middle-east
Israel, Palestinian militants use bodies as bargaining chips
More than a year after his son was killed by Israeli forces under disputed circumstances in the occupied West Bank, Mustafa Erekat is still seeking his remains.
It is one of dozens of cases in which Israel is holding the remains of Palestinians killed in conflict, citing the need to deter attacks and potentially exchange them for the remains of two Israeli soldiers held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians and human rights groups view the practice of holding bodies as a form of collective punishment that inflicts further suffering on bereaved families.
“They have no right to keep my son, and it is my right for my son to have a good funeral,” Erekat said.
The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, a Palestinian rights group, says Israel is holding the bodies of at least 82 Palestinians since the policy was established in 2015. It says many are buried in secret cemeteries where the plots are only marked by plaques of numbers. Hamas holds the remains of the two Israeli soldiers killed during the 2014 Gaza war in an undisclosed location.
Last year, Israel's Security Cabinet expanded the policy to include the holding of the remains of all Palestinians killed during alleged attacks, and not just those connected to Hamas. Israel considers Hamas, which rules Gaza, a terrorist group.
Read: Israel hits Hamas targets in Gaza in response to rocket fire
Defense Minister Benny Gantz said at the time that holding the remains deterred attacks and would help ensure the return of Israeli captives and remains. The Defense Ministry declined to comment on the policy.
One of the bodies is that of Erekat's son, Ahmed, who Israeli officials say was shot and killed after deliberately plowing into a military checkpoint in June 2020. Security camera footage shows the car veering into a group of Israeli soldiers and sending one of them flying back. Ahmed steps out of the car and raises one of his hands before he is shot multiple times and falls to the ground.
His family says it was an accident. Mustafa said his son was passing through the checkpoint on his way to the nearby city of Bethlehem to buy clothes for his sister's wedding later that night. The shooting attracted widespread attention, in part because Ahmed was the nephew of Saeb Erekat, a veteran Palestinian spokesman and negotiator who died last year.
Ahmed was to get married soon, his father said: ”He had a house that was ready for him."
To this day, he has no idea where his son's remains are.
Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said Israel has turned “corpses into bargaining chips." The policy is “deliberately and unlawfully punishing the families of the deceased, who are not accused of any wrongdoing," he said.
Read:Gaza border clashes wound 24 Palestinians, Israeli policeman
Israel has a long history of exchanging prisoners and remains with its enemies. In 2011, it traded more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier who had been captured by Palestinian militants five years earlier and was being held in Gaza.
In 2008, it traded five Lebanese prisoners, including a notorious militant, and the remains of nearly 200 Lebanese and Palestinians killed in fighting, for the remains of two Israeli soldiers captured by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group two years earlier.
Egypt has been mediating negotiations over a similar agreement that would return the remains of the two soldiers, as well as two Israeli civilians believed to be alive, held by Hamas in Gaza.
In the meantime, the Erekats and other Palestinian families must turn to Israel's Supreme Court in a process involving multiple hearings that can drag on for years.
The court denied a recent appeal by the Erekats, citing confidential information submitted by the military. Mustafa Erekat says the system is rigged. He accused the court of dragging its feet until the policy on holding the remains was expanded and then relying on secret evidence.
Mohammed Aliyan, spokesman for six Palestinian families who filed a Supreme Court petition for the return of their relatives' bodies in 2016, said the judges initially sided with the families before an appeal from the military.
“They always go along with the military’s demands,” Aliyan told The Associated Press, “They are afraid to take any decision against them.”
Read: A birthday gift: Israeli woman donates kidney to Gaza boy
Liron Libman, an expert on military law at the Israel Democracy Institute, said there are situations where certain pieces of information can’t be made public for fear of exposing protected sources or special operations.
“Each side has the right to request a postponement of the hearing, and the court will accept the request if it believes it is for a justifiable reason,” Libman told the AP.
Even if a family’s petition is successful, locating relatives’ bodies for exhumation can pose further challenges, especially in cases when bodies were buried decades ago.
Rami Saleh, the director of Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, said his organization has dealt with cases where Israeli authorities were unable to locate bodies and also those where Palestinian family members needed to take DNA tests to confirm the remains of a relative.
