A US Marine calms an infant during an evacuation at the Kabul airport (AFP)
Heartbreaking scenes of chaos have emerged from Kabul airport, which has been overwhelmed by tens of thousands of people trying to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power last week. Afghans desperate to escape the return of the hardline Islamic regime have flocked to Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport - the only way out of the country - as the Taliban warned on Monday there would be "consequences" if the United States and its allies extend their presence in Afghanistan beyond next week. Harrowing visuals from the airport show people falling to their death after clinging to the wheels of an aircraft, family members separated from each other, children crying and, in one image that gained global attention, a baby being passed over razor sharp wires to US Army personnel.
This image made available to AFP on August 20, 2021 by Human Rights Activist Omar Haidari, shows a US Marine grabbing an infant over a fence of barbed wire during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 19, 2021. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Marines were told the unidentified baby was sick and were asked to help. "So the Marine you see reaching over the wall took it to a Norwegian hospital that is at the airport. They treated the child and returned the child to the child's father," he said.
US Marines were also photographed calming infants during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
A US Marine assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit calms an infant during an evacuation at the airport in this image released by the US Central Command Public Affairs.
Thousands of people rushed to the Kabul airport after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war. In this picture, taken on August 16, Afghan people sit along the tarmac as they wait to be evacuated.
In this image courtesy of the US Marine Corps, evacuee children wait for the next flight after being manifested at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 19, 2021.
A US Navy Corpsman was seen handing out water to children during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
A member of the UK Armed Forces bumps fists with a child as he continues to take part in the evacuation of entitled personnel from Kabul airport, in this image obtained by news agency Reuters.
Several Afghans did manage to fly out of the country, and thousands entered Pakistan through the Spin Boldak/Chaman border crossing in Afghanistan's southeast, reports Reuters. In this photo, an Afghan family arrives at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing point in Chaman on August 20, 2021, to return back to Afghanistan.
A man holds a child in his arms while waiting for another flight at the air base of Al Dhafra, near Abu Dhabi, after fleeing Afghanistan.
Passengers evacuated from Afghanistan disembark from a British Royal Air Force (RAF) Airbus KC2 Voyager aircraft, after landing at RAF Brize Norton station in southern England today.
Britain said on August 23 it would urge the United States to extend an end-of-the-month deadline for evacuations from Afghanistan, while the Taliban warned any delay would lead to "consequences". Britain has so far evacuated 5,725 people from Kabul since August 13, including more than 3,100 Afghan individuals and their families, according to the defence ministry, and is pushing for longer to get out everybody who qualifies.
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