The Fall Of Kabul To The Taliban

[Filly]

Biden meets with Bennett today to talk Iran. Let's see how that goes. The two new officials were to meet yesterday, but obviously the meeting was postponed.

Iran was asked by the Taliban to resume sending oil/fuel to Afghanistan which had stopped August 6. They agreed.

My fear is any American left behind in Afghanistan will be traded to Iran as human shields if Biden and Bennett decide to mess with their nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile our country mourns the thirteen young men who bravely gave their lives for our country.

 

[dotr]

27 Aug 2021 rbbm.
Evacuation flights resume in Kabul after deadly bombings
''At least 110 people have been killed in the two explosions outside Kabul airport, including 13 US soldiers, according to Al Jazeera’s team in Afghanistan.

The US troops helping to evacuate Afghans desperate to flee Taliban rule are bracing for more attacks.''

“We have seen a number of planes take off. The number of people around the airport has grown dramatically since yesterday,” he said. “We have seen thousands of people scrambling up against a wall there desperate to get on the few remaining planes.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/27/afghanistan-kabul-taliban-live-updates/
''Today at 7:30 a.m. EDT
U.S. troops in Kabul are bracing for more Islamic State attacks that could include car bombs or rocket fire at the airport, even as evacuation efforts wind down, a top U.S. commander said.''

“We believe it is their desire to continue those attacks, and we expect those attacks to continue,” Marine Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters Thursday. He said U.S. forces were sharing information with Taliban fighters manning checkpoints outside the airport.

“And we will continue to coordinate with them as they go forward,” he said.''

 

[Simply Southern]

What to do though?

If the US/NATO removed or destroyed everything, where would that have left the Afghan army? Even more unable to defend against the Taliban? As it was, that may seem like a mute point.

Apparently, the ANA, were suffering a multitude of issues, including corruption, lack of cohesion, loss of morale, pay and food shortages, from top to bottom (JMO).

Should the US have stayed until the ANA was ready and able to take control?

It's a mess, and I feel for all the Afghans who just want a decent life, and for all those US and coalition troops, who have just tried to do their jobs, and make a positive difference in the world.

They used the aircraft to flee when Kabul was seized.

The WSJ originally published this article, but has a pay wall

Afghan service members fled to Uzbekistan in dozens of US-supplied planes, helicopters
{Snipped]

Hundreds of Afghan service members have fled to Uzbekistan aboard dozens of U.S.-supplied planes and helicopters since the weekend, when the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan.

At least 46 aircrafts have entered Uzbekistan with a total of 585 Afghan service members on board, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing U.S. officials.

{snipped}

Ghani fled to the United Arab Emirates, according to a statement from the country’s ministry of foreign affairs released on Wednesday.
Some of the airplanes reportedly landed in Tajikistan, which is also located on Afghanistan’s northern border.

 

[Trident]

Keep the information, stories coming folks. We are watching history, no matter how shameful it is, being made. We are, in my opinion, watching the fall of an empire, a beautiful dream.

 

[Simply Southern]

Different unit. And Corpmen are Navy assigned to all different USMC platoons.

My heart breaks. We spend lots of time on the NC coast. Everywhere we go we see our servicemen/women. I'm always so proud and make a point to express this at any opportunity.

I just can't stop the tears for the dear men and women who gave their life yesterday.

Moo....

 

[Simply Southern]

Britain's Afghan evacuation will end 'in a matter of hours' amid fears ISIS will strike again | Daily Mail Online


The UK evacuation mission in Afghanistan will end 'in a matter of hours' and the 1,000 people already inside Kabul airport will be the last to be flown out, a British minister has revealed.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said British forces will try to 'find a few people in the crowds' that they are able to evacuate but admitted that not everyone will be flown out to safety.

The effort will now focus on evacuating UK nationals and others who have already been cleared to leave and are already at the airport.

It comes amid fears ISIS will strike again ahead of the Tuesday deadline for foreign troops to leave following the double suicide attack at Kabul airport which killed at least 108 people, including 13 American service personnel.

Mr Wallace said: 'We will process the people that we've brought with us, the 1,000 people approximately in the airfield now and we will seek a way to continue to find a few people in the crowds where we can, but overall the main processing is now closed and we have a matter of hours.'

'It is with deep regret that not everyone has been able to be evacuated during this process,' he added in a statement.

Mr Wallace said it is estimated that up to 1,100 Afghans who could be eligible for evacuation will be left behind by the UK.