Mustafa said he has not given up hope and intends to challenge the Supreme Court's decision. In the meantime, he and Aliyan, the spokesman for the other families, attend weekly sit-ins calling for the release of all bodies held by Israeli authorities.
“The feeling of not being able to bury your relative’s body is more painful than their death,” Aliyan said.
Libya’s migrant roundup reaches 4,000 amid major crackdown
A major crackdown in western Libya has resulted in the detention of at least 4,000 migrants, including hundreds of women and children, officials said Saturday. The U.N. said at least one young migrant was shot dead and 15 others injured, including two in serious conditions, in the crackdown.
The raids took place Friday in the western town of Gargaresh as part of what authorities described as a security campaign against illegal migration and drug trafficking. The Interior Ministry, which led the crackdown, made no mention of any traffickers or smugglers being arrested.
Officials said Friday that 500 illegal migrants had been detained but on Saturday reported that number had reached 4,000.
Gargaresh, a known hub for migrants and refugees, is about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) west of Tripoli, the Libyan capital. The town has seen several waves of raids on migrants over the years, but the latest one was described by activists as the fiercest so far.
Read: Italian vessel rescues 65 from migrant boat fleeing Libya
Since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Libya has emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East, hoping for a better life in Europe. Human traffickers have benefited from the chaos in the oil-rich nation and smuggled migrants through the country’s lengthy border with six nations. They then pack desperate migrants into ill-equipped rubber boats in risky voyages through the perilous Central Mediterranean Sea route.
The detained were gathered in a facility in Tripoli called the Collection and Return Center, said police Col. Nouri al-Grettli, head of the center.
He said the migrants have been distributed to detention centers in Tripoli and surrounding towns. Libya’s detention facilities are miserable, overcrowded places where migrants have suffered from abuses and severe ill-treatment, according to rights activists.
A government official said authorities would “deport as many as possible” of the migrants to their home countries. He said many of the detained had lived illegally in Libya for years. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
Read: Many migrants staying in US even as expulsion flights rise
Tarik Lamloum, a Libyan activist working with the Belaady Organization for Human Rights, said the raids involved human rights violations against the migrants, especially in the way some women and children were detained.
Lamloum said many detained migrants have been registered with the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, as refugees or asylum-seekers.
Vincent Cochetel, the agency’s special envoy for the Central Mediterranean, told The Associated Press that initial reports were that at least one person was killed and 15 injured in the crackdown. He said in some cases security personnel used excessive force and drove people out of their homes.
“We should not be surprised if people are scared and will try to leave by sea,” he said.
Georgette Gagnon, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for Libya, said unarmed migrants were harassed in their homes, beaten and shot in the crackdown which has also seen a communication blackout in Gargaresh.
Among the injured were five by gunshots with two of them being treated in an intensive care unit, she said in a statement late Saturday.
Read:Options shrink for Haitian migrants straddling Texas border
The statement didn’t elaborate further details.
The crackdown comes amid a spike in crossings and attempted crossings of the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Libya’s coast guard has intercepted around 25,300 migrants and returned them to Libya’s shores so far this year. Over 1,100 migrants were reported dead or presumed dead off Libya in the first nine months of 2021, but that number is believed to be higher, according to the U.N. migration agency.
Hundreds of migrants were seen in images posted on social media Friday by the Interior Ministry sitting clustered together in a yard with the banner of the Collection and Return Center in the background.
Other images from Gargaresh purporting to show migrants show them with their hands tied behind their backs. An aerial photo showed men lying face down on the ground at a crossroads, with military trucks and guards around them.
Israel hits Hamas targets in Gaza in response to rocket fire
Israeli aircraft struck a series of targets in the Gaza Strip early Monday in response to a series of rocket launches out of the Hamas-ruled territory. It was the third consecutive night of fighting between the enemies.
Tensions have been heightened following last week’s escape from an Israeli prison by six Palestinian inmates, as well as struggling efforts by Egypt to broker a long-term cease-fire in the wake of an 11-day war last May.
Read: Gaza border clashes wound 24 Palestinians, Israeli policeman
The Israeli military reported three separate rocket launches late Sunday and early Monday, saying at least two of them were intercepted by its rocket defenses.
In response, it said it attacked a number of Hamas targets. There were no reports of casualties on either side.
