Afghan women in Kabul in a bid to save their children from Taliban were said to have thrown their babies over barbed wire barriers near Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport towards British soldiers protecting the airport, according to a report by Sky News quoting a senior British armed forces officer.
"It was terrible, women were throwing their babies over the razor wire, asking the soldiers to take them, some got caught in the wire," he told the publication.
Thousands of Afghans were packed Thursday between Taliban checkpoints and a US-imposed ring of steel around Kabul's main airport, desperate to get aboard any flight out following the return of the hardline Islamist group.
Even more were mobbing foreign embassy compounds in the capital, as rumours spread that visas were up for grabs or safe passage on offer at least as far as the airport.
Unconfirmed reports on social media say several people have been killed as US forces and the Taliban struggle to contain the desperate throngs on their respective sides of an unofficial no-man's land.
There have been chaotic scenes since the weekend, when the Taliban drove unopposed into the capital after a two-week lightning offensive that capped a simmering 20-year insurgency.
Distressing pictures and videos have emerged of people desperately trying to get aboard any flight leaving -- even resorting to climbing on a US military Hercules as it rolled down the runway for take-off.
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Published 19 August 2021, 12:28 IST