Kabul airport becomes ‘crisis point’ as Afghans try to flee

PBC News:  The Taliban has declared the war in Afghanistan over after its fighters swept into the capital, Kabul, and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

Victorious Taliban fighters patrolled the streets of Kabul on Monday as thousands of Afghans mobbed the city’s airport trying to flee the group’s feared hardline brand of rule.

Meanwhile, many nations were scrambling to evacuate their diplomats, citizens and some local Afghan staff.

Al Jazeera’s Charlotte Bellis, reporting from Kabul, says “the airport has been the real crisis point of the roll-in of the Taliban”.

“Outside of that it has been relatively smooth. Security forces have for the most part laid down their weapons,” she says.

Mohammad Naeem, a spokesman for Taliban’s political office tells Al Jazeera the group does not want to live in isolation and says the type and form of the new government in Afghanistan will be made clear soon. He also calls for peaceful international relations.

The United Nations Security Council will discuss the situation in Afghanistan later on Monday.

At least five killed at Kabul airport: Witnesses

At least five people have been killed in Kabul airport as hundreds of people tried to forcibly enter planes leaving the Afghan capital, witnesses tell Reuters news agency.

One witness says he has seen the bodies of five people being taken to a vehicle. Another witness says it is not clear whether the victims have been killed by gunshots or in a stampede.

US troops, who are in charge of the airport, earlier fired in the air to scatter the crowd, a US official says.