Americans Stuck In Afghanistan After Rapid Taliban Takeover

A Colorado family who got stuck in Afghanistan amid the Taliban’s rapid takeover of the country is asking for help.

According to a report from the Denver TV station 9 News, city resident M. Haroon Zarify says he went to Afghanistan to care for his sick father but was prevented from leaving after the Taliban took over.

“It’s really scary, and we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Zarify says, adding that he is there with his wife and children.

Zarify says he was going to leave for the airport, but “the Taliban is on the gate, and they are doing a blind shooting, so I couldn’t get myself the courage to go closer.”

Zarify continues, mentioning that he is trying to stay positive by looking at pictures of his kids when they were living in Denver.

“We need help as a citizen,” Zarify concluded. “It’s our right to ask for help from the U.S.”

Afghan Americans protested outside the White House

Many Afghan Americans protested outside the White House Sunday in support of Afghan civilians following the dramatic fall of the Afghan national government to the Taliban, Fox News reports.

“My family is there. All my people is there. They’re killing all my people,” wept one woman.

Many Afghan civilians crowded the Afghanistan international airport in Kabul in an apparent attempt to flee the country, some so desperate to escape that they held onto an American jet as it took off and plunged to death in an incident that killed at least seven people.

“I have immediate family that’s living in Afghanistan right now. They shut down the airport nobody can fly out – they’re stuck there,” one woman told Fox News.

President Joe Biden defended his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the country despite the Taliban’s swift takeover, saying the U.S. mission was “never supposed to be about nation-building.”

But, he said, the Taliban’s rapid advance, “did unfold more quickly than we anticipated,” he said.

“We’re all incredibly disappointed in President Biden and the administration for pulling out all the troops from Afghanistan literally overnight,” one woman explained to Fox News.

“That was not the only way out,” another protester said.

“It’s all gone back. I feel like it was for nothing,” another woman told Fox News.

Another man agreed: “it’s back to where it was in 1994.”

One protester said she feared for the future. “You’re giving back the power to the people. The same type of people. Savages.”

“This is not just bad for Afghanistan. This is bad for the world. It’s bad for the neighboring countries. It’s bad for America,” she added.

Some protesters voiced concern for the women and girls in Afghanistan as the Taliban takeover puts their rights and lives at stake – when the group last held power, women were denied education and employment opportunities.

“Our girls. The girls who are under 20 don’t know what life is like under Taliban. Their lives are all destroyed.

They’re all destroyed,” two women who have family in Afghanistan told Fox News.