‘Taliban are going door-to-door checking for blue passports’: Pregnant US woman trapped in Afghanistan says militants are hunting Americans while lawmaker claims six US planes have been stopped from leaving Kabul
- Nasria, 25, was among the thousands trying to escape the country in the leadup to the US pullout on August 30
- She described her harrowing experience trying to get past Taliban guards, who at one point shot at her feet
- She is among the 100 to 200 Americans believed to still be trapped in the country
- She had traveled there in June to visit family and get married to her longtime boyfriend
A pregnant California native still trapped in Afghanistan says the Taliban are going door to door hunting for Americans.
Nasria, 25, who requested only her first name be used out of fear for her safety, is one of the roughly 100 Americans believed to still be stuck in the country, and trying to find a way out.
She had flown there in June to visit family, and get married to her longtime boyfriend, who is an Afghan national.
‘There’s been days where I think to myself, “am I going to make it home? am I going to end up living here? Am I going to end up dying here?” What’s going to happen?’ she told Voice of America.
Now, with American presence in the country gone, she says, ‘Apparently they’re [the Taliban] going door-to-door now. Trying to see if anyone has a blue passport.’
Her tale came as Texas Rep. Mike McCaul said on Sunday that he believes the Taliban are continuing to block Americans from leaving the country, and have stopped passengers aboard six planes at Mazar-iSharif International Airport while making demands of the US.
California native Nasria, 25, (pictured) is among the 100 to 200 Americans still trapped in Afghanistan trying to escape
Nasria had traveled to the country in June to get married, but, now pregnant, became trapped when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban
’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,’ he told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace.
While he did not specify what demands the Taliban were making, he said it appeared to have become a hostage situation.
‘We know the reason why is because the Taliban want something in exchange. This is really, Chris, turning into a hostage situation where they’re not going to allow American citizens to leave until they get full recognition from the United States of America,’ McCaul said.
Nasria was among the thousands of people trying to escape the country at Kabul’s airport after the country had fallen to the Taliban in the chaotic leadup to the US and its allies’ full withdrawal deadline from Afghanistan on August 31.
McCaul added that he believed not a single American had been successfully evacuated from the country since the deadline.
Also on Sunday White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said the US was in contact with around 100 US citizens still left in the country, some of whom he said were seeking to stay there.
‘We are going to find ways to get them, the ones that want to leave, to get them out of Afghanistan,’ he told CNN’s Dana Bash. ‘We know many of them have family members, many of them want to stay, but the ones that want to leave, we’re going to get them out.’
Nasria described the scene outside of Kabul’s airport (pictured) where she was among the thousands of people there trying to escape the country
Last week, California Rep. Darryl Issa said he had been working with Nasria and other trapped Americans, to work out an escape.
He revealed that she had been kicked in the stomach during her ordeal at the airport.
‘She was kicked in the stomach, but she was kicked in the stomach well after – as she got through the first checkpoint for hours, waiting for those people at the south point to supposedly come and get her,’ the Republican lawmaker told Fox News.
Nasria described filmed her self waving her passport to the guards outside the airport, but was unable to make it past the Taliban security forces there
Nasria described the scene in which Taliban fighters blocked access to the airport entrances amid a crush of people trying to escape
‘It was so hard to just get on a flight,’ she said adding that there were a few days when they were forced to sleep on the streets.
‘People were literally stepping over people, that’s how bad it was,’ she recalled.
After her flight home was cancelled, Nasria said she contacted the State Department for help, and officials there told her to go to a set location outside the airport and wait to get picked up.
No one came, however.
‘We were waiting an extra 12 to 13 hours, with no food, no water, nothing,’ she said.
She stood there waving her passport to no avail, and recounted her frustration seeing US troops guarding the airport entrance just feet away from where she was standing, unable to reach them.
With the failed attempt to get out of the country, she says she is losing hope she will ever return home
Taliban security forces were blocking her from moving forward, at times pointing guns at her head, she said.
‘Our troops were literally at the gate just waiting for us to continue walking, and they had blocked us,’ she said.
At one point Nasria said she decided to walk quickly past the guards, but they began shooting the ground around her feet.
‘That’s how it was,’ she said. ‘Never in my life had I ever experienced anything like this. It was like a movie scene, she said. Literally like a movie scene’
Her husband even begged the Taliban guards to let her into the airport without him, but she refused.
‘My child is going to need a father and I’m going to need a husband by my side,’ she said adding that she did not anticipate returning to the country again.
State Department officials, she said, have told her to stay where she was as they find a way to get her out of the country.
Rep. Darrell Issa is trying to help her out of the Taliban-controlled country
But in light of her experience at the airport, she said she is increasingly doubtful the US government will be able to help her.
‘If I was only 15 steps away from the airport, and I was told, “people are going to come out of the airport to get me,” what kind of hope am I supposed to have now?’ she said.
For now, Issa said, she will stay in hiding.
‘We’ve agreed that she’s going to stay sheltered in place, hiding her identity and hoping that her friends will continue to bring her food and keep her secret until frankly we can come up with something new,’ he said.
He blasted the Biden administration, saying it broke its promises to the US citizens trying to escape the country.
‘Anyone that says that they didn’t break a promise to the American people and leave people behind is wrong,’ he said.
‘Anyone who says that there aren’t people stranded is wrong. These people were stranded, they did everything they were supposed to do and they simply were not a priority at the end.’
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