Not Yet Getting Permission To Fly From The Taliban, The Plane Carrying 1,000 People Was Detained For Five Days At The Airport

Residents queue to board planes for evacuation from Afghanistan. (Twitter/@DeptofDefense)

JAKARTA - About 1,000 people, including dozens of Americans and Afghans holding visas for the United States or other countries, remained trapped in Afghanistan for a fifth day on Sunday pending Taliban clearance for flights overseas, the New York Times reported.

Citing Reuters Monday, September 6, the newspaper reported on the situation facing those hoping to leave the international airport in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, reflecting thousands of people were unable to board flights from Kabul after the Taliban seized the capital before US troops withdrew.

The senior Republican politician on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Mike McCaul, told Fox News Sunday that six planes stuck at Mazar-i-Sharif airport with American and Afghan translators on board could not take off because they didn't get clearance from the Taliban.

He said the Taliban were holding passengers hostage for prosecution. McCaul said the Taliban wanted 'something in return' for agreeing to the flights and he believed the Taliban were seeking full acknowledgment from the United States.

But some reports dispute McCaul's claims. One person familiar with the evacuation effort told Reuters it was incorrect to classify passengers as 'hostages'

The New York Times reported that the organizers of the evacuation flights in Qatar said the planes at Mazar-i-Sharif had received the necessary clearances and were awaiting final approval from the Taliban.

"The Taliban did not take the planes hostage," Eric Montalvo, a retired US Marine major involved in organizing the flight, was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the US State Department said it did not have reliable means to confirm basic details of charter flights, including the number of US citizens and other passengers.

"We will keep the Taliban's promise to let people be free to leave Afghanistan," the spokesman said

Earlier, another Republican US representative, Mike Waltz, asked the State Department to work with non-governmental organizations he said were calling charter flights to evacuate Americans and Afghans at risk.

In a letter to Foreign Minister Antony Blinken, Waltz said he had been told by several NGOs there were charter flights available, funded, and ready to fly people out of Afghanistan.

To note, the United States and Western countries carried out a full military withdrawal, as well as evacuated the mission of civilians and Afghan civilians at risk through Kabul airport by the August 31 deadline, after the Taliban took control of the country on August 15 last.