Taliban promise peace, but doubt and fear persist

For the first time since retaking power in Afghanistan, the Taliban’s leaders Tuesday promised peace at home and urged the world to look past their history of violence and repression.

“We don’t want Afghanistan to be a battlefield anymore — from today onward, war is over,” Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s longtime chief spokesperson, said in a news conference in Kabul, the capital.

Mujahid, a high-ranking leader, said the Taliban had declared a blanket amnesty, vowing no reprisals against former enemies. And the group has in some places appealed to civil servants — including women — to continue to go to work.

But much of the world is wary of the Taliban's reassurances. On Tuesday, a Biden administration official confirmed that any central bank assets the Afghan government had kept in the United States would not be available to the Taliban.

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Tuesday evening, Mujahid held a news conference in the room where the government had held its press briefings days earlier. Around him were dozens of Afghan journalists, including women, a particular target of violence by the Taliban and other militants.

The Taliban appealed to Afghans not to leave the country, saying they had nothing to fear. But thousands of people have thronged the Kabul airport just two days after the Taliban entered the city.

In the chaos at the airport, where US troops fatally shot at least two people Monday, there were reports of several more deaths Tuesday. While US troops controlled the airport, the Taliban took control of the approaches to it, and at times beat people with rifle butts and clubs to force back the crowds.

The US Embassy released a statement to Americans who want to leave that they should get to the airport but added that the US government “cannot guarantee your security” on the way there.

President Joe Biden faced mounting criticism in Washington over the stunning lack of preparation for the lightning advance of the Taliban and the collapse of government resistance. Republicans said Biden was in too much of a hurry to withdraw US forces, although he had postponed the date first set by President Donald Trump.