Over the weekend, Israel caught four of the six Palestinian inmates, who tunneled out of a maximum security prison on Sept. 6. Palestinian militants responded with rocket fire. Israel’s search for the last two prisoners is continuing.
Meanwhile, Egyptian-mediated efforts to deliver a long-term truce have struggled with the sides unable to agree on a system to renew Qatari payments to needy Gaza families. Israel has demanded guarantees that Hamas does not divert the money for military use.
Gaza is an impoverished territory whose population is overwhelmingly comprised of families who fled or were forced from properties in what is now Israel during the war surrounding Israel’s establishment in 1948.
Read:Human Rights Watch: Israeli war crimes apparent in Gaza war
Hamas is pushing for Israel to end a crippling blockade that has devastated Gaza’s economy, while Israel is demanding that Hamas free two captive Israeli civilians and return the remains of two dead Israeli soldiers.
Hamas has controlled Gaza since ousting the forces of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority in 2007, a year after the Islamic militant group won Palestinian parliamentary elections.
Since then, Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and numerous smaller rounds of fighting.
Flight takes about 200, including Americans, out of Kabul
An estimated 200 foreigners, including Americans, left Afghanistan on a commercial flight out of Kabul on Thursday with the cooperation of the Taliban — the first such large-scale departure since U.S. forces completed their frantic withdrawal over a week ago.
The Qatar Airways flight to Doha marked a breakthrough in the bumpy coordination between the U.S. and Afghanistan’s new rulers. A dayslong standoff over charter planes at another airport has left hundreds of mostly Afghan people stranded, waiting for Taliban permission to leave.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media, said the Taliban’s foreign minister and deputy prime minister helped facilitate the flight. Americans, U.S. green card holders and other nationalities, including Germans, Hungarians and Canadians, were aboard, the official said.
Qatari envoy Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani said another 200 passengers will leave Afghanistan on Friday.
READ: Taliban control now-quiet Kabul airport after US withdrawal
Ten U.S. citizens and 11 green-card holders made Thursday’s flight, State Department spokesman Ned Price said. Americans organizing charter evacuation flights said they knew of more U.S. passport and green-card holders in Mazar-e-Sharif and elsewhere awaiting flights out.
The White House said before the flight that there were roughly 100 U.S. citizens left in Afghanistan. But several veterans groups have said that number is too low because many citizens never bothered to tell U.S. officials they were in the country. And they said the figure overlooks green-card-carrying permanent U.S. residents living in Afghanistan who want to leave.
Many thousands of Afghans remain desperate to get out, too, afraid of what Taliban rule might hold. The Taliban have repeatedly said foreigners and Afghans with proper travel documents could leave. But their assurances have been met with skepticism, and many Afghans have been unable to obtain certain paperwork.
U.S. lawmakers, veterans groups and others are pressing the Biden administration to ensure that former Afghan military interpreters and others who could be in danger of Taliban reprisals for working with the Americans are allowed to leave.
In the U.S., National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said that Thursday’s flight was the result of “careful and hard diplomacy and engagement” and that the Taliban “have shown flexibility, and they have been businesslike and professional in our dealings with them in this effort.”
“This is a positive first step,” she said, adding that the U.S. will continue trying to extract Americans and Afghan allies who want to leave.
As Taliban authorities patrolled the tarmac, passengers presented their documents for inspection and dogs sniffed luggage laid out on the ground. Some veteran airport employees had returned to their jobs after fleeing during the harrowing chaos of the U.S.-led airlift.
Irfan Popalzai, 12, boarded the flight with his mother and five siblings. He said his family lives in Maryland.
“I am an Afghan, but you know I am from America and I am so excited” to leave, he said.
READ: As US military leaves Kabul, many Americans, Afghans remain
The airport was extensively damaged in the frenzied final days of the U.S. airlift that evacuated over 100,000 people. But Qatari authorities announced that it had been repaired with the help of experts from Qatar and Turkey and was ready for the resumption of international airline flights.
“I can clearly say that this is a historic day in the history of Afghanistan as Kabul airport is now operational,” al-Qahtani said. He added: “Hopefully, life is becoming normal in Afghanistan.”
The flight was the first to take off from the Kabul airport since American forces left the country at the end of August. The accompanying scenes of chaos, including Afghans plunging to their deaths from the sides of military aircraft on takeoff and a suicide bombing that killed 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members, came to define the end of America’s two-decade war.
