Taliban Now Blocking Westerners From Kabul Airport, Private Rescue Flights Facing ‘Obstacles’

The Taliban are now preventing Westerners from getting to Kabul airport, according to reports Wednesday morning, expanding their airport blockade, despite assuring coalition forces that foreigners would be allowed access to evacuation flights.

Private flights, being organized to bypass the Biden administration’s pullout, are also facing “growing obstacles,” according to The Wall Street Journal, and chartered planes, designed to rescue Americans and their allies trapped in Kabul are “flying out of Kabul with hundreds of empty seats.”

On Tuesday, the Taliban “issued an edict saying only foreigners will be able to access the airport for evacuation,” the Daily Mail reported. “A spokesperson for the group ordered locals to return home. Roads in the city have been blocked in a bid to stop Afghans from leaving.”

Those blockades, the Mail noted, based on a Politico report, are catching not just Afghans “but American citizens,” and halting evacuation efforts. Groups coordinating evacuations have found themselves needing to redirect people “on the fly.”

“New Taliban checkpoints on the road to Pakistan have made driving out of the country increasingly risky,” the Wall Street Journal continued. “Confusing bureaucratic hurdles have prevented countless people from leaving Afghanistan.”

The Washington Post’s editorial board noted Wednesday that “there may be only three or four days left for the gigantic airlift currently underway, because time must be left to fly out U.S. and other troops securing the airport themselves. Indeed, some troops have started leaving already.” – READ MORE