In complete chaos after the occupation of the country by Taliban forces, commercial flights were canceled at Kabul airport where thousands of Afghans are trying to flee their country, the capital’s airport authority announced today.
“There will be no commercial flights from Hamid Karzai Airport to prevent looting. Please do not rush to the airport “, the airport authority said in a message to the media.
The Afghan Civil Aviation Authority (ACAA) announced today that control of Kabul’s airspace has been entrusted to the military and has advised aircraft flying through Afghan airspace to change course.
Turkish Airlines announced today that it will start evacuating people from Kabul and canceled all its scheduled flights to and from Afghanistan, according to international agencies and as broadcast by the Athens News Agency.
Britain: We will not return
The Taliban control Afghanistan Both British and NATO forces will not return to fight the guerrillas, the British Defense Secretary said today.
“I recognize that the Taliban are in control of the country,” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News. “You do not have to be a political scientist to see this happen.”
Asked if Britain and NATO would return to Afghanistan, Wallace said: “This is not on paper.”
The British minister said that the military section of Kabul airport is safe and that Britain is doing everything it can to remove British citizens and Afghans who have ties to Britain.
“Our goal is… about 1,200 to 1,500 flights a day with our planes and we will maintain that flow,” he said.
Britain has moved its embassy from the city to Kabul airport. Asked how he felt when he saw the Taliban flag waving in the former British Embassy building in Kabul, Wallace said:
“Symbolically, none of us wanted that.”
Wallace also said it was not yet time for Britain to decide whether or not to recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.
Finland closes its embassy
Finland announced today that it will close its embassy in Kabul immediately and until further notice due to the security situation.
“Diplomatic personnel are leaving the country,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Removal of French citizens
Dozens of French nationals will be repatriated by air from Afghanistan, French Defense Minister Florence Parley told France Info radio today.
Afghanistan: Conflict has stopped, the Taliban say
Meanwhile, Taliban officials said today that there were no reports of clashes in the country, a day after they captured the capital Kabul and the US-backed government collapsed.
“The situation is peaceful, according to our information,” said a senior Taliban official, who declined to be named.
The Taliban say the war in Afghanistan is over after they took over the presidential palace in Kabul, while Western countries are now trying to evacuate their citizens and chaos prevails at the airport as hundreds of desperate Afghans try to find a way to leave the country.
President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday as Islamist insurgents entered the capital with virtually no resistance. He stated that he wants to avoid bloodshed.
“Today is a great day for the Afghan people and the Mujahideen. “They have seen their efforts and sacrifices for 20 years bear fruit,” a spokesman for the Taliban’s political bureau, Mohammad Naim, told Al Jazeera TV.
“Thank God, the war is over in the country.”
It took the Taliban just over a week to take control of the country, with a lightning and sweeping attack that ended in Kabul as government forces, who had been trained and equipped for years by the US and others at a cost of billions of dollars, dissolved.
Al Jazeera broadcast images depicting Taliban commanders with dozens of armed fighters inside the presidential palace.
Naim said the form of the new regime in Afghanistan would be clarified soon, adding that the Taliban did not want to live in isolation and called for peaceful international relations.
A Taliban leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the rebels were regrouping in various provinces and would wait until foreign forces had left before setting up a new governing body.
The leader said Taliban fighters “were ordered to allow Afghans to resume their daily activities and not to do anything that could frighten civilians.”
However, the streets in the center of Kabul were rather deserted this morning.
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