Status: 08/27/2021 12:06 p.m.
After the suicide attacks at the airport in Kabul, the situation in the Afghan capital is apparently relatively calm at the moment. “The Taliban are still holding back,” reports the journalist Franz Marty in tagesschau24-Interview.
The devastating suicide attacks in front of the airport in Kabul are believed to have killed more than 100 people – including 13 US soldiers. The situation in the city itself is relatively calm, said the freelance journalist Franz Marty, who is in Kabul, in an interview with tagesschau24.
“It was not the first attack in Kabul and unfortunately people have got used to it,” he said. While there were chaotic scenes at the immediate crime scene, life elsewhere went on “reasonably normal”. Many people stayed at home for days out of fear.
Franz Marty, freelance journalist in Kabul, with details after the attack at the airport
tagesschau24 9:00 a.m., August 27, 2021
Unclear how it will continue
The Taliban are present all over the city and have set up checkpoints, but Marty’s experience has shown that one can still move relatively freely. “The Taliban are still holding back. They have announced that they will reorganize the state and pass new laws, but what exactly they want is still unclear.”
The Taliban had promised foreign reporters that they would continue their work and had “not yet intervened in the reporting.” However, there would have been cases of destroyed equipment or blows among Afghan journalists. “But there has not yet been any extensive intervention in the work there either.” How it will be in the future, however, cannot be said, says Marty.
“The overall risk of attacks has decreased”
Outside of Kabul, the situation is similar to that in the capital. Even in provincial cities it is unexpectedly quiet. There have been reports of acts of revenge against former security forces, for example, but these mostly relate to incidents that took place before the fall of Kabul. “Such acts of revenge are so far not systematic and not widespread,” reported Marty.
In some rural areas, however, the Taliban introduced stricter rules some time ago, such as a male companion for women or a ban on making music.
Despite the suicide bombings in front of the airport, which left many dead, the overall risk of attacks decreased with the takeover of power by the Taliban, according to Marty. Previously one had to fear attacks from the direction of the Taliban. The so-called Islamic State, however, which claimed yesterday’s attacks for itself, is only a small fringe group.