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(KABUL, Afghanistan) — On the fourth day of waiting, “Ahmad” had enough. He left Kabul airport, heading back through the Taliban checkpoints and bringing his family of five home.

Desperate for safety and security for his wife and three children, he felt he had no choice but to step back into the fray with his family in search of food, water and a reprieve from the brutal heat.

Stories like Ahmad, whose real name ABC News is not using for his safety, speak to the deteriorating conditions at Kabul’s airport, where thousands of U.S. troops and diplomats are working in overdrive to help evacuate tens of thousands of U.S. citizens, Afghan partners and other foreigners.

So far, the U.S. has evacuated roughly 30,300 people since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan a little over one week ago, according to a White House official.

Outside the airport’s walls, chaotic crowds have tried to press into the airport, now closed except to those given specific instructions to enter. At least seven people have died in the crush, according to an internal State Department memo obtained by ABC News. Taliban fighters guarding checkpoints around the airport have fired into the air to disperse crowds or beaten them back with whips and rifle butts, including some U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

“More than 10,000 Afghans surrounded the gates and conditions remained volatile outside the gates,” the internal situation report said Sunday.

But inside, where thousands have been processed and are waiting for a seat on a flight out, crowds have been forced to sleep on the tarmac and spend days in the blazing hot sun. While troops from the U.S., United Kingdom, Turkey, and elsewhere have distributed food and water, the enormous size of the crowds has meant some people go without for days.

“Our overriding priority remains to put as many people as possible on departing planes as quickly as possible. Within the past 24 hours, nearly 60 flights have departed, bringing nearly 8,000 people to safety,” a State Dept spokesperson told ABC News Sunday.

Ahmad decided that he could not wait any longer for help, according to an American who works closely with him and spoke to ABC News on a condition of anonymity.

“This is a man who has been waiting for a long time for his SIV to come through, who has been directly threatened by the Taliban. And yet, when so close to his dream of safety and protection, he decided it was safer to go back home than to keep his family in this U.S. military-run facility any longer,” the source said.

Another source, an American on the ground at the airport, told ABC News the situation was a “non-permissive environment,” which is a term diplomats, aid workers and troops use for difficult conditions where uncertainty and instability make it unsafe to operate.

Among the issues now are a group of unaccompanied minors, which are children that separated from their parents amid the crowds or in certain cases deliberately. Video of a family passing their infant child to U.S. Marine went viral earlier this week, with a Marines spokesperson later confirming that the baby was given needed medical attention and reunited with its father.

But four children are not so lucky. A source on the ground said that their father was killed by the Taliban, and their mother was trampled to death in the stampede outside the gates this week, leaving them orphaned and waiting in the passenger terminal, according to the source, who said U.S. officials are unable to find any next of kin and don’t know what to do with them.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Chaos has enveloped Kabul after Afghanistan’s government’s collapsed and the Taliban seized control, all but ending America’s 20-year campaign as it began: under Taliban rule.

The U.S. has evacuated approximately 17,000 people since Aug. 14, White House officials said late Saturday morning. Pentagon officials have said their focus remains on maintaining the airport perimeter and increasing the number of evacuees out of Kabul.

President Joe Biden returned to Washington from Camp David on Wednesday and sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos for an exclusive one-on-one interview at the White House, the president’s first interview since the withdrawal from Afghanistan. He addressed the nation on evacuation efforts Friday.

Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:

Aug 23, 5:28 am
Taliban warns of ‘consequences’ if Biden extends withdrawal deadline: ‘It’s a red line’

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Sky News that Aug. 31, the date Biden has set for completing the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, is a “red line” and extending it would “provoke a reaction.”

The U.S. president said Sunday he would not rule out extending the withdrawal deadline beyond Aug. 31, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reportedly expected to urge Biden for an extension. But the Taliban spokesman warned “there would be consequences.”

“President Biden announced that on the 31st of August they would withdraw all their military forces. So if they extend it, that means they are extending occupation while there is no need for that,” Shaheen said in a recent interview with Sky News. “I think it will deteriorate the relation that will create mistrust between us.”

Aug 23, 5:05 am
At least 1 killed, 3 wounded in gunfight at Kabul airport

One Afghan soldier was killed and three others were wounded in a shootout with unidentified attackers at the international airport in Kabul on Monday morning, the German military announced via Twitter.

Both German and American forces returned fire when the shooting erupted at the north gate of the Hamid Karzai International Airport. No German soldiers were hurt in the exchange, according to the German military.

The U.S. military is aware of an incident at one of the gates, a defense official told ABC News.

The deadly gun battle occurred as the United States and other Western nations oversaw the evacuation of thousands of Afghan nationals and foreigners desperate to flee the Taliban-controlled country.

