The Taliban will allow dozens of U.S. and other foreign citizens to leave Afghanistan on a flight to Qatar scheduled to take off from Kabul on Thursday, according to the U.S. media outlets.
The flights will be among the first international flights to exit Kabul airport since the Taliban seized control of the capital in mid-August, sparking a chaotic US-led evacuation of 124,000 foreigners and at-risk Afghans.
The Washington Post reports that the Taliban has agreed to allow around 200 Afghans with dual citizenship, including about 30 Americans, to leave the country Thursday on a flight from Kabul.
Afghans who were given permission to leave included passport holders from the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Canada, and Germany, according to the Post.
The flight would leave with Americans and Westerners, Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani, a Qatari special envoy told the Associated Press from the tarmac at Kabul international airport.
“Call it what you want, a charter or a commercial flight, everyone has tickets and boarding passes,” he told the AP news, adding that another commercial flight would take off on Friday. “Hopefully, life is becoming normal in Afghanistan.”
The Qatari officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the formal announcement, provided the number of Americans, the AP news said.
(This is a breaking story and will be updated)
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