(9 Sep 2021) An estimated 200 foreigners, including Americans, left Afghanistan on a commercial flight out of Kabul on Thursday with the cooperation of the Taliban — the first such large-scale departure since U.S. forces completed their frantic withdrawal over a week ago.
The Qatar Airways flight to Doha marked a breakthrough in the bumpy coordination between the U.S. and Afghanistan's new rulers.
A senior U.S. official said the Taliban's foreign minister and deputy prime minister helped facilitate the flight.
Americans, U.S. green card holders and other nationalities, including Germans, Hungarians and Canadians, were aboard, the official said.
Leena, a passenger with a Canadian passport, said she left her mother and brothers behind because she was not able to take them with her.
"My mother is a priority, unfortunately I was told that I can only take my son and husband but they were not here, they are in Canada," she said.
Qatari envoy Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani said another 200 passengers will leave Afghanistan on Friday.
It was not immediately clear how many Americans are still in Afghanistan.
The White House said before the flight that there were roughly 100 U.S. citizens left in Afghanistan.
But several veterans groups have said that that number is too low because many citizens never bothered to tell U.S. officials they were in the country.
And they said the figure overlooks green-card-carrying permanent U.S. residents living in Afghanistan who want to leave.
Many thousands of Afghans also remain desperate to get out, afraid of what Taliban rule might hold.
The Taliban have repeatedly said foreigners and Afghans with proper travel documents can leave.
But their assurances have been met with scepticism, and many Afghans have been unable to obtain the necessary paperwork.
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