On Monday thousands of people rushed to Kabul’s international airport as the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and now WSJ’s Yaroslav Trofimov is describing his journey from the city of Kabul to catch an evacuation flight.
U.S. officials confirmed "at least seven people" died during an incident in which Afghan civilians held onto an American military jet as it took off from Kabul's international airport on Monday (August 16), the Associated Press reports.
Senior military officials spoke to the AP anonymously amid the ongoing operation and confirmed the casualties, which included several individuals who fell from the plane as it was airborne. Dozens of Afghan civilians desperate to escape their country amid the Taliban's takeover were seen clinging to aU.S. military plane as it took off from Kabul's airport Monday (August 16).
A new report released by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) details the "staggering" mistakes made during the longest-running war in American history. The report was compiled before the Taliban retook the country after 20 years of U.S. occupation.
"After 13 years of oversight, the cumulative list of systemic challenges SIGAR and other oversight bodies have identified is staggering. As former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley told SIGAR, "We just don't have a post-conflict stabilization model that works. Every time we have one of these things, it is a pick-up game. I don't have confidence that if we did it again, we would do any better."
The Taliban take over comes after the U.S. withdrew troops from Afghanistan, nearly 20 years after American troops drove the group out of power and continued to have a presence in the country until recent evacuation.