At Kabul airport, the situation for rescuing western citizens and Afghan aid workers is becoming increasingly difficult.

A relaxation at the access gates of the military section, which are predominantly controlled by Americans and British, may be actively thwarted by covert Taliban forces.

According to reports, a kind of wall of hundreds to thousands of younger, stronger men has pushed itself into the front rows, and access has become almost impossible for women, children and the elderly.

According to reports, there is violence in the crowd, people are trampled down, and there are also deaths.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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As the Bundeswehr announced, the gates were temporarily closed, it is becoming more and more difficult to get people to leave.

On the morning of German time, an A400M military transport took off with eight vulnerable people on board.

In the meantime he has arrived in Tashkent.

"Everything will be done to fly out as many as possible per flight to Tashkent," it said.

Gates have been strengthened

In the past few days, the machines had taken up to 180 people per flight.

According to Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU), more than 2000 people have been flown out by the Air Force, including more than a thousand Afghans. 

Within the area, on which American, British and German soldiers in particular maintain security, the gates were massively reinforced due to the enormous pressure, including with containers placed sideways to prevent breakthroughs.

There are also increasing reports of dismissive, violent behavior on the part of the protection personnel, some of whom are Afghan aid workers.

Even with German exit documents, it has apparently become extremely difficult to get in.

German-American cooperation could improve somewhat if the federal government has allowed Washington to use the US air force base in Ramstein as a hub and stopover for several thousand Afghans and its own citizens.

The Bundeswehr, which is currently trying to organize the excursions with around 200 paratroopers, commandos, paramedics and other personnel, now has two special forces helicopters ready for use, which can pick up those under protection from more distant locations.

While men and women from 13 NATO countries are trying to get their compatriots and Afghans out of the country on the military part of the airport, only the Americans and British currently have helicopters on site.

Apparently there is no functioning vehicle fleet

It is estimated that up to 60,000 people related to NATO countries are to be flown out. Whether, when and how German special forces carry out rescue operations in the city is subject to confidentiality. According to American reports, a US military Chinook helicopter picked up more than 80 people, mostly women and families, from a location near the airport and flown them onto the airport premises.

Apparently after the evacuation of the embassy and the precautionary destruction of the local facilities, the federal government no longer has a functioning fleet of armored or unarmored vehicles to guide people in convoys to the airport - similar to the French and others. Meanwhile, the Bundeswehr is also flying in supplies for those waiting at and in the airport area, including water, baby food and hygiene items.

An opening of the civil airport is unlikely at the moment, some of the technical facilities have been destroyed. Whether the former US bases in Bagram or Herat should be re-used is repeatedly asked, but there were no reports. It also remains unclear whether people can be flown out beyond August 31, but what is certain is that neither the German Armed Forces nor the British Army would be able to organize this. The Americans are allegedly with around 6,000 soldiers at and in the airport, the current German contingent is around 200 men and women.