The images are heart-wrenching and hard to understand: in the chaos outside Kabul’s international airport, footage of babies and children being lifted above surging crowds into the waiting arms of US soldiers perched above blast walls.
In a video obtained by The New York Times and in another aired by the BBC and CNN — showing two different moments of desperation — small children are being almost thrown to safety.
The Times video, obtained on Thursday, showed images from Wednesday. It was not clear when the other footage was shot.
It was not clear whether their parents had made it to safety, why they could not find another point of entry and just what the American soldiers do after pulling them to safety.
They both reveal how disorganised and unruly the situation outside the airport has been this week, and they underscore the challenge the US has in fulfilling its promise to get all Americans and their Afghan allies out of Afghanistan.
The images are also certain to add to the growing public anger at the way the US has exited Afghanistan after a 20-year war, leaving behind tens of thousands of Afghans who aided the cause.
The US military is in control of the airport but not its surroundings. It has turned to several hundred commandos from the former Afghan government’s National Directorate of Security to help evacuate foreigners and Afghans, according to US and former Afghan officials.
The commandos are due to be among the last to leave the country in the evacuation, serving as a rear guard before being airlifted out.
“They are performing heroically,” said one US official. “That is an understatement,” another responded.
Even as a measure of calm took hold across Kabul, the area around the airport remained dangerous.
Afghans have borne the brunt of the suffering, and many — including those with proper paperwork — are being prevented from reaching the airport.
Most of the violence has been just outside the airport’s main entrance, where crowds trying to get in have met Taliban forces beating them back.
German shot at
A German civilian was shot at on the journey, Ulrike Demmer, a spokeswoman for the German government, said on Friday.
She said the victim was stable and being treated for his wounds and would be evacuated as soon as possible.
Foreign powers have sought to increase evacuations from Afghanistan after reports of Taliban reprisals, some of it against people who had worked with US-led forces or the previous western-backed government.
More than 18,000 people have been flown out since the militants took the capital Kabul, according to transatlantic alliance Nato.
The Taliban called for unity ahead of Friday prayers, asking imams to persuade people not to leave. Residents in Kabul and four other major cities said the prayers appeared to have passed off without incident, though attendance was low.
Russia and China
Russian President Vladimir Putin said other countries should not impose their own values on Afghanistan and that the reality was that the Taliban had taken control of most of the country.
China said the world should support, not pressure, Afghanistan. A Taliban spokesman told Chinese state media that Beijing had played a constructive role and was welcome to contribute to Afghanistan’s rebuilding.
