Afghanistan: Evacuation flights start again at Kabul Airport as US President Joe Biden defends US withdrawal

Despite the scenes of bedlam in Kabul, U.S. President Joe Biden defended his decision here to withdraw U.S. forces after 20 years of war - the nation's longest - that he described as costing more than $1 trillion.

Kabul: The number of civilians at the airport had thinned out, a Western security official at the facility told Reuters, a day after chaotic scenes here in which U.S. troops fired to disperse crowds and people clung to a U.S. military transport plane as it taxied for take-off. “Runway in Kabul international airport is open. I see airplanes landing and taking off,” Stefano Pontecorvo, NATO’s civilian representative said on Twitter. By the afternoon, at least 12 military flights had taken off, a diplomat at the airport said.