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The United States was taking charge of air traffic control at the airport for military and commercial flights as around 2,500 U.S. soldiers are in Kabul to assist the evacuation of U.S. personnel and others, according to reports.
Evacuation flights carrying diplomats and civilians from Afghanistan's capital continued as of Tuesday afternoon, a witness confirmed.
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"The military flights are continuing in Kabul airport. Roughly at 3:28 p.m. (local time), a huge cargo plane took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport," witness Farhad Mohammdi who lives near the Kabul airport told Xinhua.
"This is the first time the flight departed during the day. All Monday night, huge planes were taking off or landing in the airport. The sound of four-engine military cargo planes could be heard from Monday night to early hours of the day," he said.
A fighter jet was also flying over Kabul sky for hours at midday on Tuesday, he said.
The U.S. goal is to ramp up to one evacuation flight per hour by Wednesday, with potentially a total of 5,000 to 9,000 evacuees leaving Afghanistan per day. https://t.co/sBt3Md80NG
— 5NEWS (@5NEWS) August 17, 2021
The United States was taking charge of air traffic control at the airport for military and commercial flights as around 2,500 U.S. soldiers are in Kabul to assist the evacuation of U.S. personnel and others, according to reports.
Earlier on Tuesday, unconfirmed reports said Taliban officials suspended all flights in the airport.
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