The airport is no longer the Hamid Karzai International Airport, but simply Kabul International Airport, with the name of the country’s former president removed. Several Taliban flags flew from the terminal, which was emblazoned “The Islamic Emirate seeks peaceful and positive relations with the world.”
Hundreds of other Afghans who say they are at risk for helping the Americans have gathered for more than a week in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, waiting for permission to board evacuation flights chartered by U.S. supporters. Many are believed not to have the necessary travel documents.
In Mazar-e-Sharif on Thursday, an Afghan who worked 15 years as an interpreter for the U.S. military was moving from hotel to hotel and running out of money as he, his eight children and his wife waited for the OK from the Taliban to leave.
“I’m frightened I will be left behind,” said the man, whose name was withheld by The Associated Press for his safety.
The interpreter said he was one of many former U.S. employees whose special visas the United States approved in the last weeks of the American military presence in Afghanistan. But with the U.S. Embassy closed when the Taliban took Kabul on Aug. 15, it has become impossible to get the visa stamped into his passport.
He said he doesn’t trust Taliban assurances that they will not take revenge against Afghans who worked for the Americans.
“No, never,” he said. “I never believe them, because they are lying.”
Afghanistan war veteran Matt Zeller, who founded the organization No One Left Behind to help Afghans who supported American troops, said he does not believe it is possible for applicants to the special immigrant visa program to get a visa without an embassy in Kabul.
“For all intents and purposes, these people’s chances of escaping the Taliban ended the day we left them behind,” he said.
Price said the United States is looking at such steps as electronic visas to overcome the lack of an embassy in Afghanistan.
The organization War Time Allies estimates as many as 20,000 special visa applicants remain in the country, not counting those eligible under a more liberal rule change made in July. Add their families to that and the total amounts to more than 80,000 people, according to the group.
Afghanistan after US pullout: Qatar emerges as key player
Qatar played an outsized role in US efforts to evacuate tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan.
Now the Gulf state is being asked to help shape what is next for Afghanistan because of its ties with both Washington and the Taliban, who are in charge in Kabul.
Qatar will be among global heavyweights Monday when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts a virtual meeting to discuss a coordinated approach for the days ahead, as the US completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of the country. The meeting will also include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, Turkey, the European Union and NATO.
Qatar is also in talks about providing civilian technical assistance to the Taliban at Kabul's international airport once the US military withdrawal is complete Tuesday.
READ: How Instagram star helped rescue dozens from Afghanistan
Qatar's Foreign Ministry confirmed to The Associated Press it has been taking part in negotiations about the operations of the Kabul airport with Afghan and international parties, mainly the US and Turkey.
Qatar said its main priority is restoring regular operations while preserving safety and security at the airport facilities.
Meanwhile, the UN agencies are asking Qatar for help and support in delivering aid to Afghanistan.
Qatar's role was somewhat unexpected. The nation, which shares a land border with Saudi Arabia and a vast underwater gas field in the Persian Gulf with Iran, was supposed to be a transit point for just a few thousand people airlifted from Afghanistan over a timeline of several months.
UK starts bringing troops home from Afghanistan
Britain is starting to bring its troops home from Afghanistan as the country’s evacuation operation at Kabul airport ends.
A Royal Air Force plane carrying soldiers landed at the RAF Brize Norton air base northwest of London on Saturday morning. The troops are part of a contingent of 1,000 that has been based in Kabul to help run the airlift.
Flights bringing U.K. citizens and Afghans have largely ended, though the head of the armed forces, Gen. Nick Carter, said there would be a “very few” more on Saturday.
Britain says it has evacuated more than 14,500 people from Kabul in the past two weeks, but that as many as 1,000 Afghans entitled to come to the U.K. have been left behind.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised Friday to “shift heaven and earth” to get more people from Afghanistan to Britain by other means, though no concrete details have been offered.
HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
ROME — Italy’s final evacuation flight of refugees from Afghanistan has landed at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport.
The Italian Air Force C-130J with 58 Afghan citizens aboard arrived Saturday morning, some 17 hours after it departed from the Kabul airport and after a planned stopover.
Also aboard were Italy’s consul and a NATO diplomat who had coordinated evacuations at the Kabul airport.
