ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey on Monday evacuated 324 people from Kabul on a Turkish Airlines flight, state broadcaster TRT Haber said, after the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital.
Speaking to reporters on arrival at Istanbul, passengers said they had to wait up to three hours on the plane while troops cleared the runway of civilians, adding some had spent the night at the airport.
Thousands of civilians desperate to flee Afghanistan packed Kabul airport on Monday, prompting the U.S. military temporarily to suspend evacuations as the United States came under mounting criticism at home over its pullout.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Dominic Evans)
