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Qatari officials said this marks an important step on the road to the reopening of the airport to international flights.
Approximately 200 passengers, including American citizens, left Kabul Airport on Thursday, the first flight carrying foreigners out of the Afghan capital since the end of the U.S.-led evacuation operation on August 30.
Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani stated in Islamabad that the airport “has been tested and put into use in the past few days”.
“We successfully flew the first plane with passengers an hour ago,” he said, thanking the Taliban for helping to reopen the airport.
On Thursday afternoon, a Qatar Airways flight took about 200 people from Kabul Airport-the first time since the U.S. withdrawal caused a large and chaotic airlift of more than 120,000 people to come to an end.
A dual citizen of Afghanistan and the United States is waiting to board the plane with his family. He said that the US State Department called him in the morning and asked him to go to the airport.
The father, who did not want to be named, told AFP: “We got in touch with the State Council. They called me this morning and said they were going to the airport.”
Dutch Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag thanked the Qatar government for “making this possible” on Twitter, saying that there were 13 nationals on the flight.
In the days after the Taliban Blitz, the airport has become a tragic symbol of the despair of Afghans who are afraid of militants returning to power-tens of thousands of people crowd the airport gates every day, and some even cling to the plane during takeoff .
The footage aired by Al Jazeera on Thursday showed families including women, children and the elderly carrying suitcases at the airport waiting for their turn to leave.
It is not clear whether any country other than Qatar has played a role in organizing air transport.
In recent years, Qatar has acted as a central intermediary between the Taliban and the international community. After the Taliban took over, many countries, including the United States, have moved their embassies from Kabul to Doha.
“We are very grateful to the Qatari people,” a man told the channel and gave his Canadian citizenship.
According to an AFP reporter, far from the airport, the Taliban on the streets of Kabul are significantly stronger. Armed fighters-including special forces in military uniforms-stand guard on street corners and at manned checkpoints.
Qatar’s special envoy to Afghanistan, Mutlaq Al Qahtani, called it a “historic day” for the airport.
He also said that this marked “an important step on the road to reopening the airport to international flights, but this may be gradual.”
After the airlift last month, the United States has repeatedly promised to continue its efforts to evacuate any American citizens still in Afghanistan.
Earlier Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated that only about 100 Americans remained in Afghanistan.
“Now there are about 100 people, and we are working hard to get those American citizens who want to leave this country, as well as legal permanent residents and other major partners,” Psaki told MSNBC.
The Taliban have stated that they will not stop anyone who wishes to leave the country, although they have urged skilled Afghans such as doctors and engineers to stay.
Later on Wednesday, they took action to curb any civil unrest, saying that the protests require prior authorization from the Ministry of Justice and adding that no demonstrations are allowed “for the time being”.
A protest organizer told AFP that the rally in Kabul had been cancelled due to an all-night ban.
An interim government of the Taliban, entirely from loyalists, officially started work this week. All key positions are hardliners and no women-despite previous promises to establish an inclusive government for all Afghans.
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