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said Italy was prepared to work with the United Nations and with countries bordering Afghanistan on what he described as the “more difficult phase.”
He said that consisted of efforts to evacuate other Afghan citizens who worked with Italy’s military during its 20-year presence in Afghanistan but weren’t able to get into Kabul airport in time for the evacuation flights. He didn’t say how many still were eligible for evacuation to Italy.
READ: Kabul airport attack kills 60 Afghans, 13 US troops
Rescuing those citizens “would give them the same possibility” of starting a new life outside their homeland, Di Maio said in a brief statement at Rome’s airport. He said the 4,890 Afghans evacuated by Italy’s air force in 87 flights was the highest number of any European Union nation.
Italy’s remaining soldiers left on a separate flight from Kabul on Friday night. That air force flight went to Kuwait and the troops are due back in Italy early next week.
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ROME — A U.N. agency is warning that worsening drought in Afghanistan threatens the livelihoods of more than 7 million people.
The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Saturday issued an appeal for humanitarian assistance. Adding to the plight of what the agency termed “severe drought” are the economic impact of COVID-19 and widespread internal displacement of Afghans amid enduring conflict.
Earlier this month, the U.N. World Food Program, another Rome-based agency, estimated that some 14 million people — roughly one out of every three Afghans — urgently need food assistance.
The FAO said crucial help is needed ahead of the winter wheat planting season, which begins in a month in many areas.
FAO’s representative in Afghanistan, Richard Trenchard, said in a statement that “disaster looms” if sufficient help doesn’t materialize for the next winter wheat season.
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WASHINGTON — The United States military struck back at the Islamic State on Saturday, bombing an IS member in Afghanistan less than 48 hours after a devastating suicide bombing claimed by the group killed as many as 169 Afghans and 13 American service members at the Kabul airport.
U.S. Central Command said the U.S. conducted a drone strike against an Islamic State member in Nangahar believed to be involved in planning attacks against the U.S. in Kabul. The strike killed one individual, and spokesman Navy Capt. William Urban said they knew of no civilian casualties.
READ: US troops surge evacuations out of Kabul but threats persist
It wasn’t clear if that individual was involved specifically in the Thursday suicide blast outside the gates of the Kabul airport, where crowds of Afghans were desperately trying to get in as part of the ongoing evacuation from the country after the Taliban’s rapid takeover.
The airstrike fulfilled a vow President Joe Biden made to the nation Thursday when he said the perpetrators of the attack would not be able to hide. “We will hunt you down and make you pay,” he said. Pentagon leaders told reporters Friday that they were prepared for whatever retaliatory action the president ordered.
“We have options there right now,” said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.
GOP rift widens amid growing hostility to Afghan refugees
As the U.S. rushes to evacuate Americans and allies from the chaos of Afghanistan, a growing number of Republicans are questioning why the U.S. should take in Afghan citizens who worked side by side with Americans, further exacerbating divides within the party heading into next year’s midterm elections.
Little more than a week ago, as the Taliban’s stunning takeover of Afghanistan still was snapping into focus, former President Donald Trump issued a statement saying “civilians and others who have been good to our Country ... should be allowed to seek refuge.” But in more recent days, he has turned to warning of the alleged dangers posed by those desperately trying to flee their country before an end-of-month deadline.
“How many terrorists will Joe Biden bring to America?” he asked.
As Republicans level blistering criticism at Biden during his first major foreign policy crisis, some are turning to the nativist, anti-immigrant rhetoric perfected by Trump during his four years in office. It’s causing dismay among others in the party who think the U.S. should look out for those who helped the Americans over the last two decades.
“I think these false narratives that these are a bunch of terrorists are just — they’re completely baseless in reality,” said Olivia Troye, a former White House homeland security adviser who currently serves as director of the Republican Accountability Project. “There’s no basis for this at all in terms of the intelligence and national security world.”Neil Newhouse, a veteran Republican pollster, said the rhetoric reflects “a general, overall increase” in concern in the country over the risk of terrorist threats after Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban — not just in the short term from those who may not have been properly vetted, but a year or two down the road.
READ: Afghan refugees tell UN: 'We need peace, land to go home'
Neil Newhouse, a veteran Republican pollster, said the rhetoric reflects “a general, overall increase” in concern in the country over the risk of terrorist threats after Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban — not just in the short term from those who may not have been properly vetted, but a year or two down the road.
