Afghanistan’s acting PM calls on those who worked alongside US to return: LIVE UPDATES
Mohammad Hasan Akhund, the senior Taliban leader named acting prime minister in Afghanistan, urged Afghans who worked with the U.S. and had fled to return to the country and assured their safety upon return. The Taliban has been trying to show a more moderate public face, but critics say their actions suggest otherwise.
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In a Thursday statement provided by the White House, NSC Spokesperson Emily Horne announced that the U.S. government facilitated Qatar Airways flight from Hamid Karzai International Airport "has safely landed in Qatar."
The plane carried both U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.
"We can confirm that flight has safely landed in Qatar. We are deeply grateful to the continued efforts of Qatar in facilitating operations at HKIA and helping to ensure the safety of these charter flights," she said. "We have been working intensely across the U.S. government to ensure the accuracy of the manifest and the safe departure and transit of the aircraft, and today’s safe flight is the result of careful and hard diplomacy and engagement."
Horne said that the Taliban had been "cooperative" in facilitating the departure of American citizens and lawful permanent residents on charter flights from the airport.
"They have shown flexibility, and they have been businesslike and professional in our dealings with them in this effort. This is a positive first step," she said.
Horne said the U.S. would continue efforts to facilitate the safe and orderly travel of American citizens, lawful permanent residents as well as "Afghans who worked for us and wish to leave Afghanistan."
"Because there is an ongoing terrorist threat to operations of this nature, we will not be sharing details of these efforts before people are safely out of the country," she said.
To date, under Operation Allies Welcome, Horne said that America has brought more than 6,000 American citizens and lawful permanent residents back to the U.S.
"As President Biden has said, if you are an American citizen who wants to leave Afghanistan, there is no deadline. We remain committed to get them out if they want to come out," she concluded.
A Qatar Airways aircraft is reflected on a bus at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. Some 200 foreigners, including Americans, flew out of Afghanistan on an international commercial flight from Kabul airport on Thursday, the first such large-scale departure since U.S and foreign forces concluded their frantic withdrawal at the end of last month. Credit: AP Photo/Bernat Armangue
Mainstream news networks ABC and CBS once again skipped covering the Americans still trapped in Afghanistan during their Wednesday nightly news reports – opting to exclude the plight of those most affected by the Biden administration's broken promise to evacuate all U.S. citizens before withdrawing all remaining military personnel from the war-torn country.
NBC dedicated just two lines in their Afghanistan report to the left behind Americans, with anchor Lester Holt briefly noting that the Biden administration was still relying on the Taliban to facilitate the extraction of stranded Americans, and reporter Andrea Mitchell simply stating at the end of her report that there were indeed Americans still trapped in Afghanistan with no clear path of escape.
A Taliban soldier walks on the tarmac at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Sept. 5, 2021. Some domestic flights have resumed at Kabul's airport, with the state-run Ariana Afghan Airline operating flights to three provinces. Credit: AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon
Dozens of foreigners – Americans included – boarded a commercial flight at Kabul airport on Thursday in the first large-scale evacuation since U.S and NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August.
Some 200 Westerners were on the Qatar Airways flight to Doha, marking a breakthrough in the coordination between the U.S. and the Taliban.
While the group had promised to allow foreigners and Afghans who had valid travel documents to leave, a days-long standoff over charter planes at an airport in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif had cast doubt on Taliban assurances.
An anonymous senior U.S. official told The Associated Press that two senior Taliban officials had helped to facilitate the departure.
The outlet reported that a foreign diplomat, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to brief the media, said that another 200 foreigners – including more Americans – would depart in the next couple of days.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Senate Armed Services Committee announced its initial slate of hearings Thursday to examine the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan and what the committee said in a release were "lessons learned from the twenty year conflict."
“Although we have completed the withdrawal of American military personnel and over 100,000 civilians from Afghanistan, I remain deeply concerned about the events that accompanied our withdrawal and the ongoing humanitarian crisis," Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Jack Reed, the committee's chairman, wrote in a statement. "It is the duty of Congress—and the Senate Armed Services Committee in particular—to hold hearings to learn lessons from the situation in Afghanistan and ensure accountability at the highest levels."
