A US soldier (C) point his gun towards an Afghan passenger at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP/Getty Images
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A man pulls a girl to get inside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
STRINGER/Reuters
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US soldiers stand guard as Afghan people wait at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP/Getty Images
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A Taliban fighter sits on the back of a vehicle with a machine gun in front of the main gate leading to the Afghan presidential palace, in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Rahmat Gul/The Associated Press
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A member of Taliban forces inspects the area outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
STRINGER/Reuters
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Taliban fighters stand guard in front of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Rahmat Gul/The Associated Press
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Women with their children try to get inside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
STRINGER/Reuters
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Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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Men try to get inside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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People walk past parked vehicles as they head to cross the Friendship Gate crossing point at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border town of Chaman, Pakistan.
STRINGER/Reuters
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Pakistan soldiers check documents of travelers crossing the border to Afghanistan through a crossing point in Chaman, Pakistan.
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A volunteer carries an injured man as other people can be seen waiting at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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US soldiers stand guard as in the background Afghan people wait at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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Afghan passengers sit as they wait to leave the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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Afghan passengers sit inside a plane as they wait to leave the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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This satellite photo from Planet Labs Inc. shows swarms of people on the tarmac at Kabul International Airport, also known as Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Planet Labs Inc./The Associated Press
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This handout satellite image released by Maxar Technologies shows a traffic jam and crowds, during the chaotic scene underway at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan.
-/AFP/Getty Images
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A Taliban fighter runs towards crowd outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan.
REUTERS TV/Reuters
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Afghan people move towards the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan.
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Afghan people climb up on a plane and sit by the door as they wait at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan.
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A US soldier (C) point his gun towards an Afghan passenger at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP/Getty Images
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Germany must urgently evacuate up to 10,000 people from Afghanistan for whom its has responsibility, Chancellor Angela Merkel told party colleagues, warning that the fallout from the conflict will last for a very long time.
The remarks, made at a closed-door meeting of her Christian Democrat party on Monday and relayed by meeting participants, reflect growing concern about bloodshed in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized the capital and proclaimed peace.
“We are witnessing difficult times,” Merkel said. “Now we must focus on the rescue mission.”
Merkel said those needing evacuation included 2,500 Afghan support staff as well as human rights activists, lawyers and others whom the government sees as being at risk if they remained in the country, up to 10,000 altogether.
She also said Berlin should co-operate with countries bordering Afghanistan to support those fleeing now, adding: “This topic will keep us busy for a very long time.”
The Taliban’s 2021 offensive
Afghanistan control, by district
Contested
Government-controlled
Taliban-controlled
Mazar-i-
Sharif
APRIL 13
Herat
Kabul
Kandahar
MAY 11
JUNE 16
JULY 20
AUG. 12
AUG. 15
john sopinski/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
SOURCE: FDD’s Long War Journal
The Taliban’s 2021 offensive
Afghanistan control, by district
Contested
Government-controlled
Taliban-controlled
Mazar-i-
Sharif
APRIL 13
Herat
Kabul
Kandahar
MAY 11
Kabul
JUNE 16
Kabul
JULY 20
AUG. 12
AUG. 15
john sopinski/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
SOURCE: FDD’s Long War Journal
The Taliban’s 2021 offensive
Afghanistan control, by district
Contested
Government-controlled
Taliban-controlled
Mazar-i-
Sharif
APRIL 13
MAY 11
Herat
Kabul
Kandahar
JUNE 16
JULY 20
AUG. 15
AUG. 12
john sopinski/THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: FDD’s Long War Journal
However, Paul Ziemiak, the general secretary of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said Germany could not fix the situation in Afghanistan through a repeat of the open-door migrant policy it pursued in 2015.
Germany opened its borders six years ago to more than 1 million migrants, many of them Syrians, fleeing war and poverty – a bold move that won Merkel plaudits abroad but which proved controversial at home and eroded her party’s standing.
“For us, it is clear that 2015 must not be repeated,” Ziemiak told broadcaster n-tv. “We won’t be able to solve the Afghanistan question through migration to Germany.”
People have flooded into Kabul airport in an attempt to leave Afghanistan as the Taliban takes control of the country. Gunshots can be heard as people run toward the airport as others try to clamber onto aircraft. The Globe and Mail
Merkel, in power since 2005, plans to stand down after Germany’s Sept. 26 federal election. Armin Laschet, the CDU’s chancellor candidate at the election, said Afghanistan is NATO’s biggest fiasco since it was formed.
Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told the meeting that Germany had deployed special forces and paratroopers to help with the evacuation, adding it was “an extremely dangerous operation” for German troops.
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“As long as it remains possible, the German army will get as many people as possible out of Afghanistan and maintain the air bridge,” she said, adding this depended on the willingness of the United States to keep the airport open.
No evacuation flights are leaving Kabul airport at the moment because desperate people trying to flee the country are blocking the tarmac, a spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said at a regular government news conference on Monday.
Forty staff from the German embassy were flown to Doha overnight, the spokesperson said, adding a small team of fewer than 10 staff would remain at Kabul airport to co-ordinate evacuations.
Three Afghan nationals who helped Canada and its military describe via audio recordings the situation in Kabul. One says they are in hiding as they hear gunfire in the city, while another says they made it to the airport but were unable to get inside to find a flight out. The Taliban took control of Kabul on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and the government collapsed. The Globe and Mail
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