Chaotic scenes at Kabul airport as Afghans and foreign nationals flee Taliban

Afghans crowd at the tarmac of the Kabul airport on August 16, 2021, to flee the country as the Taliban were in control of Afghanistan after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and conceded the insurgents had won the 20-year war.AFP | Getty Images

Thousands of Afghans have amassed on the tarmac at Kabul's international airport in the hours following the Taliban's breach of the capital city.

The chaotic scenes at Hamid Karzai International Airport Monday captured by news crews and cell phones convey a terror and desperate rush to escape the country, which is now overrun by Taliban militants in the lead-up to the complete departure of U.S. forces.

A video shared on Twitter appears to shows large crowds of people, including children, moving toward passenger aircraft on the tarmac. There does not appear to be security or law enforcement in the area.

"No one can really leave," Kamal Alam, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and senior adviser to the Massoud Foundation, told CNBC in a phone interview. At the time of writing, Alam was stuck in Afghanistan, his flight out of the country cancelled. "If you don't have a visa or passport, which the majority of Afghans don't, you're not going."

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday evening, reportedly to Tajikistan, as the Taliban entered the presidential palace and declared the war "over." Ghani said he fled to prevent "a flood of bloodshed."

"The Taliban have won with the judgment of their swords and guns, and are now responsible for the honor, property and self-preservation of their countrymen," Ghani said.

The rapid departure of high-ranking Afghan officials â€" along with substantial amounts of cash â€" in recent days is what initially prompted the rush to leave and a flood of anger at the Afghan government, Alam said. He was at Hamid Karzai International Airport a few days ago.

"All the VIPs were being allowed to fly out first, all their cash was being transported first ... whether on commercial airlines or private jets from [an] unnamed Gulf country," he said, not specifying the country due to the sensitive nature of the issue.

"So people were seeing this, there was a lot of resentment and anger from the airport security, and that is really where the rot started. That's when people started saying this government and this president is not worth defending, let's get out of here."

Another video posted to social media appears shows people struggling to board a plane.

The panic is unfolding as around 5,000 U.S. troops return to the country to evacuate Western diplomats. The forces were tasked, according to the State Department, with the "very narrowly focused mission" of evacuating embassy staff in Kabul. As of late Sunday, the U.S. embassy was moved into the airport.

Prior to Sunday, Kabul was the last major city to have been spared takeover by the militants.

A Taliban spokesperson said the fighters intended to negotiate a "peaceful surrender" of the city.

Since President Joe Biden's April decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan before Sept. 11, the Taliban have made stunning battlefield advances with now the entirety of the nation of 38 million people under their control.

The rapid disintegration of Afghan security forces and the country's government have shocked the world and led many to question how a collapse could happen so quickly after two decades of American nation-building and training efforts.

Afghans (L) crowd at the airport as US soldiers stand guard in Kabul on August 16, 2021.SHAKIB RAHMANI | AFP | Getty ImagesTVWATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APPUP NEXT | ETListen

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