“There’s just a sense that we are less safe as a country as a result of this,” he said.
The Biden administration has stressed that every person cleared to come to the U.S. is being thoroughly vetted by officials working around the clock. But the refugees have become an emerging flash point, with Trump and his followers loudly demanding that Americans be prioritized for evacuation and warning of the potential dangers posed by Afghans being rescued in one of the world’s largest-ever civilian airlift operations.
That talk intensified Thursday after a suicide bombing ripped through the crowd at the Kabul airport, killing 13 U.S. service members and well over 150 Afghans.
“How many American military personnel have to die to evacuate unvetted refugees?” tweeted Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont. “Get American citizens out and bring our troops home.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Friday toured the Doña Ana Range complex at Fort Bliss, where many refugees will be housed, and later tweeted the U.S. “should rescue Afghans who’ve assisted the US military, but they should go to a neutral & safe third country.”“They should NOT come to US w/o a FULL security vetting,” he said.
That followed a call Wednesday by Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform committee, for the administration to brief lawmakers on their efforts to vet Afghan refugees and prevent terrorists from entering the country.
“In the chaotic situation left in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, we are particularly concerned that terrorists and others who wish to harm the United States may seek to infiltrate the country disguised as those who provided assistance to coalition forces in Afghanistan,” he wrote in letters to the secretaries of state and homeland security.
Still others, including Republican governors and members of Congress, have taken a different stance, welcoming refugees to their states and working furiously to help those trying to flee. On Capitol Hill, the effort to help Afghan friends and family of constituents is the rare undertaking that is consuming legislative offices of members of both parties.
The U.S. has evacuated more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan since the airlift began Aug. 14, including more than 5,100 American citizens. While the administration’s explicitly stated priority is to evacuate Americans, the numbers reflect the demographics of those trying to flee.
U.S. officials believe about 500 American citizens who want to leave Afghanistan remain in the country; others are believed to want to stay. And many of the Afghans, including those who served as American interpreters and fixers and in other support capacities, are desperate to escape, fearing they will be prime targets for retribution by the Taliban once the U.S. leaves.
READ: Over 464,000 undocumented Afghan refugees return home in 2019
But that hasn’t stopped Republicans from accusing the Biden administration of failing to put Americans first.
“We’re actually prioritizing Afghan refugees more than we’re prioritizing our own citizens,” said Republican J.D. Vance, who is running for Senate in Ohio and has made repeat television appearances blasting the administration’s approach.
On Fox Business Network, he claimed, without evidence, that the U.S. has “no knowledge” of 90% of the people being evacuated and said some have shown up on wide-ranging terror databases.
“They put Americans last in every single way, but Americans pay for it all,” echoed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has shot to prominence with incendiary statements.
Trump and his former policy adviser Stephen Miller, along with conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson, have taken things even further, using the same anti-immigrant language that was the hallmark of Trump’s 2015 speech announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination.
“You can be sure the Taliban, who are now in complete control, didn’t allow the best and brightest to board these evacuation flights,” Trump said. “Instead, we can only imagine how many thousands of terrorists have been airlifted out of Afghanistan and into neighborhoods around the world.”
Carlson has warned about Afghans invading America.
The rhetoric underscores the transformation of a party once led by neoconservatives who championed interventionist nation-building policies and invaded Afghanistan — followed by Iraq — nearly 20 years ago.
But not Republicans all are on board.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., whose office has been working around the clock to rescue the “countless” Afghans he says deserve evacuation, chastised those in his party invoking “terrorist” rhetoric.
“I would say that they need to do their homework,” he said. “When you talk to the people that we’ve spoken with, when you look at their service record ... when you recognize that they sleep in the same tents, they carry arms together, they’ve been in live firefights, how dare anyone question whether or not they deserve to come to this country or to a safe third country?”
“We’re not talking about just walking down the street and picking and choosing people,” Tillis added. “We know these people. We know who their children are. We know what their service record was. And quite honestly, somebody taking that position, each and every time they do, is insulting a service member who considers these people like brothers and sisters.”
