Washington: White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday said that the evacuation of over 104000 people from Afghanistan has become possible due to US-Taliban coordination.
She made it clear that the US neither trust the Taliban nor consider the group as ‘friend’. However, as the group controls large swaths of Afghanistan, evacuation became possible due to US-Taliban coordination.
Suicide bombings
Meanwhile, 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 and killed more than 100.
The US warned more attacks could come ahead of the Tuesday deadline for foreign troops to leave, ending America’s longest war.
Thursday’s bombings near Kabul’s international airport killed at least 95 Afghans and 13 US troops, Afghan and US officials said, in the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan since August 2011.
True toll could be higher
Afghan officials warned that the true toll could be higher, with morgues stretched to capacity and the possibility that relatives are taking bodies away from the scene. One official said as many as 115 may have died. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
At least 10 bodies lay on the grounds outside Kabul’s Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital, where relatives said the mortuary could take no more. Afghans said many of the dead are unclaimed because family members are travelling from distant provinces.
In an emotional speech Thursday night, President Joe Biden blamed the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate, far more radical than the Taliban militants who seized power less than two weeks ago in a lightning blitz across the country.
With inputs from agencies