Footage Shows Afghans Clinging To The Outside Of US Military Planes To Try & Escape The Taliban

Taliban escape

Pandemonium has broken out at Kabul’s international airport as thousands of Afghans attempt to flee the Taliban, which regained control over Afghanistan on the weekend.

The mass exodus started on Sunday as the Taliban entered Kabul, and by Monday it was clear there weren’t enough planes for the amount of people desperately trying to flee the country.

Some footage shows desperate civilians barging into jet airliners, while others chased down military planes in the hope of being evacuated.

The US military announced that it killed two people who were allegedly gunmen. Local news out TOLOnews reports that at least 10 people have been killed in the chaos, with many more wounded.

“Every 15 minutes, a US plane flies and a second lands,” The New York Times reported one witness as saying.

“There is chaos while people are entering the plane.”

At one point, US Apache helicopters flew close to the ground, apparently in order to clear civilians off the runway.

Footage shows desperate people clinging to the outside of a US military aircraft as it took off. Further footage, which we’ve chosen not to show here, shows some people later falling from the sky.

The Taliban are religious fundamentalists who controlled Afghanistan once before between 1996 and 2001.

During that time they imposed their ultra-strict interpretation of Islam over civilians, which violated women’s rights in particular.

Women were forced to wear burqas and banned from working or going to school. They also weren’t allowed to leave the house alone.

Adulterers were publicly executed, while thieves had their arms amputated. TV, music and cinemas were all outlawed during the Taliban’s reign.

It’s no wonder, then, why so many Afghans are making a last-ditch attempt to escape the Taliban.

The situation is particularly dire for anyone perceived as having helped the Taliban’s enemies, such as the local Afghan interpreters who worked for the Australian army.

“Some of us were shot, murdered, tortured for helping Australian soldiers and it happened to our families members like siblings and parents as well,” former ADF interpreter Raz Mohammad, who now lives in Australia, wrote in a Change.org petition.

“I’m terrified for the former ADF interpreters and their families members still trapped in Afghanistan who could be killed because of our affiliation with ADF – unless the government gives them Humanitarian visas to bring them to safety in Australia directory from Afghanistan.”

The Australian government has reportedly sent RAAF planes to Kabul to evacuate government and defense force contractors, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison refused to share any details over the weekend.

Mohammad wrote those words back in 2016. Now they’re more relevant than ever.

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