Photos: Chaos, desperation at the airport as Kabul plunges into a crisis
Afghanistan has plunged into crisis as the Taliban insurgents moved towards the capital city Kabul at lightning speed following the US troops pull out. On August 15, the Taliban entered Kabul and hours later they captured the abandoned presidential palace. President Ashraf Ghani had left the country, sparking outrage within and outside the country. Meanwhile, the sudden closure of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on Monday threw schedules for the few remaining airlines operating flights to Afghanistan into disarray, including Air India which had a flight scheduled for 12.30pm.
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A man pulls a girl to get inside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 16, 2021. Several photographs and videos on social media show Afghans crowding the airport trying to get out of the country after Taliban insurgents entered the capital on Sunday. (REUTERS)
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CH-46 Sea Knight military transport helicopter flies over Kabul, Afghanistan August 15, 2021. According to a Reuters report, all Americans in Afghanistan are expected to be evacuated in the next two to three days. For this, the US has approved another 6,000 troops to facilitate the evacuation process of Americans and Afghan citizens who were working for them from Kabul. (REUTERS)
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US soldiers take positions to secure the airport in Kabul on August 16, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the group's feared hard line brand of Islamist rule. (Shakib Rahmani / AFP)
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Pakistan's newspapers are pictured displaying front page news about Afghanistan, at a stall in Islamabad on August 16, after the Taliban took over Afghanistan following President Ashraf Ghani’s exit. (Aamir Qureshi / AFP)
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