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A30 world news
Diahuebs 26 augustus 2021

Poland ends Afghan evacuation as clock ticks down on airlift

Wednesday around 19,000 homes. ation operation for as long as
people were evacuated from possible,” she added, without
Kabul over the last 24 hours. Chaos at the Kabul airport specifying when operations
It said the U.S. has evacu- has transfixed the world af- would end.
ated or facilitated the evacua- ter the Taliban captured most
tion of around 82,300 people of Afghanistan in a matter For now, the U.S. military
since the Taliban takeover in of days this month. Afghans coordinates all air traffic in
mid-August. poured onto the tarmac last and out of the Kabul airport.
week, and some clung to a Taliban spokesman Suhail
Pentagon spokesman John U.S. military transport plane Shaheen tweeted that “people
Kirby said the military will as it took off, later plunging with legal documents” will
“continue to evacuate needed to their deaths. At least seven be able to fly out of Kabul
populations all the way to the people died that day, and an- airport via commercial flights
end.” But he added that in other seven died Sunday in a after the August deadline.
the final days and hours there panicked stampede.
will have to be a balance as On Wednesday, a stream
the 5,400 troops in Kabul and Thousands have thronged of military planes took off
critical systems also need to the airport in the days since, from the airfield as evacuees
be withdrawn. and the U.S. and its allies lined up on the tarmac. The
have worked to speed the desperate remained outside,
In Kabul itself, life has been evacuation, sometimes fly- some standing knee-deep
slow to return to normal, but ing people out before their in sewage and waving iden-
many people — especially paperwork is fully processed tity documents at Western
(AP) — Poland ended its Western troops running the women — are staying inside, and bringing them to tran- soldiers in hopes of being
evacuations from Afghan- airlift. fearful of the Taliban or the sit points. On Wednesday, a allowed to go beyond the
istan, but other European general instability. group of 51 people landed in barbed wire fencing and onto
nations vowed Wednesday “Due to extreme tension on Uganda, which became the a flight out.
to press on for as long as the ground ... and the sched- Kabul Mayor Dawood Sul- first African nation to serve as
possible, as the clock ticks uled departure of Ameri- tanzoy said many city work- a transit point. While the final withdrawal
down on a dramatic airlift can forces, these evacua- ers have yet to return to work, date just under a week away,
of people fleeing Taliban tions are a true race against with the absence of experi- European nations, includ- analyst Patricia Lewis said
rule ahead of a full Ameri- time,” French government enced staff hindering nor- ing American allies Germany the practical deadline for the
can withdrawal. spokesman Gabriel Attal said mal operations. But he said and the United Kingdom, evacuations to stop was “the
Wednesday. He said that his the city has begun to remove had pressed for a longer win- next couple of days.”
President Joe Biden said he country’s evacuation would the blast walls that became dow to continue evacuations.
will stick to his Aug. 31 dead- likely end “a few hours, may- ubiquitous in recent years as However, Biden has stuck to “There’s a huge amount of
line for completing the U.S. be a few days ahead” of the the Taliban and other armed the August date, even after an stuff that has to be done, in-
pullout, as the Taliban in- American departure. groups carried out bombings emergency online summit of cluding getting all the people
sisted he must, ramping up and other attacks against the the Group of Seven nations. out who are doing the job
pressure on the already risky The Taliban said they would Western-backed government. and all the equipment,” said
operation to fly people out of allow normal commercial air That left European nations Lewis, who is the director
Kabul. traffic to resume when they The Taliban say the decades with no choice but to abide of the international security
assume control of the airport of war are over and there by the deadline. program at Chatham House,
European allies pressed for after Aug. 31, but it’s unclear will be no revenge attacks on an international think tank.
more time but lost the argu- whether airlines would be people who opposed them. “That the overall deployment
ment, and as a practical mat- willing to fly into an airport But many Afghans distrust literally stands and falls with “All of the allies are highly
ter, they may be forced to end controlled by the militants. the group, and there have the stance of the militarily dependent on the U.S. for
their evacuations before the been reports of summary ex- strongest member of the al- military cover, particularly
last American troops leave. With the deadline looming, ecutions and other abuses in liance, the U.S., was always air cover,” Lewis said. “They
Several countries have not Marcin Przydacz, a Polish areas under Taliban control. clear to us,” German Chan- can’t put their own people at
said yet when they plan to deputy foreign minister, said Many fear a return to the Tal- cellor Angela Merkel said in risk, so it really depends on
end their operations, perhaps Wednesday that Poland had iban’s hard-line Islamic rule a speech to parliament. when the U.S. starts packing
hoping to avoid yet another evacuated its last group af- of the 1990s, when women up.”
fatal crush at an airport, one ter consulting with U.S. and were largely confined to their “We will continue the evacu-
of the last ways out of the British officials.
country.
“After a long analysis of re-
The Taliban wrested back ports on the security situa-
control of Afghanistan near- tion, we cannot risk the lives
ly 20 years after they were of our diplomats and of our
ousted in a U.S.-led invasion soldiers any longer,” Przy-
following the 9/11 attacks, dacz said.
which al-Qaida orchestrated
while being sheltered by the A number of troops will re-
group. Their return to power main briefly to wrap up oper-
has pushed many Afghans to ations, Przydacz said. Poland
flee, fearing reprisals or a re- has used over a dozen planes
turn to the brutal rule they to bring hundreds of evacu-
imposed when they last ran ees to Warsaw. Some later
the country. traveled on to other coun-
tries.
Thousands of people are still
thought to be trying to leave, The Czech Republic de-
and it’s not clear that all of clared its own evacuation
them will be able to before mission complete last week,
the end of the month. But and Hungary said it plans to
any decision by Biden to stay end its operations soon.
longer could reignite fight-
ing between the Taliban and The White House said