Some 200 passengers, including US citizens, took off from Kabul airport in a chartered Qatar Airways flight carrying foreigners out of the Afghan capital since a US-led evacuation ended on August 30.
According to AFP report, The flight to Doha comes as the Taliban continue their transition from insurgents to governing power, less than a month after they marched into Kabul and ousted former president Ashraf Ghani.
An Afghan-American dual citizen, waiting to board the flight with his family, said the US State Department had called him in the morning and told him to go to the airport.
“I have not been feeling well these past weeks. Someone told me that people were looking for me,” he told AFP.
“We got in contact with the State Department, they gave me a call this morning and said to go to the airport,” the father, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
The Taliban have been businesslike and professional in their facilitating the departure of American citizens and others from Afghanistan, the White House said on Thursday as a chartered Qatar Airways flight from Kabul landed in Doha.
“The Taliban have been cooperative in facilitating the departure of American citizens and lawful permanent residents on charter flights from HKIA. They have shown flexibility, and they have been businesslike and professional in our dealings with them in this effort. This is a positive first step,” Emily Horne, Spokesperson of the National Security Council, the White House said.
She said that the US government facilitated the departure of US citizens and lawful permanent residents on a chartered Qatar Airways flight from Hamid Karzai International Airport.
“We can confirm that flight has safely landed in Qatar. We are deeply grateful to the continued efforts of Qatar in facilitating operations at HKIA and helping to ensure the safety of these charter flights,” she said.
“We have been working intensely across the US government to ensure the accuracy of the manifest and the safe departure and transit of the aircraft, and today’s safe flight is the result of careful and hard diplomacy and engagement,” she added.
