Evacuations continue as seven Afghans were killed in a stampede while fleeing the Taliban at Kabul airport

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ITV News’ John Irvin reports on the chaos in Kabul

The British military said on Sunday that seven more Afghan civilians were killed in the chaos surrounding Kabul International Airport, showing the danger still faced by those trying to flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he will invite the leaders of the Group of Seven nations of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States on Tuesday for “urgent talks” on the situation in Afghanistan.

“It is imperative that the international community work together to ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis and support the Afghan people to secure the gains of the past 20 years,” he said.

Chaos has erupted at Kabul airport since the Taliban regained control of the city, crushing people amid a scramble for desperate Afghans to flee the country.

It was not immediately clear whether the dead were crushed or suffocated.

Soldiers covered many of the corpses with white clothes to hide them from view. Other forces stood over concrete barriers or shipping containers in an attempt to calm the crowd. Occasionally, gunshots were heard.

The British Ministry of Defense said in a statement: “Conditions on the ground remain extremely challenging but we are doing all we can to manage the situation as safely and securely as possible.”

The British ambassador to Afghanistan provided an update on the UK’s evacuation efforts on Sunday afternoon, saying British forces had helped more than 5,000 leave the country.

Sir Laurie Bristow said the “tremendous effort” to get people out of Afghanistan was “much ahead” but there was still much work to be done.

He wrote on Twitter: “So far we’ve been able to get over 5,000 people on board and in just the last 14 hours we’ve got 1,000 people on their way. But there’s still a huge amount of work to do.”

“I just want to say thank you to all of our colleagues here in Kabul, London and other places across the region who are working around the clock to get as many people as possible to safety as possible.”

On Saturday, a full military force tried to control the crowds flocking to the Kabul airport. They carried some sweaty and pallid. With temperatures reaching 34 degrees Celsius, soldiers sprayed water from a hosepipe on the assembled or gave them bottled water to pour over their heads.

Kim Sengupta, Defense and Diplomacy Editor at The Independent, tweeted on Saturday that he had seen four women die “from heat and crush”.

“The four dead people at Kabul airport were outside the British camp, and the soldiers tried everything they could to rescue the victims. Later the bodies were collected through ties,” he added.

Speaking to Iranian state TV channel late on Saturday night, Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naim blamed the deaths at the airport on the Americans.

“The Americans announced that we will take you to America with us and people gathered at the Kabul airport,” Naim said.

“If it was announced now in any country in the world, wouldn’t people go?”

The deaths come as a new perceived threat from the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, which led to US military aircraft making rapid landings and combat dives at the airport.

Other planes fired flares at takeoff in an attempt to disrupt potential thermal missiles.

A desperate mother brings her child to the American soldiers at the airport

The US Embassy issued a new security alert on Saturday, asking citizens not to travel to Kabul airport without individual instructions from a US government representative.

Officials declined to elaborate on the ISIS threat but described it as serious.

They said there had been no confirmed attacks by militants who had fought the Taliban in the past.

Meanwhile, Armed Forces Minister James Hebby said there were improvements in the situation at a Kabul hotel where British and Afghans eligible for repatriation were being processed, following reports earlier this weekend that they had been surrounded by the Taliban.

A US Marine helps evacuees at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Credit: Sgt Isaiah Campbell / US Marine Corps / AP

He said: “The Taliban have pushed their outer cord away from the Baron Hotel, and what’s more, they now seem to be mobilizing people in separate queues to evacuate the US and the UK.

“This makes a huge difference to crowd size outside the UK gate and allows us to process people more quickly, which we think is very encouraging.”

Hebe added that Secretary of State Dominic Raab had lodged “protests” with US secretaries of state in an attempt to extend the deadline for evacuating Afghanistan beyond August 31.

“You know that the foreign minister lodged protests with his counterpart and the defense minister as well,” he said.

If the program is extended, there is an opportunity to continue flights.

Mr Hebe’s conservative colleague, Tobias Ellwood, said the situation in Afghanistan showed there had been a “demise” in the “special relationship” between the UK and the US.

US soldiers stand guard along a perimeter at the international airport in Kabul. Credit: AP

The chairman of the House of Commons Defense Committee told The Times Radio: “We were not included in the talks and the only thing we are putting on the table… is ‘thought leadership’ that Americans already value.”

“Being able to look at things from an alternate perspective, to present a different point of view, and we could have done that, but the back channels are gone, and the relationship isn’t what it used to be.”

Later on Sunday, the United States called on commercial airlines to provide planes and crews to help transport Afghan refugees once they have been evacuated from their country on military planes.

Under the Voluntary Civilian Reserve Air Fleet Program, civilian airlines are adding to the capacity of military aircraft during a national defense crisis.

The Biden administration ordered three planes each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Airlines and Omni Air. two Hawaiian Airlines; And four from United Airlines.

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