{"id":68472,"date":"2021-09-09T12:17:07","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T12:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/09\/09\/dozens-of-americans-other-westerners-to-fly-from-kabul-on-commercial-flight\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T12:17:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:17:58","slug":"dozens-of-americans-other-westerners-to-fly-from-kabul-on-commercial-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/flashpoints\/2021\/09\/09\/dozens-of-americans-other-westerners-to-fly-from-kabul-on-commercial-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Dozens of Americans, other Westerners, to fly from Kabul on commercial flight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) \u2014 Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban authorities will allow between 100 and 150 Westerners, including Americans, to fly out from Kabul in the coming hours, Qatari officials said Thursday, marking the airport\u2019s first such flight since U.S. forces withdrew from the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The large group of foreigners would depart Thursday on a Qatar Airways flight that had earlier ferried humanitarian aid to the country, said Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani, a Qatari special envoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al-Qahtani said it was the first international commercial flight from Kabul airport since American forces left at the end of August, their departure accompanied by a frantic airlift of tens of thousands of foreign citizens and Afghans fleeing the Taliban. Before it was all over, 13 U.S. service members and scores of Afghans would be killed<\/a> by a suicide bomber at an airport gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCall it what you want, a charter or a commercial flight, everyone has tickets and boarding passes,\u201d al-Qahtani said from the tarmac, adding that another commercial flight would take off on Friday. \u201cHopefully, life is becoming normal in Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Qatari official, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the formal announcement, provided the number of Westerners expected on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The departure of a large group of Americans, a first since the U.S. withdrawal, would also signal that U.S. officials have come to an arrangement with the new Taliban rulers.<\/p>\n\n\n\t