KABUL — The first full day of Taliban rule in Kabul on Monday saw a mad rush by thousands of Afghans on the city’s international airport, in a frantic, last-ditch effort to flee the country.

Hundreds of people ran alongside the wheels of a U.S. military aircraft as it attempted to take off Monday. Others climbed up the sides of the plane as it edged forward, engines roaring.
Some kept hold of the undercarriage even as the aircraft rose, and at least one person appeared to fall from a height during takeoff. One local Afghan news agency published images of a body that apparently landed on a Kabul rooftop.

At least seven people at the airport have been confirmed dead, the Associated Press reported.
The dire scenes illustrated the level of fear sweeping some parts of Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover on the heels of the U.S. military withdrawal — a policy decision critics described as the hasty abandonment of a country to which American officials once pledged unflinching commitment.
But in many parts of downtown Kabul, Monday passed largely peacefully, a sharp contrast to the airport chaos. Stores were largely shuttered, although a trickle of people were going about their business. Services such as banks and government offices were also closed.


“What has happened to us? Have we turned into animals?” said one man at the airport as he watched people elbow and kick on a narrow staircase for a seat on a plane that would take them abroad.

Like others in this report, the man spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The man shook his head in disbelief at his surroundings as well as at himself. He was still in the middle of the application process for an expedited U.S. visa. A return to Taliban rule was so concerning that he arrived at the airport with his family, bags packed but no visa and no ticket.

Source : http://.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/16/afghan-kabul-airport/