Many of the Afghans seeking to come to the U.S. are doing so under the Special Immigrant Visa program designed specifically for individuals who worked with U.S. forces. Adam Bates, policy counsel at the International Refugee Assistance Project, said that, due to their work, those individuals were extensively vetted by U.S. authorities before applying to the program — and are again extensively vetted “by a wide array of federal agencies” before the visas are granted.
Troye, who has spent significant time on the ground in Afghanistan over the years, said Americans became extremely close to the Afghans with whom they served.
“These people became like family to many of us,” she said. “It’s really shameful to see some of these Republicans speaking in this way about people who really risked their lives to help us, who were really our allies on the ground.”
1 million Afghan children could die from malnutrition: Unicef
Around 1 million Afghan children are projected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition over this year and could die without treatment, the UN warned Monday.
Almost 10 million children across Afghanistan need humanitarian assistance to survive, Unicef Executive Director Henrietta Fore said.
She added that an estimated 4.2 million children in Afghanistan are out of school, including more than 2.2 million girls.
Approximately 435,000 children and women in the war-torn country, where the Taliban have taken power, are internally displaced, the UN agency said.
READ: When the music stops: Afghan ‘happy place’ falls silent
This is the grim reality facing Afghan children, and it remains so regardless of ongoing political developments and changes in government, Henrietta said. "We anticipate that the humanitarian needs of children and women will increase over the coming months amid a severe drought and consequent water scarcity, the devastating socioeconomic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and the onset of winter."
Urging the Taliban and other parties to ensure safety, the UN agency – responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide – called for a "timely and unfettered access to reach children in need wherever they are."
Although many people fear retribution and are scrambling to flee the country, the Taliban have assured the security of foreign missions, international organisations, and aid agencies.
"I would like to assure you that we will not allow anybody to do anything against you," spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in the group's first press conference since taking control of Afghanistan on August 15.
READ: Afghan woman gives birth on US evacuation flight
The group promised that it would respect women's rights "within the framework of Islamic law."
"They are going to be working with us, shoulder-to-shoulder with us. The international community, if they have concerns, we would like to assure them that there's not going to be any discrimination against women, but, of course, within the frameworks that we have," he said.
UN official says Afghan supplies low, seeks help
A top World Health Organisation official says the agency only has "a few days left of supplies" for Afghanistan and wants help to ferry in 10 or 12 planeloads of equipment and medicine for its beleaguered people.
Dr Rick Brennan heads the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region that includes Afghanistan. He said from Cairo that the UN health agency is negotiating with the US and other countries to help efforts to replenish strained stockpiles.
"We estimate we've only got a few days left of supplies," Brennan said, alluding to a distribution centre in Dubai that has what is needed. "We have 500 metric tonnes ready to go, but we haven't got any way of getting them into the country right now."
READ: When the music stops: Afghan ‘happy place’ falls silent
The US and other authorities have encouraged the WHO and partners to look to other Afghan airports than Kabul's, which is facing a crush of thousands of people trying to get out of Afghanistan after a Taliban takeover, Rick said.
He said those authorities "have suggested that it'll be too difficult a logistics exercise and security exercise to bring supplies into Kabul," where teams would be required to unload planes and allow trucks to carry out the supplies – which could complicate the evacuations.
Needed supplies include emergency kits and essential medicines for the treatment of chronic diseases, like diabetes, the WHO said.
READ: Afghan woman gives birth on US evacuation flight
"We're cautiously optimistic that we might need to get something done in the coming days," Rick said, before adding: "We need a consistent humanitarian air bridge into the country ASAP."
Deadly gunfire at airport; Taliban insist on US pullout date
A firefight outside Kabul’s international airport killed an Afghan soldier early Monday, highlighting the perils of evacuation efforts even as the Taliban warned any attempt by U.S. troops to delay their withdrawal to give people more time to flee would “provoke a reaction.”
The shooting came as the Taliban moved to shore up their position and eliminate pockets of armed resistance to their lightning takeover earlier this month. The Taliban said they retook three districts north of the capital seized by opponents the day before and had surrounded Panjshir, the last province that remains out of their control.
Afghanistan’s security forces collapsed in the face of the Taliban advance, despite 20 years of Western aid, training and assistance. Tens of thousands of Afghans have sought to flee the country since, fearing a return to the brutal rule the Taliban imposed the last time they ran Afghanistan. That has led to chaos at the airport in Kabul, the main route out of the country.
