Afghanistan

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Crews Describe 'Apocalyptic' Scenes in Afghan Departure

'It looked like one of those zombie movies where all the airplanes had been destroyed'

(Newser) - It looked like a zombie apocalypse. For the US military pilots and aircrew about to make their final takeoffs out of Afghanistan, the sky was lit up with fireworks and sporadic gunfire and the airfield littered with battered shells of airplanes and destroyed equipment. Stray dogs raced around the tarmac....

California District Works to Get 27 Students Out of Afghanistan

Families were visiting relatives during summer break

(Newser) - A California school district is still waiting for the return of about 27 students who went to Afghanistan on summer break with their families. The Sacramento County students were there to visit relatives and for other personal reasons, USA Today reports. "We believe that some of these families may...

He Helped Rescue Biden in 2008. Now He's Stuck in Afghanistan

Interpreter raced to save Biden after then-senator's helicopter made emergency landing

(Newser) - Update: After the Wall Street Journal published the story of an Afghan interpreter who helped get then-Sen. Joe Biden out of Afghanistan in 2008, White House officials pledged to now get the interpreter out too. Politico quotes White House chief of staff Ron Klain as saying that he "read...

Report: Rogue Congressman Trying to Enter Afghanistan

'WaPo' reports Rep. Markwayne Mullin has been trying to carry out evacuation effort

(Newser) - Reps. Seth Moulton and Peter Meijer made it into Afghanistan without authorization. The Washington Post reports another congressman has tried and failed to do the same. Rep. Markwayne Mullin has allegedly tried to make his way into the country twice in the past two weeks to carry out an evacuation...

Pope Inadvertently Uses Putin's Words to Chide West

He was talking about Afghanistan

(Newser) - Pope Francis has criticized the West's two-decade-long involvement in Afghanistan as an outsider's attempt to impose democracy—although he did it by citing Russia's Vladimir Putin while thinking he was quoting Germany's Angela Merkel. Asked during a radio interview aired Wednesday about the new political map...

Brit Trapped in Afghanistan Plans Daring Escape

Ex-bodyguard Ben Slater aims to lead 400 Afghans out by land

(Newser) - A British man who once was in the Royal Military Police and now runs a company called Nomad Concepts Group got stuck in Afghanistan with about 50 employees, most of whom are women. He wasn’t able to get a visa in time to airlifted out of the country. So...

Biden: 'I Was Not Going to Extend a Forever Exit'

He calls airlift an 'extraordinary success'

(Newser) - Addressing the nation, a defensive President Biden on Tuesday called the US military airlift to extract more than 120,000 Afghans, Americans, and other allies to end a 20-year war an "extraordinary success," though more than 100 Americans and thousands of Afghans looking to leave remain in the...

In the Afghan Aftermath, a Big 'What If' Is Raised

Peggy Noonan calls failure to get bin Laden at Tora Bora a 'richly consequential screw-up'

(Newser) - Among the post-mortems being written about the Afghanistan war is one from Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Journal , who laments how the war could have ended successfully soon after it began. In December 2001, US and Afghan forces had Osama bin Laden pinned down in the mountainous Tora Bora...

Afghan Family Mistakenly Eats Toxic Mushrooms After Escape

2 boys near death in Poland, and other family members are hospitalized

(Newser) - Doctors at Poland’s main children’s hospital said Tuesday they will carry out a liver transplant on a 6-year-old Afghan boy who ate highly poisonous mushrooms with his family, per the AP . His 5-year-old brother is in a coma, however, and they are carrying out tests to establish if...

He Is the Last American Soldier to Leave Afghanistan

Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue is pictured boarding a C-17 in Kabul

(Newser) - The last American troops left Afghanistan on Monday , and the very last soldier to leave has been identified as Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue, reports USA Today . The Pentagon tweeted what may become an iconic photo of Donahue boarding a C-17 aircraft at the Kabul airport, an image made with a...

