KABUL: US forces led an increasingly desperate effort on Tuesday to turn on thousands of people from Kabul, after the Taliban warned they would allow foreign forces to evacuate only for one more week.
US President Joe Biden was under increased pressure to extend the August 31 deadline to attract American forces, with England to lobby virtual G7 summit on Tuesday for a longer presence.
About 50,000 foreigners and Afghans have left the country from Kabul Airport since the Taliban swept power 10 days ago.
But the crowd continues to be out of the airport, with Afghans afraid to face life under the Taliban.
Many were afraid to repeat the brutal interpretation of the sharia law that the Taliban was carried out when it was first in power from 1996-2001, or retribution to work with the US-backed government for the past two decades.
“The Taliban is the same as those of them 20 years ago,” Nilofar Bayat, a women’s rights activist and former Afghan wheelchair basketball captain, said after escaping and arriving in Spain.
“If you see Afghanistan now, it’s all men, there are no women because they don’t accept women as part of the community.” Taliban, who ended two decades of war with the defeat of amazing government forces, has been publicly tolerant of evacuation efforts.
But on Monday they describe the cut-off date next week as “red line”.
“If the US or Britain will look for additional time to continue the evacuation – the answer is not …
there will be consequences,” said Suhail Shaheen spokesman told Sky News on Monday.
He said the presence of a foreign military outside the agreed deadline would “extend work”.
The Taliban achieved their amazing victory thanks to the Biden’s decision to accelerate the agreement forged by his predecessor, Donald Trump, to attract almost all American troops from Afghanistan.
But he was forced to move thousands of troops after the fall of Kabul to oversee airlift.
The top Biden and Helpers have repeatedly insisted that they aim to stick to their August 31 deadline.
“The aim is to get many people as soon as possible,” said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday.
“The focus is trying to do this as well as possible, at the end of the month.” But European and British leaders called for more time.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Prime Minister Boris Johnson would raise a problem in the G7 virtual summit.
Germany also said it was in talks with NATO and Taliban allies to keep Kabul airport open for evacuation outside August 31, while France said “additional time is needed to complete the ongoing operation”.
Rush to leave Kabul had triggered a terrible scene and went at least eight dead.
Some of them were destroyed to death and at least one, youth soccer player, died after falling from the plane.
The German Ministry of Defense said Monday a Afghan soldier was killed and three others were injured in a shootout with an unknown attacker.
The Taliban is currently trying to form a government, but two sources in the movement told AFP there would be no announcements in the cabinet until the last US army had left Afghanistan.
The Taliban repeatedly claimed to be different from their 1990s incarnation, and had stated amnesty for government forces and officials.
But intelligence assessment carried out for the United Nations said guerrillas were hunting government officials to the door and those who worked with US and NATO forces.
In the capital, the former guerrilla has imposed a feeling of calm, with their fighters patrolling the streets and checkpoints on guard.
But they also intend to cancel the last Afghan military resistance to prominent against their government, consisting of former government forces in the Panjshir Valley, north of the capital.
Panjshir has long been known as an anti-Taliban bastion.
One of the leaders of the movement, named The National Resistance Front, is the son of the famous anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.
The other is Amrullah Saleh, a vice president and head of intelligence in the falling government.
Taliban say they have great power outside the valley, but prefer the tip negotiated to delay.