Aug 22, 10:48 pm
Southwest to begin domestic refugee flights

Joining other international airlines like United, Delta and American, Southwest Airlines announced Sunday that it will work with the Department of Defense to help transport domestic refugees from Afghanistan.

“We are proud to support our military’s critical humanitarian airlift mission, and we are grateful to our Employees for demonstrating an eagerness to support these military efforts, once again displaying their true Southwest Heart,” the company said in a statement Sunday.

Southwest said it plans to operate four of these types of flights on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

“Of course, the Southwest Team stands ready to provide additional support to the Department of Defense, if needed,” the company said.

Aug 22, 5:34 pm
Biden again defends decision to withdraw

The president pushed back against critics who questioned his timing about pulling American forces from Afghanistan.

Biden reiterated that the 20-year war has already left 2,448 Americans dead and 20,722 wounded and cost $300 million a day.

“Either increase the number of forces we keep there and keep that going, or I end the war. I decided to end the war,” he said.

The president stressed that America will remain vigilant against overseas terrorists.

“So the question is, when is the right time to leave? Where are our national interests? Where do they lie?” Biden asked.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — No one predicted that the Afghanistan government would collapse in 11 days, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in an exclusive interview with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.

“It was a very rapid, fast-moving, fast-paced evolution,” Austin said. “This all occurred in a span of about 11 days. Nobody predicted that, you know, the government would fall in 11 days.”

Austin said early U.S. intelligence estimates varied widely as to how long the Afghan government could last against the Taliban after a U.S. military withdrawal.

“There were assessments that ranged initially from one to two years to, you know, several months, but it was a wide range of — of assessments,” Austin said. “As the Taliban began to make gains, and then we saw that in a number of cases, there was less fighting and more surrendering and more forces just kind of evaporating, it was very difficult to predict with accuracy.”

Desperate scramble at the Kabul airport

Chaos immediately broke out across Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control just over one week ago.

Afghans and foreign nationals flooded Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Monday, hoping to escape, but accessing the airport proved much more difficult than anticipated, with the Taliban taking control of roads leading to the airport, stopping most who passed.

Once at there, the scene was still chaotic. Several people — desperate to escape — clung to the side of a C-17 cargo plane. Some died as the plane took off, falling from the aircraft, and human remains were later found in the wheel well.

American and NATO troops were eventually able to restore security at the airport and U.S. military commanders engaged in talks with their Taliban counterparts about Americans accessing the airport.

“If you have an American passport and if you have the right credentials, the Taliban has been allowing people to — to pass safely through,” Austin said.

“Not in all cases,” Raddatz interjected.

“There’s no such thing as an absolute,” the defense secretary conceded. “And this kind of environment as you would imagine, Martha, there have been incidents of people, you know, having some tough encounters with Taliban.”

Austin said when the U.S. hears about these incidents, they engage Taliban leadership and tell them that the U.S. expects the Taliban to let people with the appropriate credentials past checkpoints.

But even with the right credentials, some have been turned away. ABC News has previously reported that House members were told that the Taliban beat U.S. citizens attempting to evacuate. Additionally, at least 20 people have died in the past seven days in and around the airport, a NATO official told Reuters on Sunday.

Most of the 17,000 evacuees who have been flown out of the airport since this weekend are Afghans who worked with American troops over the past two decades.

According to Austin, these types of evacuations — where thousands of people need to be flown safely out, then processed and verified, all during a global pandemic — can create some of the most challenging missions.

“It’s a dynamic and challenging environment,” Austin said. “As you would imagine, you know, a noncombatant evacuation operation is one of the most challenging operations in the inventory.”

While the U.S. military has sent over 5,800 troops to secure the airport, the evacuation has been largely criticized for being too little, too late. But Austin insisted the U.S. military would get as many people out as possible.

“Martha, we’re gonna try our very best to get everybody, every American citizen who wants to get out, out,” Austin said.

“You said American citizens, what about those Afghans?” Raddatz pressed. “What about those interpreters? What about the people who are desperate?”

“Absolutely, the people that are in the Special Immigrant Visa program are very, very important to us and these would be the interpreters and many of the staff that supported our embassy and other embassies,” Austin responded.

Ernst calls evacuation efforts ‘one of the biggest debacles’

The U.S. should send more troops into Afghanistan to help evacuate American citizens and Afghans who supported the U.S., Republican senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said in a separate interview on “This Week” on Sunday.

“We should be doing everything possible to get Americans safely to the airport for evacuation,” Ernst told Raddatz. “We are the strongest military on the face of this planet, and we should be exercising those authorities to make sure that we’re flexing our military muscle, especially when it comes to evacuating Americans.”

Ernst, a combat veteran, called the effort to evacuate the Kabul embassy “one of the biggest debacles that we have seen in the last several decades.”