US Diplomacy Moves On
Blinken: US Embassy Is Closed
Aug 30, 2021 8:15 PM CDT

Blinken: US Embassy Is Closed

Office in Qatar will handle relations with Afghanistan as a 'new chapter' opens

(Newser) - All American diplomats are out of Afghanistan, and the US Embassy is closed—signaling an abandonment not just of fighting but of long-held hopes for diplomacy. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the embassy announcement Monday in an address to the nation after the Defense Department said that its personnel...

Departure of Last US Planes Ends 20-Year War

Pentagon, Taliban say last planes left just before midnight Kabul time

(Newser) - Taliban guards at Kabul's airport and officials at the Pentagon have confirmed that the last US planes have flown out. Celebratory gunfire erupted across the Afghan capital marking the symbolic end of 20 years of war, with the Taliban back in power, the AP reports. In Washington, the US...

A Defense of Biden&#39;s Moves on Afghanistan
Biden's Critics Are
Wrong on Afghanistan
OPINION
Aug 30, 2021 2:41 PM CDT

Biden's Critics Are Wrong on Afghanistan

In the 'Atlantic,' David Rothkopf writes that the president deserves credit instead of blame

(Newser) - President Biden has been on the receiving end of nearly universal criticism over his handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, but David Rothkopf sounds a note contrary to all that in the Atlantic . Biden, he writes in his essay, "deserves credit, not blame." Biden's three predecessors all...

98 Countries Announce Travel Agreement With Taliban
98 Countries Reach
Deal With Taliban
Aug 30, 2021 12:40 PM CDT

98 Countries Reach Deal With Taliban

Agreement will allow at-risk Afghans to leave country after deadline, joint statement says

(Newser) - The US and 97 other countries, from Albania to Zambia, have announced a deal with the Taliban that will allow people, including their citizens and at-risk Afghans, to depart Afghanistan after the American military withdraws. "We will continue issuing travel documentation to designated Afghans, and we have the clear...

Students From American University of Kabul Told They Won't Be Evacuated

And more from Afghanistan, where rockets were fired on the airport Monday

(Newser) - Students, alumni, and staff of the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) in Kabul, as well as their relatives, have been informed that evacuations are over and they should return home, the New York Times reports. The group says it spent seven hours waiting for clearance to get into the Kabul...

US Drone Hits Vehicle Taking Suicide Bombers to Airport

Secondary blasts indicate a load of explosives, officials say

(Newser) - A US drone strike on a vehicle killed suicide bombers on their way to the Kabul airport on Sunday, Pentagon officials said. US officials said the attack eliminated "an imminent ISIS-K threat," the New York Times reports. According to initial reports, no civilians were injured, a spokesman said,...

Marine Pictured Cradling Baby at Airport Among Victims

Details of Nicole Gee and other American victims have emerged

(Newser) - A woman who cradled a baby in her arms at the airport and posted on social media that she loved her job. A young husband with a child on the way. Another man who always wanted to be in the military. A man who planned to become a sheriff’s...

Biden Promises More Attacks on ISIS
Biden Promises More
Attacks on ISIS
Aug 28, 2021 5:45 PM CDT

Biden Promises More Attacks on ISIS

Britain ends Kabul evacuations, saying it couldn't 'bring everybody out'

(Newser) - There will be more violence in Afghanistan before US forces are out, President Biden said Saturday. In a statement, Biden said that the situation there remains dangerous and that another terrorist attack at the airport in Kabul is "highly likely" in the next day or two, the Washington Post ...

2 Evacuees Reach Tokyo to Compete in Paralympics

International effort gets athletes safely out of Kabul, to Paris, then to the Paralympic Village

(Newser) - An international, multi-organization effort has delivered two Kabul evacuees to Tokyo, by way of Paris, in time to compete in the 2020 Paralympics. Zakia Khudadadi and Hossain Rasouli have safely arrived in Paralympic Village, CNN reports. The Afghanistan Paralympic Committee had said they wouldn't be able to go to...

US Bombs Afghanistan After Biden Vows to Retaliate

Unmanned airstrike hit ISIS target.

(Newser) - The US 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. Per the AP , US...

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