Kabul Airport Thronged by ‘Thousands’ Desperate to Leave Afghanistan

“Thousands” of people again flocked to the Kabul airport on August 16 in a bid to escape after the Afghan capital fell under Taliban control the previous day, journalist Matthieu Aikins reported. Aikins recorded this video outside the gates of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Monday morning as people “by the thousands,” desperate to flee the country, amassed there. “Things were rapidly spiraling out of control, as false rumors spread of flights out for anybody without visas,” Aikins wrote on Twitter. Other scenes from the airport show people clinging onto a departing US Air Force aircraft. Credit: Matthieu Aikins via Storyful