The Taliban has renamed Afghanistan the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ after its fighters swept into Kabul, the capital.
Aljazeera reports that scores of Afghans ran alongside a US military plane as it taxied on the runway and several clung to the side as the jet took off.
Senior US military officials confirmed that the chaos left seven dead, as well as several who fell from the flight.
The Taliban, a militant group that ran the country in the late 1990s, have again taken control of the country.
As of Monday, hundreds of people were seen at the tarmac at Kabul’s international airport, desperately seeking a route out of Afghanistan after the Taliban’s sudden seizure of power.
Meanwhile, at a special session of the UN Security Council in New York, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, urged Taliban to show “the utmost restraint to protect lives” and demanded that anyone who wanted to leave the country must be able to do so.
Also, the White House said in a statement that US President, Joe Biden, received a briefing by top security officials on the situation in Afghanistan.
The statement read, “This morning, the President was briefed by his national security team, including the Secretary of Defense and Chairman Milley, on the security situation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, and ongoing efforts to safely evacuate American citizens, US Embassy personnel and local staff, SIV (special immigrant visa) applicants and their families, and other vulnerable Afghans.”
