It Begins: Afghan Mothers Toss Their Babies to British Soldiers Outside Kabul Airport to Save Them from Taliban as Chaos Continues

A scene from the Kabul Airport today. via  FJ Another frantic scene from outside the Kabul Airport. Women huddle with babies as bullets fly....

A scene from the Kabul Airport today. via FJ

Another frantic scene from outside the Kabul Airport. Women huddle with babies as bullets fly.

The Daily Mail reported:

Ex-pats and western visa holders cannot get ‘anywhere near’ Kabul airport today because ‘huge crowds’ of ‘terrified locals’ are blocking the way, MailOnline has been told, despite UK ministers insisting Taliban guards are letting people through checkpoints and planes are not taking off empty.

Videos captured snapshots of the chaos as gunmen fired shots over the heads of panicked crowds while hitting people with rifles – as those on the ground said Taliban fighters were dishing out beatings and lashings seemingly at random, with people being trampled and crushed in the throng.

Paul ‘Pen’ Farthing, a former Marine who now lives in Kabul with his wife, described the scene as a ‘clusterf***’, telling MailOnline: ‘Two ex-pats – one British and one Norwegian – have already been forced to turn back this morning because they can’t get through.

And last night a UN convoy carrying various foreign nationals, who had been working in Afghanistan for NGOs, had to turn round because of the sheer volume of people on the street.’

Such is the desperation among crowds at the airport that women have resorted to passing babies over barbed wire to soldiers in a vain attempt to get them out of the country.

An Afghan-Australian trying to leave the country also told the ABC it is ‘not possible’ to get to the airport because there is ‘lots of firing’ and ‘too many people’ while Max Sangeen, a Canadian interpreter, said his wife and children – including a 20-day-old baby – are trapped in Kabul despite having the correct documents.

But it is not clear what, if anything, western troops can do to help. There are around 6,000 American and 900 British soldiers at the airport – alongside smaller numbers of Turks and Australians – but their jurisdiction only extends up to the perimeter wall. Beyond that, the Taliban is in charge.