阿富汗政府垮台后,塔利班夺取了控制权,混乱笼罩了喀布尔,几乎结束了美国开始的20年战役:在塔利班统治下。
五角大楼官员周一表示,自8月14日开始努力以来,美国已经疏散了大约3.7万人,同时重申他们的重点仍然是维护机场周边,并在8月31日的撤离截止日期之前增加撤离喀布尔的人数。
乔·拜登总统与美国广播公司新闻记者乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯坐在一起独家一对一采访上周在白宫,这是总统从阿富汗撤军后的首次采访。拜登周日再次就疏散工作向全国发表讲话。
8月23日,晚上8:44
“塔利班战争是针对女性的”:第一位女性阿富汗空军飞行员
尼洛法尔·拉赫马尼是2001年塔利班倒台后阿富汗空军的第一位女飞行员,她告诉美国广播公司新闻记者林西·戴维斯,当她看到“我的国家和人民正在经历的事情”时,她感到很痛苦
“我只能说,我理解他们的痛苦。保持坚强就好,”她周一在美国广播公司新闻直播黄金时段对戴维斯说。
“我只是真的很关心他们的生活,”她继续说道。“我不想看到他们中的任何人成为受害者,或者因为他们的所作所为而被塔利班杀害,仅仅因为他们穿着制服,为国家服务。因为这是我作为一个女人必须经历的——只是为了穿上制服,为我的国家而战,并努力为一个女人带来自由和发言权。我是受害者。我是塔利班的目标。”
戴维斯问拉赫马尼,塔利班是否有可能改变,“因为官员们已经表示,他们将根据伊斯兰法律尊重妇女的权利。”
“我是阿富汗人。我靠法律和规则生活。我知道他们对一个女人做了什么,”拉赫马尼回答。“我见过我自己的母亲被打。我见过被带走的女孩。我看过那些刺耳的视频。……一直没有什么好东西。”
“他们的整个战争都是针对女性的,”拉赫马尼继续说道。“我担心这个世界会变成什么样,我的未来会变成什么样,因为他们知道情况会很糟糕。”
阿富汗第一位女空军飞行员尼洛法尔·拉赫马尼(Niloofar Rahmani)告诉记者:“看到我的国家和人民现在正在经历的一切,真是太痛苦了。”@LinseyDavis。https://t.co/TULur3SHWapic.twitter.com/PvzGJXByML
—美国广播公司新闻直播(@美国广播公司新闻直播)2021年8月24日
8月23日,晚上7:54
拉姆施泰因空军基地成为“主要的疏散中心”
美国空军发布了几张照片和视频,展示了他们将德国拉姆施泰因空军基地转变为逃离阿富汗的人们的“主要疏散中心”的工作。
第86空运联队公共事务办公室周一表示,在行动开始近48小时后,7000多名撤离者已经在那里着陆,并在等待前往美国的途中获得临时住宿、食物、医疗服务和治疗。
8月23日,晚上7:05
与塔利班的谈判不是基于信任其保证:价格
在国务院周一的简报会上,发言人内德·普莱斯坚称,与塔利班的会谈不是基于信任其保证。
“我们绝不信任塔利班。这与信任无关。这关系到什么符合我们的利益,什么也符合阿富汗人民的利益——这两件事现在是一致的,”普莱斯说。“这不是请求许可,也不是建立任何形式的关系。这是关于尽我们所能促进安全通行,确保塔利班知道,任何阻碍美国公民撤离、阻碍我们行动的努力,在这一切开始和运行时,都会得到非常迅速和严厉的回应。”
尽管普莱斯拒绝讨论美国是否会延长8月31日撤离更多美国人和阿富汗人的最后期限,但他谈到了全面撤军后的“后续”任务。
他说:“当军事任务结束时,没有结束的是我们对处境危险的阿富汗人的承诺。
当被问及这一承诺将会是什么样时,普莱斯没有给出具体细节,但暗示了国际外交是用来迫使塔利班采取行动的。
普莱斯说:“塔利班还公开表示,他们想要一个与世界其他地区有关系的阿富汗。“他们想确保...未来阿富汗政府领导下的阿富汗不会像在某些情况下那样被遗弃。事实是,没有一个正常运转的机场、一个正常运转的国家、一个正常运转的经济,这一切都不可能发生。一个与世界其他地区有某种关系的政府需要一个正常运转的商业机场。”
8月23日下午6:43
控制喀布尔机场是美国、塔利班和盟友之间的“讨论话题”
美国国务院发言人内德·普莱斯证实,哈米德·卡尔扎伊国际机场的未来一直是“与塔利班讨论的话题。”
他在周一的简报中说:“我不能进行私下讨论,但我能说什么,我可以承认这是与塔利班讨论的话题。
普莱斯说,除了与塔利班谈判之外,美国还与盟友讨论了谁将接管机场的问题——所有人都有共同的利益。
他说:“实际上,所有这些行为者之间,当然是美国与我们的伙伴和盟友之间,但也与塔利班之间,都达成了协议,即一个正常运行的机场将符合我们的所有利益。
8月20日下午4:38
众议院议员告诉塔利班已经在喀布尔“击败”了美国人
国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀在一次非机密的电话简报中告诉议员们,塔利班在喀布尔“击败”了一些美国人。
“我们也意识到,包括美国人在内的一些人受到塔利班的骚扰甚至殴打。这是不可接受的,我们已经向指定的塔利班领导人表明了这一点,”奥斯汀说,一位消息人士告诉美国广播公司新闻。
奥斯汀、国务卿安东尼·布林肯和参谋长联席会议主席马克·米利将军都在通话中。
打电话的官员一再表示,当议员们要求确定数字时,他们不知道还有多少美国人留在阿富汗。
当共和党众议员、空军老兵奥古斯特·普弗鲁格(August Pfluger)被问及军方是否会越过机场撤离美国人时,奥斯汀回答说,“这是一个动态的过程”,他们“主要关注的是保持机场的安全。”他说,他们正在考虑“我们能够并且将会做什么”
共和党领袖凯文·麦卡锡对该组织发表讲话,称美国人需要立即撤离,并建议他们在事后向政府负责。
Afghanistan updates: US troops running extraction missions outside airport
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 37,000 people since the effort began on Aug. 14, Pentagon officials said Monday, while reiterating their focus remains on maintaining the airport perimeter and increasing the number of evacuees out of Kabul ahead of the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline.
