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This image could become one of the defining symbols of the west’s failure in Afghanistan.
Men, women and children pictured climbing a wall desperately trying to enter Kabul international airport in an attempt to flee the country after the capital fell to the Taliban.
Video footage also captured hundreds of people running alongside a moving US military plane leaving the airport on Monday. At least three people apparently fell to their deaths from the undercarriage immediately after takeoff.
Fearful that the Taliban could reimpose the brutal rule they enforced before 2001, Afghans have sought ways out of the country, lining up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings.
Despite Taliban reassurances that there would be no reprisals against the civilian population, thousands of Afghans have been trying to flee. The airport – secured by the US military – was the only feasible route out after the Islamist group took control of the country’s land borders.
Click the link in bio to read more about who exactly the Taliban are, what they believe and how they might govern Afghanistan this time.
Photo: Haroon Sabawoon/Guardian