More than 2200 diplomats and other civilians have been evacuated from Afghanistan on military flights, a Western security official says, as the Taliban made first efforts to set up a government after their lightning sweep into the capital.
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The Taliban have said they want peace within the framework of Islamic law. But thousands of Afghans, many of whom helped US-led foreign forces over two decades, are desperate to leave.
"We are continuing at a very fast momentum, logistics show no glitches as of now and we have been able to remove a little over 2200 diplomatic staff, foreign security staff and Afghans who worked for embassies," the Western security official said on Wednesday.
The official said those getting out included diplomatic staff, foreign security staff and Afghans who worked for embassies, but he not give a breakdown of how many Afghans were among the more than 2000 people to leave.
US forces running the airport had to stop flights on Monday after thousands of frightened Afghans swamped the airfield looking for a flight out. Flights resumed on Tuesday as the situation came under control.
Seventeen people were wounded on Wednesday in a stampede at a gate to the airport, a NATO security official said.
Civilians seeking to leave had been told not to gather unless they had a passport and visa to travel, he said, adding that he had not heard any reports of violence by Taliban fighters at the airport.
Britain said it had managed to bring out about 1000 people a day while Germany flew 130 people out.
France said it had moved out 25 of its nationals and 184 Afghans, while 26 people arrived in Australia on the first flight there from Kabul.
"Everyone wants out," said one Afghan man who arrived in Frankfurt on Wednesday with his wife and son on a flight via Tashkent.
"We saved ourselves but we couldn't rescue our families."
Witnesses reported at least three people killed and more than a dozen injured after Taliban militants opened fire during protests against the group in the Afghan city of Jalalabad.
The witnesses said the deaths took place when local residents tried to install Afghanistan's national flag at a square in the city, some 150km east of Kabul.
The Taliban, fighting since their 2001 ouster to expel foreign forces, seized Kabul on Sunday after a lightning offensive as US-led Western forces withdrew under a deal that included a Taliban promise not to attack them as they leave.
As they consolidated power, the Taliban said one of their leaders and co-founders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had returned to Afghanistan for the first time in more than 10 years.
A Taliban official said leaders would show themselves to the world, unlike in the past when they lived in secret.
"Slowly, gradually, the world will see all our leaders, there will be no shadow of secrecy," the senior Taliban official told Reuters.
A Taliban spokesman held the movement's first news briefing since their return to Kabul, suggesting they would impose their laws more softly than during their earlier time in power, between 1996-2001.
"We don't want any internal or external enemies," Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban's main spokesman, told reporters.
Women would be allowed to work and study and "will be very active in society but within the framework of Islam", he said.
Australian Associated Press
