Flights suspended at Kabul airport

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan (AA) - Flights were suspended at Afghanistan's main international airport in Kabul as crowds of people anxiously waited at its gates in hopes to leave the country.

A day after Afghanistan's capital fell to the Taliban, US and Afghan forces surrounded the airport, along with Taliban fighters as gunshots were fired into the air to disperse the crowd.

The media office of Hamid Karzai International Airport said in a statement that all civilian flights from the airport had been suspended. The statement called on citizens not to "invade the square" and to "prevent looting."

Official sources told Anadolu Agency that the US forces were in control of the airport.

The Taliban, for their part, urged people gathered at the airport to "go home." Taliban leaders at the site announced that "civilians will not be harmed."

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, said on Twitter that

"The Islamic Emirate (Taliban) has ordered its Mujahideen and once again instructs them that no one is allowed to enter anyone's house without permission. Life, property and honor of none shall be harmed but must be protected by the Mujahedeen."

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* Riyaz ul Khaliq contributed to the story from Ankara