the streets in the name of demonstrations, disrupting security, harassing people and disrupting normal life,” the ministry said in a statement. “All citizens are informed that for the time being, they are not [to try] to hold demonstrations under any name or title.”

O’Grady reported from Doha, Qatar.