Nothing epitomises the desperation of Afghans more than mothers passing their babies over razor wire at the Kabul airport in an attempt to give them a better life by escaping the clutches of the Taliban.
In some cases this week, the mothers were throwing their babies into the arms of British paratroopers, begging them to take their child to safety. Unfortunately, some of them landed on the barbed wire, with soldiers reduced to tears by the scenes they were witnessing.
Locals also handed their children to US soldiers on the other side of an airport wall in the hope of getting them placed on evacuation flights from the embattled Afghan capital.
The UK and US are busy evacuating citizens and Afghans who worked for the government during the 20-year war.
One officer told the Independent: ’’The mothers were desperate, they were getting beaten by the Taliban. They shouted, ’save my baby’ and threw the babies at us.
’’Some of the babies fell on the barbed wire. It was awful what happened. By the end of the night there wasn’t one man among us who was not crying.’’
Another senior military officer told Sky News that the paratroopers had no choice but to block a road with vehicles and barbed wire while families with children risked their lives to rush past Taliban fighters who beat them.
’’It was terrible, women were throwing their babies over the razor wire, asking the soldiers to take them, some got caught in the wire. I’m worried for my men, I’m counselling some, everyone cried last night,’’ the officer said.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the armed forces cannot take youngsters without their families.
’’Obviously we cannot just take a minor on their own and it is difficult, but you will find, I think if you see in the footage, the child is taken – that will be because the family will be taken as well.’’
Despite, the Taliban’s promise of ’’safe passage’’ to the airport, there have been reports they are beating and whipping women at checkpoints set up by the militants and preventing Afghans from leaving.
IOL