7 killed near Kabul airport, UK says

LONDON－Seven people in crowds near Kabul airport were killed amid chaos as thousands of people gathered trying to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban took control, Sky News reported, citing Britain's Ministry of Defence.

"Conditions on the ground remain extremely challenging but we are doing everything we can to manage the situation as safely and securely as possible", Sky News quoted the ministry as saying on Sunday.

There have been stampedes and crushing injuries in the crowds, the ministry said.

"Our sincere thoughts are with the families of the seven Afghan civilians who have sadly died in crowds in Kabul," it said.

This comes as more people are being evacuated from Kabul. More than 18,000 people have been flown out of Kabul since the Taliban took over the Afghan capital, a NATO official said on Friday, the same day an official of Qatar said more than 7,000 people had been evacuated to the Gulf state.

At least 20 people have died in the past seven days in and around the Kabul airport during the evacuation effort after Taliban took over the Afghan capital last week, a NATO official said on Sunday.

Australia ran four flights into Kabul on Saturday night, evacuating more than 300 people, including Australians, Afghan visa holders, New Zealanders, US and British citizens, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

On Saturday the United States and Germany told their citizens to avoid traveling to Kabul airport, referring to security risks.

Switzerland postponed a charter flight from Kabul on Saturday, citing chaos at the airport.

An Indian official said an air force transport plane carrying 168 people had left Kabul for New Delhi on Sunday.

A Taliban official, speaking to Reuters on Saturday, said security risks could not be ruled out but that the group was "aiming to improve the situation and provide a smooth exit" for people trying to leave over the weekend.

However, after the stampedes, Amir Khan Motaqi, chief of the Taliban's guidance council, criticized the United States over the situation at the airport in an audio clip posted online on Sunday.

"All Afghanistan is secure, but the airport which is managed by the Americans has anarchy," he said. "The US should not defame itself, should not embarrass itself to the world and should not give this mentality to our people that (the Taliban) are a kind of enemy."

Leaders of the Group of Seven will meet online early this week to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, as the rift between Washington and its European allies seems to have widened over the former's hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Agencies - Xinhua