A German evacuation plane was forced to change its course and land in Uzbekistan on Monday after it encountered issues attempting to touch down at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan, an area that has been flooded with people trying to escape the embattled nation amid a Taliban takeover.
An A400M transport aircraft, the first of three planes seeking to remove individuals from the country, circled the runway for over an hour before the call was made to land in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, Lt. Gen. Markus Laubenthal told a German broadcast outlet, per Reuters. A Berlin official previously said efforts to extract people from the airport were unsuccessful due to crowds blocking takeoff lanes.
On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed support for aiding Afghans in a bid not to repeat a situation akin to the 2015 migrant crisis.
AFGHANISTAN CHAOS CUTS SHORT BIDEN’S WIDELY PANNED SUMMER VACATION
“We need to make sure that the many people who have big worries and concerns even though they have not worked with German institutions have a secure stay in countries neighboring Afghanistan,” she said during a news conference. “We should not repeat the mistake of the past when we did not give enough funds to UNHCR and other aid programs and people left Jordan and Lebanon toward Europe.”
Amid the chaos, Afghans have been observed climbing atop U.S. transport planes. At least 7,000 troops have been deployed to the area to facilitate the extraction of diplomats in the embassy and a number of recipients of the Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans program, which grants asylum to residents of the country who worked for the U.S. government in some capacity. As many as 30,000 refugees are expected to be housed in Fort Bliss in Texas and Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, among other military installations.
In one incident, people who were clinging to the side of an aircraft were seen plummeting to the ground after a transport plane took off. At least seven have been pronounced dead near the airport, and the Pentagon has revealed that U.S. troops killed at least two armed individuals.
U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace indicated that “some people won’t get back” to the U.K. He said, “It’s sad that the West has done what it’s done.”
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Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan, has quickly become a hotbed for evacuees in the region. At least 585 Afghan soldiers jetted to the country on 22 military planes and 24 helicopters. An additional 158 military personnel crossed into the nation on foot.
One Afghan military jet was shot down by Uzbek authorities after it attempted to cross the country’s border “illegally.”
