Westerners are being blocked from Kabul airport due to Taliban blockades preventing them from getting to evacuation flights, according to numerous reports. A new report suggests there may be only 72 hours to get out.
Westerners being blocked from reaching Kabul airport
Westerners are finding it difficult to reach Kabul airport and waiting for evacuation flights.
On Tuesday, the Taliban “issued an edict saying only foreigners will be able to access the airport for evacuation,” according to a Daily Mail, the Daily Wire reported, adding “a spokesperson for the group ordered locals to return home. Roads in the city have been blocked in a bid to stop Afghans from leaving.”
The Wire also quoted a Daily Mail and Politico report that noted the blockades are catching not only Afghans, “but American citizens,” and, as a result, is stymieing evacuation efforts.
“New Taliban checkpoints on the road to Pakistan have made driving out of the country increasingly risky,” a report by the Wall Street Journal stated, adding “Confusing bureaucratic hurdles have prevented countless people from leaving Afghanistan.”
Time is running out
With only six days on the calendar to evacuate the country before the US and its allies withdraw from Afghanistan, the editorial board of the Washington Post noted on Wednesday that “there may be only three or four days left for the gigantic airlift currently underway, because time must be left to fly out U.S. and other troops securing the airport themselves. Indeed, some troops have started leaving already.”
The post added: “The Taliban set up a new blockade of the airport road in Kabul to prevent more Afghans from leaving.”
Only 72 hours to get out?
According to a former CIA officer and terrorism expert, American civilians and allies only have 72 hours before the evacuations from Kabul end, the Daily Mail reported. The unnamed ex-CIA officer told the DailyMail.com: “Biden decided were pulling out within 72 hours. We are gone, and it doesn’t matter who’s left on the ground.”
Private flights assisting to speed up evacuation efforts, but leaving with empty seats
As private flights are assisting with evacuating people from Afghanistan, because Westerners are having difficulty reaching the Kabul airport, and as a result, flights are “flying out of Kabul with hundreds of empty seats,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Americans are running into Taliban checkpoints and barriers on the ground that are preventing them from entering Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, according to the Wall Street Journal, which also reports that the Biden administration is working with NATO forces to airlift people out of Taliban hotspots using helicopters.
Former GOP Virginia Rep. Scott Taylor and Washington lobbyist Robert Stryk are working in conjunction through charter flights to airlift Americans and others out of Afghanistan, the Daily Wire reported. According to a report by the Daily Caller News Foundation, both men are accusing the Biden Administration of refusing to escort people through Taliban checkpoints.
