The Taliban is holding six airplanes carrying Americans and Afghan refugees “hostage” at an airport in Afghanistan, Rep. Michael McCaul claimed in an interview Sunday.

McCaul, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday” that the flights have been cleared by the US State Department to depart but “the Taliban will not let them leave the airport.”

​​“In fact, we have six airplanes at Mazar-i-Sharif airport, six airplanes, with American citizens on them as I speak, also with these interpreters, and the Taliban is holding them hostage for demands right now,” the Texas congressman ​told host Chris Wallace.

Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace asked McCaul, a ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, asked how many Americans have gotten out of Afghanistan since the withdrawal deadline on Aug. 31, prompting McCaul to say, “I understand, zero.”

– Read more at the NY Post and watch the interview below

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Multiple planes are ready to take U.S. citizens and green card holders out of Afghanistan — but the Taliban won’t let them leave, officials say

Multiple planes that are ready to take American citizens and green card holders out of the country are being denied permission to leave by the Taliban, congressional and NGO sources told CBS News.

Excerpts of an email from the State Department to members of congress viewed by CBS News acknowledged that charter flights are still on the ground at the Mazar-i-Sharif airstrip in northern Afghanistan and have permission to land in Doha “if and when the Taliban agrees to takeoff.”

“The Taliban is basically holding them hostage to get more out of the Americans,” a senior congressional source told CBS News.

– Read more at CBS News.

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‘If one life is lost, the blood is on White House hands’: Fury at State Department for ‘delaying six flights out of Afghanistan carrying dozens of US citizens’

The US State Department has been accused of blocking dozens of Americans from fleeing Afghanistan after failing to tell the Taliban it had green-lighted charter flights.

On Sunday, Reuters reported that the delay had been caused by Biden administration officials not telling Taliban leaders it had approved the departures of the chartered flights from an airport in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, 260 miles north of Afghan capital Kabul.

An exasperated flight organizer hit out at the State Department over the fiasco, saying: ‘They need to be held accountable for putting these people’s lives in danger.’

Two other organizers have also torn into the Antony Blinken-headed department, with one – who didn’t give their name – telling Fox: ‘This is zero place to be negotiating with American lives. Those are our people standing on the tarmac and all it takes is a f****ing phone call.

Read more at the Daily Mail

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