President Joe Biden sat down with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos for anexclusive one-on-one interviewat the White House last week, the president's first interview since the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Biden addressed the nation again on evacuation efforts on Sunday.
Aug 23, 8:44 pm
'Taliban war is against women': 1st female Afghan air force pilot
Niloofar Rahmani, the first female pilot in the Afghan Air Force after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, told ABC News' Linsey Davis that she feels pain as she watches what "my country and my people are going through right now."
"All I can say is I understand their pain. Juststay strong," she told Davis on ABC News Live Prime Monday.
"I'm just really concerned for their life," she continued. "I don't want to see any of them to be the victim or be killed by the Taliban for what they have done, just because they wear the uniform and serve their country. Because that's what I had to go through as a woman -- just to wear the uniform and fight for my country and try to bring freedom and a voice for a woman. And I was the victim.I was a target by the Taliban."
Davis asked Rahmani if it's possible the Taliban has changed, "because officials have said they will honor women's rights according to Islamic law."
"I am an Afghan. I lived on that law and the rules. I know what they do to a woman," Rahmani replied. "I have seen my own mother get beat up. I have seen the girls that been taken away. I have seen the harsh videos. … There hasn't been anything good."
"Their whole war's against women," Rahmani continued. "I am afraid what the world, what my future is going to loo like because they know it's going to be bad."
"It's just so much pain to see what my country and my people are going through right now," Niloofar Rahmani, Afghanistan's first female Air Force pilot, tells@LinseyDavis.https://t.co/TULur3SHWapic.twitter.com/PvzGJXByML
— ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive)August 24, 2021
Aug 23, 7:54 pm
Ramstein Air Base becomes 'major evac hub'
The U.S. Air Force released several photos and videos of their work to transform Ramstein Air Base in Germany into a "major evac hub," for people fleeing Afghanistan.
The 86th Airlift Wing's public affairs office said Monday that nearly 48 hours after the operation began, more than 7,000 evacuees had landed there and were being provided temporary lodging, food, medical services and treatment while they awaited transportation to the United States.
Aug 23, 7:05 pm
Talks with Taliban not based on trusting its assurances: Price
During the State Department briefing Monday, spokesperson Ned Price was adamant that talks with the Taliban are not based on trusting its assurances.
"We are not in any way trusting the Taliban. This is not about trust. This is about what's in our interests and also what's in the interests of the people of Afghanistan -- and those two things are aligned right now," Price said."This is not about asking permission, this is not about establishing any sort of formal relations. This is about doing all we can to facilitate safe passage, to ensure that the Taliban know thatany effort to impede the evacuation of American citizens, to impede our operations, while this is up and running, would be met with a very swift and severe response."
While Price declined to discuss whether the U.S. would extend the Aug. 31 deadline to evacuate more Americans and Afghans, he spoke of the "follow through" mission for after the full military withdrawal.
"What does not end when the military mission ends is our commitment to at-risk Afghans," he said.
Pressed on what that commitment would look like, Price didn't give specifics -- but alluded to international diplomacy used to pressure the Taliban into behaving.
"The Taliban has also said publicly that they want an Afghanistan that has a relationship with the rest of the world," Price said. "They want to ensure that ... Afghanistan under a future Afghan government is not the pariah that it would become in certain circumstances. The fact is that this cannot happen without a functioning airport, a functioning state, a functioning economy.A government that has some semblance of a relationship with the rest of the world needs a functioning commercial airport."
Aug 23, 6:43 pm
Control of Kabul airport a 'topic of discussion' between US, Taliban, allies
State Department spokesman Ned Priceconfirmed that the future of Hamid Karzai International Airport has been a "topic of discussion with the Taliban."
"Ican't go into private discussions, but what I, what I can say, I can acknowledge that this has been a topic of discussion with the Taliban," he said during his briefing Monday.
Price said that in addition to talks with the Taliban, the U.S. has talked about who will take over the airport with allies -- and all have shared interests.
"There is actually agreement between and among all these actors, of course between the United States and our partners and allies, but also with the Taliban, that all of our interests would be served with a functioning airport," he said.
Aug 20, 4:38 pm
House members told Taliban has 'beaten' Americans in Kabul
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told lawmakers in an unclassified briefing call that the Taliban "has beaten" some Americans in Kabul.
“We are also aware that some people, including Americans, have been harassed and even beaten by the Taliban. This is unacceptable and [we] made it clear to the designated Taliban leader," Austin said, a source told ABC News.
Austin, Secretary Antony Blinken and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley all were on the call.
Officials on the call repeatedly said they didn't know how many Americans remained in Afghanistan when lawmakers asked for firm numbers.
When GOP Rep. August Pfluger, an Air Force vet, asked if the military would move beyond the airport to evacuate Americans, Austin replied "this is a dynamic process" and their "primary focus is keeping the airfield secure." He said they are looking at "what we can and will do."
Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy addressed the group and said Americans need to be evacuated immediately and suggested that they would handle "accountability" with the administration after the fact.