A U.S.-brokered deal with the Taliban enabled 30 Americans to escape Afghanistan on Thursday aboard an international flight carrying 200 passengers from Kabul Airport to Qatar, the first such large-scale departure since U.S and foreign forces concluded their frantic withdrawal at the end of August.
The Taliban had allowed the Qatar Airways flight to depart for Doha amid a bumpy coordination effort between the U.S. and Afghanistan’s new rulers, including a days-long standoff over charter planes at another airport that left dozens of passengers stranded.
A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn´t authorized to brief the media, provided the number of Westerners on board and said that two very senior Taliban officials had helped facilitate the departure.
Americans, green card holders and other nationalities including Germans, Hungarians and Canadians were on the flight, the official said.
Irfan Popalzai, 12, among those boarding the flight with his mother and five brothers and sisters, said his family lives in Maryland.
‘I am an Afghan, but you know I am from America and I am so excited (to leave),’ the boy said before departing the country.
About 200 foreigners prepared to leave Kabul as the Taliban allowed international flights out of Afghanistan to resume. There were about 30 Americans at the scene
The foreign citizens would depart from Kabul Airport to Doha, Qatar on Thursday
Passangers were led onto the tarmac to begin boarding the Qatar Airways flight
This was the first large-scale departure flight since the final U.S. troops left on August 31
The Taliban were pressed to allow the departures by U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad, said an official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity on Thursday.
Qatari special envoy Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani said the flight marked a historic day as the airport was now operational again under the Taliban’s control.
‘Call it what you…