“We have been on the administration for months now to be working on the vetting process to make sure we’re working with those interpreters to get them safely out of the country,” Ernst said.

“If there are Afghans that need to be evacuated that aren’t fully vetted, we do have third-country partners that are working with us in this effort,” Ernst added. “We can evacuate these Afghans to those countries to continue the vetting process from there and I think we should be doing absolutely everything we can to assist those who assisted us in the past two decades in the global war on terror.”

For the most part, Americans and U.S. allies have had to find their own way to the airport. But when that proves to be impossible, Austin said they’ve used creative ways to do outreach. The U.S. military has performed at least one mission outside of the airport, flying three CH-47 Chinook helicopters to pick up 169 American citizens from a hotel in Kabul.

“I know you’ve gone 1,000 yards outside the airport and brought those 169 people in there,” Raddatz pressed Austin. “But further out into Kabul, there are people desperate to get in. We’re the most capable military in the world.”

“We are, and that most capable military in the world is going to make sure that our airfield remains secure and safe and we’re going to defend that airfield,” Austin responded.
 

Aug. 31 deadline rapidly approaching

The defense secretary added that the U.S. military will look for every way possible to get American citizens, third-country nationals and special immigrant visa applicants to the Kabul airport.

“What’s most important though, Martha, and I mean this sincerely, we’re going to look at every way — every means possible to get American citizens, third-country nationals, special immigrant visa applicants into the airfield, and we will work this until the very last day that we’re able to work it before we have to leave,” Austin said.

Raddatz pressed Austin on whether the U.S. would expand their mission to evacuate allies further into the city of Kabul.

“Do you think it’s possible we’ll expand the mission and go beyond that 1,000 yards to help people out?” Raddatz asked.

“I won’t forecast any option that we may take, but I will tell you that I’m going to do everything within my power to get people into the airfield,” Austin said.

Austin added that the goal is to finish the evacuation by Aug. 31, but hinted that the deadline may get pushed back.

“If we’re given more time, then we will do everything that we can to make the best use of that time,” he said.

Austin said the job of processing and issuing special immigrant visa applicants to Afghan allies primarily falls under the State Department, but is shared by many agencies.

“It’s an interagency process that’s really honchoed or led by the State Department,” he said. “But it’s all of our responsibility.”

Defending the withdrawal, Austin also points to what the administration inherited

President Joe Biden, who announced the withdrawal in April, has been pushing for the U.S. to end its longest war for years. But the withdrawal has largely been criticized as both a military and intelligence failure since so many Americans and U.S. allies were left with no means to escape once the Taliban seized control.

“What kind of planning went into that, and and do you believe — as you look at it now, and the military loves to plan for the worst case — that the planning was acceptable and appropriate?” Raddatz asked Austin of the withdrawal planning.

“I think you have to go back and look at what — what the administration inherited,” Austin responded, placing the blame on Biden’s predecessor. “I mean we came in, and as we as we came in — walked in the door, you know, we were faced with a May 1 deadline to have all forces out of the country. This deal had been struck with the Taliban.”

“At the end of the day, the president made his decision,” the defense secretary added. “But again, he was faced with a situation where there were no good options, all were very tough. And, you know, he reached his decisions based upon thorough analysis.”

The president, in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, said on Wednesday, “The idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing — I don’t know how that happens.”

Austin told Raddatz that he agreed with the president’s assessment.

“I agree that if — if a government collapses to the degree that it did, if the security forces evaporate at the speed that they did, you will clearly have chaos,” he said. “And that’s what we saw.”

Raddatz asked whether he wanted to see a small force of U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, but Austin would not reveal his opinion.

“I’m not gonna tell you what my recommendation to our president was, I will just tell you that, like everyone else, the president listened to our input,” Austin responded. “He conducted a very rigorous and thoughtful process and he made a decision, and I support that decision.”

Austin told Raddatz that he was surprised the Afghan army collapsed so quickly, particularly after 20 years of U.S. military presence in the region.

“I will tell you that again, 20 years of the best training, the world’s best equipment, you know a lot of effort — you have to be surprised by what you saw and when you can measure capability you can measure capacity, but it’s difficult to measure the will to fight,” Austin said.

When asked how Gold Star families and veterans should feel about Afghanistan falling under the control of the Taliban once again, Austin said that having served himself in Afghanistan, he empathized with them.

“Some will struggle,” he said. “And as you struggle, I would ask our teammates to recognize that there is help. If you need help, don’t hesitate to ask for it.”

On what the final outcome will be in Afghanistan, Austin said he does not know.

“I’ve gotten out of the business of making predictions long, long ago, but I think that’s a chapter that’s yet to be written,” Austin said.

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