Urgency to evacuate Afghans builds as deadline nears

Efforts to evacuate thousands of people from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan became increasingly urgent on Tuesday, with Spain warning it would have to leave people behind and France saying it had just three days to complete its airlifts. 

US-led troops have ramped up operations to get thousands of people out of Kabul, after the Taliban warned they would not allow the United States to extend next week’s deadline for a complete withdrawal.

President Joe Biden has said he hopes to stick to the August 31 deadline he set to pull out American forces, but he is facing pressure from European allies and Britain to go beyond the date.

The French government said Tuesday, if the United States stuck to the deadline, it would have to end evacuations from Kabul’s airport on Thursday. 

Spain said it would not be able to rescue all Afghans who served Spanish missions.

“It is a very frustrating situation for everyone, because even those who reach Kabul, access to the airport is very complicated,” Defence Minister Margarita Robles said.

Britain has said it will lobby at a virtual G7 summit on Tuesday for a longer presence. About 50,000 foreigners and Afghans have fled the country from Kabul’s airport since the Taliban swept into power 10 days ago, according to the US government.

Many Afghans fear a repeat of the brutal interpretation of sharia law that the Taliban implemented when first in power from 1996-2001, or retribution for working with the US-backed government over the past two decades.

“The Taliban are the same as they were 20 years ago,” Nilofar Bayat, a women’s rights activist and former captain of Afghanistan’s wheelchair basketball, said after fleeing and arriving in Spain.

“If you see Afghanistan now, it’s all men, there are no women because they don’t accept woman as part of society.”

Red line

The Taliban, who ended two decades of war with an astonishingly

swift rout of government forces, had been publicly tolerant of the evacuation effort.

But on Monday they described next week’s cut-off date as a “red line”.

“If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations -- the answer is no... there would be consequences,” spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Sky News.

The Taliban achieved their stunning victory thanks to Biden pulling out nearly all American troops from Afghanistan, following through on a deal struck with the Taliban by then-president Donald Trump.

However Biden was forced to redeploy thousands of troops after the fall of Kabul to oversee the airlift.

Harrowing scenes

The rush to leave Kabul has sparked harrowing scenes and left at least eight people dead.

Some of have been crushed to death and at least one, a youth football player, died after falling off a plane. 

The German defence ministry said Monday an Afghan soldier was killed and three others wounded in a firefight with unknown assailants.

Robles, the Spanish defence minister, said the security situation was getting worse.

“The Taliban are becoming more aggressive, there is gunfire, violence is more obvious,” she said in and interview with news radio Cadena Ser.

“The situation is frankly dramatic and besides, with each passing day, it is worse because people are conscious that time is running out.”