US Embassy Staff in Kabul Feeling 'Betrayed' by Washington Amid Evacuation Efforts, Cables Reveal

On Sunday, President Joe Biden pledged to facilitate the evacuation of Americans from Afghanistan amid the ongoing chaos at Kabul Airport, which has already claimed the lives of at least 20 people.

Local staffers at the American Embassy in Kabul were "deeply disheartened" by US evacuation efforts, saying they felt "betrayed" by Washington, a State Department diplomatic cable obtained by NBC News has revealed.

The news network cited the cable as saying that memos were sent to the embassy's Afghan staff members last Wednesday so that they could head to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The memos told them to take food and brace themselves for "difficult conditions" at the airport, according to the cable.

"However, no one anticipated the brutal experience that occurred", one of the embassy staffers said, while other diplomats referred to them being hit, spat on, and cursed at by Taliban* militants at their checkpoints near the airport.

Some staffers singled out the total chaos inside the airport building, where the US military tried to maintain order "in an extremely physical situation", in the face of attempts by criminals to take advantage of the turmoil.

A U.S. Navy medical surgeon with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) talks to an interpreter as he provides medical assistance to a family during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 21, 2021. Picture taken August 21, 2021

© REUTERS / US MARINES

"It would be better to die under the Taliban's bullet" than face the deadly tumult at the Kabul Airport, one staffer was cited as saying by the cable. The remarks were echoed by another embassy staff member who said that they were "happy to die here, but with dignity and pride".

A third staffer accused Washington of prioritising Afghan government elites with hefty sums and contacts in America.

The cable was exposed after an unnamed Taliban official told Reuters that the chaos at the Kabul Airport was not the responsibility of the militant group, saying "the West could have had a better plan to evacuate".

The official said that he rules out the kidnappings of foreigners, but added that Taliban fighters are "questioning some of them before they exit the country".

Reuters also quoted unnamed witnesses as saying that Taliban insurgents fired into the air to make people line up in queues outside the Kabul Airport, while the UK Defence Ministry claimed that at least seven Afghans were killed in a crush around the airport on Saturday amid efforts by thousands of people to get a flight out.

"Conditions on the ground remain extremely challenging but we are doing everything we can to manage the situation as safely and securely as possible", the ministry said in a statement. The death toll from the chaos at the airport now reportedly stands at 20.

President Joe Biden, in turn, warned he could not predict the outcome of what he described as one of the "most difficult airlifts in history", adding that American forces may stay beyond the 31 August deadline in Afghanistan to help with the evacuation of US nationals amid the ongoing chaos at the Kabul Airport.

The evacuation saga kicked off shortly after the Afghan capital's takeover by the Taliban and subsequent collapse of the government on 15 August, which also saw President Ashraf Ghani leave his country for the United Arab Emirates.

*The Taliban is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other nations.