Just In: Kabul Airport’s Access Blocked With Gunfire

The militant group Taliban has blocked access to Kabul airport forcing thousands of Afghanis and other nationals from fleeing the country.

Reportedly, the fighters fired gunshots and forcefully sent back many people who tried to make their way to the airport for fear of the hard, ominous times ahead of them if they remain in the landlocked Asian country.

Over seven persons have died in the last few days in the chaos at the Kabul airport where people desperately hung around planes, trying to leave the country.

Earlier reports say that the Islamic militant group known as the Taliban or the Mujahedeen retook Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, about two decades after they were driven from Kabul by US troops.

Taliban militants seized about 20 cities in the country following the withdrawal of US troops beginning in July.

Afghanistan civilian President Ashraf Ghani subsequently fled on Sunday when Kabul fell, abandoning the presidential palace to Taliban fighters.

US President Joe Biden in a presidential broadcast on Monday said he stood by his decision to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan, adding that the troops cannot be dying in a war that Afghan forces were not willing to fight themselves.

Biden also stressed that the objective of the US under the then government of President George Bush had been fulfilled.

“We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on Sept. 11, 2001, and make sure Al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again. We did that. We severely degraded Al Qaeda and Afghanistan. We never gave up the hunt for Osama bin Laden and we got him,” he stated.