He told LBC radio: 'We think down to approximately 100-150 British nationals left in the estimated pot, some of those are willingly staying.'

So far, Britain has evacuated more than 13,700 British nationals and Afghans, representing the second biggest airlift by the country's air force after the Berlin Airlift in 1949, the UK defence ministry said.

Mr Wallace later told Sky News that the attack had not sped up Britain's timetable for ending the evacuation operation. 'The explosion was horrendous, but it didn't hasten our departure,' he said, adding that the closure of a processing centre at Baron Hotel had happened on schedule.

The Defence Secretary warned that the threat of further attacks around Kabul airport will increase as Western troops get closer to leaving the country by the August 31 deadline.

'The threat is obviously going to grow the closer we get to leaving,' he said. 'The narrative is always going to be, as we leave, certain groups such as ISIS will want to stake a claim that they have driven out the U.S. or the UK.'

What is going to happen to our US troops when UK pulls out? I've heard not one word, of additional support for our troops on the ground.

I am truly worried. I don't think our troops can sustain the airport without additional support. What's to say the Taliban or ISIS doesn't take out air craft midair or bomb the entire facility.

Moo....

 

[MajorHoople]

Britain Could Be Facing 'The Biggest Hostage Crisis It Has Ever Seen

"Britain could be facing the 'biggest hostage crisis the UK has ever seen' after the government admitted that Brits and up to 1,100 eligible Afghans will be left behind when the evacuations from Kabul end 'in a matter of hours'.

Senior Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat said Britain's decision to largely end processing new evacuees means 'many' will now not get out, despite Boris Johnson having insisted the 'overwhelming majority' had been airlifted.

Mr Tugendhat, the chair of the Foreign Affairs committee, said he feels a growing sense of 'anger and shame' that Brits and eligible Afghans will be left behind.

He warned the UK now has 'no influence' over the Taliban except by asking them to help people 'they are quite happy to kill' - meaning Britain could face a major hostage crisis in the future.

Meanwhile, a growing number of MPs from across the political spectrum have accused the government of 'failing' in its mission to keep Afghan staff safe by not completing the evacuations.

Mr Tugendhat told Sky News: 'There's a possibility we may find ourselves with the biggest hostage crisis the UK has ever seen.

'I'm not giving up but my anger and shame for those we've left behind to be hunted by the Taliban is growing."

 

[Gardenista]

There is no doubt in my mind there are people on those flights out who want to cause 9/11 level harm to us.

 

[dotr]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/afghan-air-force-collapse-1.6151739
''CBC News interviewed three of the pilots via cell phone from Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Their identities have been verified through military records, but their names are being withheld to protect their lives and the lives of the families they left behind in Afghanistan.

The group of pilots includes those who have flown AC-208s, MD-530 attack helicopters and the UH-60 Blackhawk. ''
They are still wearing the flight suits they escaped in and say they have no access to the Internet to contact their families.

''Authorities in Tajikistan, which shares a 1,350-kilometre border with Afghanistan, said that several Afghan military planes carrying more than 100 aircrew and soldiers have landed at various airports. Separately, a week ago, another Afghan military plane crashed in Uzbekistan. It's not clear whether it was shot down.

Although they're not under guard and are free to move around in Dushanbe, the aircrew who spoke to CBC News said they are afraid the authorities in Tajikistan will hand them back to the new Taliban regime — either at the behest of the Russians, who made it clear this weekend they want no part of a refugee crisis, or as a goodwill gesture to the new government in Kabul.''

 

[Simply Southern]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/afghan-air-force-collapse-1.6151739
''CBC News interviewed three of the pilots via cell phone from Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Their identities have been verified through military records, but their names are being withheld to protect their lives and the lives of the families they left behind in Afghanistan.

The group of pilots includes those who have flown AC-208s, MD-530 attack helicopters and the UH-60 Blackhawk. ''
They are still wearing the flight suits they escaped in and say they have no access to the Internet to contact their families.

''Authorities in Tajikistan, which shares a 1,350-kilometre border with Afghanistan, said that several Afghan military planes carrying more than 100 aircrew and soldiers have landed at various airports. Separately, a week ago, another Afghan military plane crashed in Uzbekistan. It's not clear whether it was shot down.

Although they're not under guard and are free to move around in Dushanbe, the aircrew who spoke to CBC News said they are afraid the authorities in Tajikistan will hand them back to the new Taliban regime — either at the behest of the Russians, who made it clear this weekend they want no part of a refugee crisis, or as a goodwill gesture to the new government in Kabul.''

