Over 1,000 people, including Americans, stuck in Afghanistan, awaiting clearance for charter flights: Reports
The uncertainty was the latest flashpoint following a botched US military retreat completed after the Taliban seized power in Kabul on August 15, following the fall of the Western-backed government.
FollowBlaming the delay on the US State Department, as per media reports, some 1,000 individuals, including Americans, had been delayed in Afghanistan for days awaiting approval for their charter aircraft to depart, The uncertainty was the latest flashpoint following a botched US military retreat completed after the Taliban seized power in Kabul on August 15, following the fall of the Western-backed government. Exasperated by the delays, the organizer claimed that the State Department had failed to notify the Taliban of its clearance for flight departures from Mazar-i-international Sharif's airport or certify a landing location.
According to a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the US government "has not confirmed any Americans are in Mazar-i-Sharif attempting to escape via the airport."
When asked about charter flights, a State Department official did not answer specific allegations but did emphasize that the US did not have staff on the ground and so lacked a credible way of confirming the essential characteristics of charter flights. This entails, among other things, checking the number of US citizens and others aboard, the correctness of the remainder of the manifest, and "where they aim to land."
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Earlier on Sunday, Mike McCaul, the top Republican on the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News that six planes with Americans and Afghan interpreters aboard were stranded at Mazar-i-Sharif airport, unable to take off because they had not gotten Taliban permission. He said the Taliban were holding passengers "hostage for demands," but numerous sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity to Reuters, refuted that claim.
Another Republican US representative, Mike Waltz, urged the State Department to collaborate with non-governmental organizations that he said were attempting to approve charter planes to remove Americans and Afghans in danger. The US's two-decade-long war of Afghanistan ended with a hurriedly arranged evacuation that left thousands of US-allied Afghans behind. On August 31, Washington concluded its pullout.
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