Taliban Leader Abdul Ghani Baradar Returns To Afghanistan After 10 Years, 2,200 Diplomats And Civilians Evacuated

Illustration of a Taliban soldier. (Antara/Reuters/Stringer/hp/cfo)

JAKARTA - More than 2,200 diplomats and other civilians have been evacuated from Afghanistan on military flights, a Western security official said Wednesday, as efforts accelerated to get the people out after the Taliban seized the capital, Kabul.

The Taliban say they want peace, will not take revenge against old enemies and will respect women's rights within the framework of Islamic law. But thousands of Afghans, many of whom have assisted US-led foreign forces for two decades, are desperate to leave.

"We are proceeding with very fast momentum, logistics has shown no disruption until now and we have been able to move a little over 2,200 diplomatic staff, foreign security staff and Afghans working for the embassy," the official said.

"It is not clear when civil flights will resume," he continued, referring to the halt to civil flights at Kabul Airport used for the evacuation process.

The official gave no details on how many Afghans are among the more than 2,200 who will leave. It is also unclear whether that tally includes the more than 600 Afghan men, women and children who flew on Sunday crammed into the US military's C-17 Globe Master cargo plane.

US troops running the airport had to halt flights on Monday, after thousands of terrified Afghans flooded into the facility in search of outgoing flights. Flights resumed on Tuesday as the situation was under control.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. (Twitter/@Sarkariberozgar)

Meanwhile, the Taliban say one of their leaders and founders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, has returned to Afghanistan for the first time in more than 10 years. A Taliban official said the leaders would show themselves to the world, unlike in the past when they lived in secret.

"Slowly, gradually, the world will see all our leaders, there will be no shadow of secrecy," a senior Taliban official told Reuters.

When Baradar returned, a Taliban spokesman held the movement's first press conference since their return to Kabul, saying they would enforce their laws more gently than during their previous rule, between 1996-2001.

"We don't want an internal or external enemy," Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban's main spokesman, told reporters.

The Taliban successfully entered the capital Kabul and occupied the presidential palace on Sunday, August 15, making President Ashraf Ghani flee and foreign countries trying to evacuate diplomats, foreign missions and civilians in Afghanistan.

Far from US intelligence estimates that the Taliban will besiege Kabul within 30 days, and capture the city within 90 days, the successive attacks by the Taliban have allowed them to take control of Afghanistan much more quickly.