"The Committee will hold a series of hearings to examine the factors and decisions that manifested over four presidential administrations of both political parties to shape the outcome we now face in Afghanistan," he said.
Republican Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe wrote that he was grateful to Reed for prioritizing the hearings.
“I’m grateful to Chairman Reed for prioritizing these critical oversight hearings on Afghanistan — the first of what I will expect to be many hearings and briefings to review and determine what happened, who should be held accountable, and how we move forward," he wrote.
"The American people, our service members past and present, our allies and partners around the world and the Afghans who bravely helped us deserve this transparency and accountability," Inhofe said.
On Wednesday, September 15, there will be a closed full committee briefing on recent developments in Afghanistan and open and closed full committee hearings with testimony on America's withdrawal from Afghanistan on Tuesday, September 28.
Among the list of witnesses are General Austin Scott Miller, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, General Mark Milley and General Kenneth McKenzie.
A "Review of U.S. Military Operations in Afghanistan" is listed on that Thursday.
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, attends a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas after a meeting at the Ramstein U.S. Air Base in Ramstein, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Michael Probst
A Tennessee Republican – who is also an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran – sent a letter to the State Department this week, demanding answers after a source informed his office that evacuees being held at a Virginia military base have had "free rein" of the campus and have allegedly been leaving the base using ride-hailing apps without restraint from officials, Fox News has learned.
Tennessee Rep. Mark Green told "The Ingraham Angle" about his letter addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken after a source with knowledge of the situation made the allegations to his office.
Green wrote to Blinken asking for information regarding the allegations that not-fully-vetted Afghan evacuees staying at Fort Pickett have "basically have free rein of the complex and have even been allowed to leave despite not having completed the vetting process."
The lawmaker told host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday that the issues are also happening elsewhere and that the Pentagon is not necessarily to blame in this specific regard because they are essentially taking direction from Foggy Bottom.
"[T]he State Department is failing to give [the Pentagon] adequate information …They don't know exactly how many [evacuees] are even there. So, they can't account for someone if they don't return," Green said.
Taliban officials will allow 200 American civilians and others seeking visas to leave Afghanistan on chartered flights, according to report early Thursday.
The departures were expected to take place from Kabul later in the day, a U.S. official told Reuters.
The Taliban agreed after the urging from Zalmay Khlilzad, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, the report said.
The State Department and White House did not immediately respond to after-hour emails from Fox News.
The situation unfolding at the airport in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif became a focal point after reports said Taliban fighters were preventing chartered planes from evacuating several hundred people.
Hundreds of vulnerable Afghans are waiting for permission from Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to board prearranged charter flights standing by at the airport, the Associated Press reported. It was unclear if these individuals are included in the announcement.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday the U.S. was working with the Taliban to resolve the standoff over the charter flights. “We’ve been assured all American citizens and Afghan citizens with valid travel documents will be allowed to leave,” Blinken said in Doha on Tuesday.
FILE 1999: Mullah Hasan Akhund, right, then Afghanistan's Foreign Minister is received by then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in Islamabad. (AP)
Mohammad Hasan Akhund, the senior Taliban leader named acting prime minister in Afghanistan, urged Afghans who worked with the U.S. and had fled to return to the country and assured their safety upon return.
"We have suffered huge losses in money and lives for this historic moment in the history of Afghanistan," he told Al Jazeera in an interview Wednesday. "The stage of bloodshed, killing and contempt for people in Afghanistan has ended, and we have paid dearly for this."
Nidal Hasan, the radical Islamic terrorist who murdered 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, wrote a letter from death row, congratulating the Taliban as the terrorist group took control of Afghanistan.
In the letter – which Hasan's attorney, retired Army Col. John Galligan, provided to Fox News – Hasan triumphantly declared, "We Have Won!!!"
Hasan, who fatally injured 13 and wounded more than 30 others, wrote the letter from death row at Fort Leavenworth Prison.
"All-Praises be to All-Mighty Allah! Congratulations on your victory over those who hate for the Laws of All-Mighty God to be supreme on the land," Hasan wrote in a message he directed Galligan to forward to Taliban leadership.
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