KABUL, Afghanistan — A firefight flared up at the periphery of Kabul’s airport on Monday between Afghan security forces and unknown gunmen, leaving at least one soldier dead and at least three others wounded.
The German defense ministry tweeted that the shooting occurred Monday at 4:13 a.m. and involved German as well as American troops. There were no casualties among the German forces. The U.S. military has yet to comment on the incident.
Monday’s shootout adds to the litany of violence at Kabul’s airport, where since Aug. 15 thousands of Afghans as well as foreign nationals have rushed to the gates in a desperate dash to get on evacuation flights out of the country and escape Taliban rule. A NATO official, speaking to Reuters on Sunday, said at least 20 people have died — seven of them on Sunday alone — either as a result of stampeding or from shooting by guards seeking to scatter away the crowds.
The U.S. has also warned of potential attacks from Islamic State militants at the gate. The group is an avowed enemy of the Taliban, which it views as having betrayed its Islamic origins.
Security at the airport’s perimeter is being handled by the Taliban and remnants of the U.S.-supported Afghan security forces, which collapsed before the Taliban’s onslaught in the last weeks; some have joined the Taliban to assist in policing the crowds at the gates.
Despite efforts to bring some semblance of order to the proceedings, chaos has persisted, presenting an insurmountable challenge to many who are unable to run the gantlet and reach American troops on the other side of the barriers.
That has put pressure on President Biden to extend the withdrawal deadline beyond Aug. 31, something British and European leaders are expected to push for when they meet with the president at the G-7 summit since they cannot secure the airport without the contingent of U.S. troops in place.
The airlift out of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul has accelerated significantly in the last hours, U.S. officials announced Monday, in part because U.S. troops are now actively leaving the airport to escort stranded Americans and allies into the airfield perimeter.
In the last 24-hour period, 16,000 people were transported out of the country, bringing to 42,000 since the end of July and including “several thousand” U.S. citizens, the Pentagon said. Previously the Pentagon had said its “capacity goal” for airlifts was only 9,000 per day.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said last week the U.S. did not have sufficient troop power to conduct rescue missions outside the airport, whose perimeter is largely controlled by the Taliban. But Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday with the deployment of 5,800 U.S. troops, they now have the “capability.”
“When we can and where we can help Americans move towards the gates … we do have those capabilities,” Kirby said at a Pentagon briefing.
“Our commanders have the authority that they need to use their assets and their forces to help assist Americans who need to get to the airport … on a case by case basis,” Kirby said. “I don’t want to leave you with the idea that we’re somehow patrolling the streets of Kabul. But on occasion, where there’s a need and there’s a capability to meet that need, our commanders on the ground are doing what they feel they need to do to help Americans reach the airport.”
Kirby chose his words carefully and did not enter into details. It was the most concrete confirmation to date that U.S. troops are conducting missions beyond the airport perimeter.
He did say, however, that there are no joint patrols of American and Taliban forces.
The accelerated pace also comes as the Taliban appeared adamant about holding the U.S. to an Aug. 31 deadline for all Western troops to be gone from Afghanistan.
Biden also said on Sunday the U.S. was implementing plans to create safe passages for Americans citizens to be brought into the airport. Meanwhile, Washington activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, a program first begun during the Berlin airlift, which would include 18 aircraft from U.S. carriers to pick up Afghan refugees from half-way points in the Middle East to destinations around the world. On Monday, the U.S. Embassy sent messages to American citizens in the country to report to a compound in the city with family members — excluding children over 21 — and only small bags so as to be transported to the airport for their evacuation flight.
In their speeches and press statements, meanwhile, Taliban officials continue to exhort their fellow citizens to stay, insisting that there is a blanket amnesty for former government officials, their enemies in the security services as well as those who worked with foreign groups operating in the country.
On Monday afternoon, the Taliban’s Preaching and Guidance Commission held a religious summit at the Loya Jirga, a large, well-appointed auditorium in Kabul Polytechnic University, bringing a bevy of speakers, including its main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid.
“Everyone is safe,” he said before a rapt audience of adherents, adding that preachers should also encourage people to remain and that there was no need to evacuate.
“Those who have left Afghanistan are not in any danger if they return.”
But their actions seem to indicate a less tolerant view.
In recent days there have been reports of a wide-scale manhunt for their adversaries among security and intelligence personnel or prominent civil society activists.
And small but determined pockets of resistance to Taliban rule persist in Baghlan and Panjshir, two provinces in the country’s northeast; the latter has long been an anti-Taliban bastion and remains the only part of the country yet to fall into their hands. That includes Ahmad Massoud, son of the famed guerrilla commander who battled the Soviet Union and the Taliban before being killed by assassins thought to be linked to Al Qaeda two days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
On Sunday, fighters in Baghlan claimed they had taken three provinces in the Andarab valley. But a day later the Taliban snatched them back, the group said, and had surrounded Panjshir.
In his speech, Mujahid said “the anti-Taliban coalition” was under siege.
“But the Taliban are trying to resolve the issue through talks instead of fighting,” he said.
But there seemed little overt dissent against the Taliban in Kabul, the city most transformed by America’s 20-year effort to develop Afghanistan.
Although banks remain closed, markets were open, with men as well as a number of women — most of whom were dressed in hijab rather than the more conservative burqa — strolling among stalls loaded with clothes, dried fruits, spices, cookware and knock-off electronics. The Taliban said it would reopen financial institutions next week.
And at the Loya Jirga, Mujahid emphasized that crime had fallen and that the Taliban had brought safety and security to the capital and other areas of the country. Far from retribution, the Taliban’s focus was on the country’s future.
“We will become self-reliant,” he said.
“Our people are thirsty for economic development.”
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Los Angeles Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report.