They left their families behind.
Moo

 

[Simply Southern]

New Taliban security chief in Kabul is wanted by U.S. as terrorist

The Taliban’s new self-proclaimed chief of security in Kabul is someone who was designated a terrorist by the U.S. government 10 years ago and is subject to a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani told Al Jazeera in an interview published Sunday that the Taliban was working to restore order in Afghanistan.



"If we can defeat superpowers, surely we can provide safety to the Afghan people," he said.

Those assurances were called into question by what a Pentagon spokesman called a "complex" bombing attack outside Kabul airport Thursday that killed 13 U.S. service members and caused undetermined number of Afghan casualties.

 

[dotr]

There is no doubt in my mind there are people on those flights out who want to cause 9/11 level harm to us.

Wondering if from the start, they should have had separated the women and children from the men waiting in line at the airport?
Since suicide bombers (not always but usually) tend to be male, it might have been easier to watch out for them, also,the women and kids need the most protection, but most especially there. imo.

 

[Gardenista]

Wondering if from the start, they should have had separated the women and children from the men waiting in line at the airport?
Since suicide bombers (not always but usually) tend to be male, it might have been easier to watch out for them, also,the women and kids need the most protection, but most especially there. imo.

Absolute common sense. So why wasn't it done?

 

[Simply Southern]

Va. Congresswoman: DoD authorizes Fort Pickett to temporarily house Afghan refugees

 

[Simply Southern]

Finally, this should have happen yesterday, in my opinion.

Virginia flags to be lowered in honor of Kabul attack victims

 

[Skigh]

From Sky News:




Death toll increases to 170 people - report

CBS News is now reporting 170 Afghan civilians were killed in yesterday's attack, including 32 men, three women and three children.

A further 132 are unidentifiable, and nearly 200 people have been injured.

Official figures suggest 95 civilians and 13 US military personnel were killed.

 

[Filly]

There is no doubt in my mind there are people on those flights out who want to cause 9/11 level harm to us.

Agree.

Will they need the Covid vaccine as well? I'm serious.

 

[Filly]

Wondering if from the start, they should have had separated the women and children from the men waiting in line at the airport?
Since suicide bombers (not always but usually) tend to be male, it might have been easier to watch out for them, also,the women and kids need the most protection, but most especially there. imo.

This is so true dotr. However they'll strap a bomb on their own kids. We know that to be true. You're right though. Women and children first. Translators families.

Then again some of these same terrorists have made it to the boarder in Mexico. Wide open. We're in for probably the worse America we have ever seen.

Sorry so morose.

 

[shotgun09]

Absolute common sense. So why wasn't it done?

Not much of the withdraw and evacuation from there seems well thought out . It appears to me this was a surrender to the terrorists plan instead. The military base being abandoned, the lack of a cohesive plan to evacuate thousands of citizens under enemy control at a civilian airport vs a militarily controlled one? The billions worth of military arms and equipment..aircraft etc left for our now good buds...the taliban?

And please ex enemy, now our good and trusting friends...take a picture of yourselves sitting on one of our humvees in our uniforms holding our weapons. We will make sure Reuters ,AP, CNN and Fox get the photo!

Thanks taliban...for opening the prisons, and letting out who knows how many additional terrorists to mingle with the flow of refugees. You guys have been a great help to us, and we sure do appreciate it...And by the way, here's a list of people and all their identity papers to help you in your quest for....what is it again? ..
Maybe we went with the super-dooper secret CIA 'knock on wood' plan?

Just complete nonsense! And the spin just keeps on spinning!

 

[dotr]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/kabul-attack-isis-k-august27-2021-1.6155407
Associated Press · Posted: Aug 27, 2021 3:39 AM ET | Last Updated: 1 hour ago
rbbm.
''Evacuation flights from Afghanistan resumed with new urgency on Friday, a day after two suicide bombings targeted the thousands of desperate people fleeing the Taliban takeover. The U.S. says further attempted attacks are expected ahead of the Tuesday deadline for foreign troops to leave, ending America's longest war.

Kabul residents said several flights took off Friday morning, while footage shared by a local Tolo TV correspondent showed the anxious crowd outside the airport as large as ever.

Thursday's bombings near Kabul's international airport killed at least 95 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops, Afghan and U.S. officials said, in the deadliest day for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since August 2011.

The true toll could be higher because other people may have taken bodies away from the scene, an official said Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.''