the children thrown over the wall- time.news

by time news
from Lorenzo Cremonesi

The assault on the airport continues, manned by the Taliban At least 12 dead. The wrath of the Afghans: we blocked, foreigners can pass. Biden: the troops will remain in the yard

Soldiers generally scare children. Especially if they speak a foreign language, they are armed, armored with flak jackets, helmets and sunglasses. But not in these days of terror and chaos in Kabul. The images coming from the airport perimeter speak for themselves. Girls and children pushed upwards by their parents, on the gray concrete walls that surround the airport area, hand out their hands to the American soldiers overlooking the stands protected by barbed wire, theirs are covered with reinforced gloves. There is like a moment of perplexity. From below, mothers scream, cry. Alongside, men scramble to try to reach the accesses to the slopes. Dust dominates, the noise of people running away, shots echo. Then the soldiers reach out and gently grab them to pass them across the wall to someone who might be a relative, an acquaintance. Behind, towards the city, there is the past that looks like a black hole. On the other hand, looking at the cargo planes that land and take off all the time, a future of hope is expected, however, of certain escape from the Taliban nightmare.

It happens in these frantic and terrible hours. The biblical exodus continues. The US commands confirm that they have about 5,500 soldiers to keep the track safe and that until last night there were over 8,000 parties, most of them American citizens and of the international coalition. President Biden argues that if Americans are still in the country after August 31, American troops will remain at the airport, thus exceeding the previously announced term of their presence in Afghanistan. However, they will not go outside the slopes area. Anyone wishing to leave must arrive at the airport perimeter by their own means.

And yet, right here lies the serious news of the last few hours. The Taliban do not seem to keep their promises at all. Far from it. They had sent their advanced patrols to the doors of the terminal claiming that they would stop the gangs of thieves from attacking people and assisting the departure process. In reality, they filter and catalog everyone who arrives, then brutally chase them back. Yet another betrayal. They fired several times, even at the crowd. The confirmed dead are at least twelve, but there could be many more. Foreigners, especially Americans, show their passports and leave. For us Afghans we are blocked, stopped, sent home. They treat us with extreme harshness, offend women, beat children who run away. For them we are spies, collaborators. Now they know us and will come to pick us up later in our homes, Fania, a 23-year-old student who had received the right of way from the Americans to join her betrothed in Louisiana, told us last night. I have tried twice. Now I give up. Too dangerous to try again, she says crying.

The same story is told by seven Afghans who had been collaborating with the Italian contingent for years. Please government of Rome, Italian army: help us! I worked for your soldiers for 19 years. You have to save me. The Taliban say they forgive us, they will not punish us for cooperating with you. But a lie. Truly, they hunt us down. They are looking for me and my seven employees of Ciano International. They will torture and kill us all, 45-year-old Akhtar Mohammad Stuman pleads desperately. We spoke to him by phone yesterday morning while he was in his hiding place in the mountains overlooking the parched Kabul basin. The Taliban use checkpoints to locate us. And we are in a Catch 22 situation, we need US credentials to pass, but if we show them we are doomed, explains. He doesn’t know what to do. I need the Italians to send me an invitation right away to get on your planes. But it will only serve my wife and our four young children. I will have to arrive secretly, he adds.

Akhtar a veteran. In 2003 you started working for Ciano in Kabul. A company well known to anyone who has attended the bases of the Italian missions abroad. From Lebanon, to Iraq, to ​​Africa, to the former Yugoslavia, Ciano is responsible for providing food for the canteens, organizing bars, pizzerias, recreational clubs. I started by cleaning the floors and became the manager for all of your bases in Afghanistan, from Kabul to Herat, he says. A familiar face. In Kabul he was at the bar of the unified command. In Herat it was often seen in a pizzeria. Smiling, collaborative, until recently he was privileged, with an excellent salary that allowed him to buy a beautiful villa on the outskirts of the capital and drive a powerful Land Rover. But today a hunted, a refugee who sleeps at night under a tree near a pool of water and during the day tries to load his laptop between the houses on the road to Pakistan. He also sends us three appeal videos. One taken from home cameras. A Taliban patrol is seen arriving in front of the door. Yesterday they came to my villa. I am wanted. They asked my youngest daughter where I was.

33-year-old Mohammed Zarif, hired by Ciano two years ago, also sent a video from Mazar-i-Sharif, equally frightened. His wife had a Western-inspired women’s clothing store and a women’s gym. The Taliban arrived holding the gun, devastated the shop and forced me to immediately close the gym, she says, in a video sent to the Italian authorities. Yesterday they took their car trying to reach Kabul. It is not possible to arrive at the airport. The names of the 7 Ciano workers with their families (in all 43 people with many small children) also reached Stefano Pontecorvo, the Italian diplomat on loan to NATO in charge of regulating visas for Afghan collaborators and guaranteeing their exodus. At his side, a nucleus of 25 Italian soldiers helps to compile the lists and facilitate the approach to the planes sent from Rome. The Italian authorities are informed, we hope they can get them off the ground, says the Italian manager of Ciano, Roberto Bruni. But certainly nothing. As the hours go by, the Taliban’s control is getting tighter and tighter. And the escape routes from the airport seem less accessible.

August 19, 2021 (change August 19, 2021 | 22:19)

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