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© Reuters
Six planes on tarmac at Mazar-i-Sharif Airport

The US State Department has been accused of blocking dozens of Americans from fleeing Afghanistan after failing to tell the Taliban it had green-lighted charter flights. On Sunday, Reuters reported that the delay had been caused by Biden administration officials not telling Taliban leaders it had approved the departures of the chartered flights from an airport in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, 260 miles north of Afghan capital Kabul.

An exasperated flight organizer hit out at the State Department over the fiasco, saying: 'They need to be held accountable for putting these people's lives in danger.'

The New York Times reported that a total of 1,000 people - including dozens of American citizens - had been held at the city's airport for five days. Other passengers hoping to fly include Afghans who hold visas to move to other countries, including the United States.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken jetted to Qatar on Sunday to discuss the issue with leaders there.

Marina LeGree, who founded nonprofit Ascend, says the 34 people she had hoped to get on the charter flight were not being held hostage. She said that, while currently barred from flying out of Afghanistan, the Taliban had allowed the prospective travelers, several of them women aged 16 to 23, to leave the airport.

McGree explained:

'The pressure is building. The crowd is growing. It's just a nasty scene. For us, we can't go back. The girls are terrified. My girls are all Hazaras. Going back is just not an option. They're truly desperate to leave. I'm totally worried. I've got teenage girls in there. Surely we have people in the U.S. government who know who to press on. We can't fix Afghanistan, but this is one thing we can fix.'

Hazaras are a Persian-speaking ethnic minority who live in the mountains of Afghanistan, and who suffered persecution at the hands of the Taliban when they were last in power between 1996 and 2001.

A State Department spokesman disputed claims that Americans' safety was at risk, but said the lack of a US presence in Afghanistan made it impossible to confirm the details of charter flights, including the number of US citizens hoping to get a seat, as well as the planes' intended destinations. The spokesman added: 'We will hold the Taliban to its pledge to let people freely depart Afghanistan.'

Senator Ted Cruz, who serves on the Committee on Foreign Relations, appeared to further substantiate that claim in a Sunday tweet:

'Joe Biden abandoned Americans in Afghanistan,' the Texas senator wrote. 'Members of Congress, including me and my office, have been working around the clock to get them out - and for days Biden's State Dept. couldn't even get out of its own way.' 'Now there are deeply disturbing reports of a hostage crisis.'

The Afghan official said it was four planes, and their intended passengers were staying at hotels while authorities worked out whether they might be able to leave the country. The sticking point, he indicated, is that many did not have the right travel papers.

Residents of Mazar-e-Sharif also said the passengers were no longer at the airport. At least 10 families were seen at a local hotel waiting, they said, for a decision on their fates. None of them had passports or visas but said they had worked for companies allied with the U.S. or German military. Others were seen at restaurants.

The small airport at Mazar-e-Sharif only recently began to handle international flights and so far only to Turkey. The planes in question were bound for Doha, Qatar, the Afghan official said. It was not clear who chartered them or why they were waiting in the northern city.

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