U.S. President Joe Biden has not ruled out extending the evacuation beyond Aug. 31, the date he had set for completing the pullout of U.S. forces. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to press Biden for an extension.
But Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, in an interview with Sky News, said Aug. 31 is a “red line” and that extending the American presence would “provoke a reaction.”
Gunfire broke out early Monday near an entrance to the airport, where at least seven Afghans died a day earlier in a panicked stampede of thousands of people.
Navy Capt. William Urban, a U.S. military spokesman, said an unknown assailant shot at Afghan security forces at the airport’s northern gate, leading Afghan, U.S. and allied troops to open fire in response. He said an Afghan soldier was killed and “several Afghans” were wounded.
An Italian humanitarian organization that operates hospitals in Afghanistan said it had treated six patients with bullet wounds from the airport.
There was no comment from the Taliban, who in recent days have fired warning shots and lashed out with batons to try to control crowds swelling into the thousands outside the airport.
The tragic scenes around the airport have transfixed the world. Afghans poured onto the tarmac last week and some clung to a U.S. military transport plane as it took off, later plunging to their deaths. At least seven people died that day, in addition to the seven killed Sunday.
The Taliban blame the chaotic evacuation on the U.S. military and say there’s no need for any Afghans to flee. They have pledged to bring peace and security after decades of war and say they won’t seek revenge on those who worked with the U.S., NATO and the toppled Afghan government.
Addressing a conference of Muslim clerics, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid urged them to push back against Western “propaganda” about the Taliban and said the U.S. was undermining their rule by sending planes and offering Afghans asylum.
But Mohammad Khalid, another Taliban official addressing the same gathering, struck a more ominous tone, saying “history and Afghans will not forgive those who were trained in the U.S. and Europe and returned to kill their own people.”
He said foreign countries should not interfere in education, asking the clerics if they would “tolerate a young girl sitting next to a boy at school.” He also praised the role of suicide bombers in forcing the U.S. to withdraw.
The divergent messages raised doubts as to whether the Taliban are fully united behind the more moderate image their leadership is projecting. There have also been reports in recent days of the Taliban hunting down their former enemies.
German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told the Bild newspaper that the main obstacle to getting people out was the crowds outside the airport.
Asked about Taliban assurances of safe passage to the airport she said: “So far, I can say that what we need is being granted; the danger comes more from these uncontrollable crowds of people.”
As the airlift continues, the U.S. government asked for 18 aircraft from American commercial carriers to assist in transporting Afghan refugees to their final destinations after their initial evacuation.
Since Aug. 14, the U.S. has evacuated or facilitated the evacuation of some 37,000 people on military and coalition flights. Those efforts are accelerating: In the 24 hours that ended early Monday, U.S. military flights ferried about 10,400 people to safety, an official said.
Tens of thousands of people — Americans, other foreigners and Afghans who assisted in the war effort — are still waiting to join the airlift, which has been slowed by security issues and U.S. bureaucracy hurdles.
There are also concerns that a local affiliate of the Islamic State group might target the crowds outside the airport with suicide bombers or fire missiles at U.S. aircraft. Military planes have been executing corkscrew landings, and other aircraft have fired flares upon takeoff — both measures used to avoid missile attacks.
The Taliban and IS have different ideologies and have fought in recent years, but one concern about the Taliban’s takeover is that they could again shelter extremist groups. The Taliban harbored al-Qaida while it orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, leading to the U.S. invasion in 2001. The Taliban now say they will not allow Afghanistan to be a base for attacks on other countries.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban have faced limited armed resistance from fighters in Baghlan province, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Kabul. The anti-Taliban fighters claimed to have seized three districts in the Andarab Valley on Sunday, but the Taliban said Monday that they had cleared them out overnight.
Khair Mohammad Khairkhwa and Abdul Ghani Mahmood, commanders of the anti-Taliban forces, said the recent fighting had caused casualties on both sides and displaced civilians.
Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said the group’s forces have also surrounded nearby Panjshir, the only one of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces yet to fall to the Taliban. Several Taliban opponents have gathered there, pledging to resist any attempt to take the province by force.
Mujahid said there had been no fighting in Panjshir yet and that the Taliban are seeking a “peaceful solution.”