Westerners board flight to leave Kabul

The Taliban agreed to let about 200 foreigners leave Afghanistan aboard a Qatar Airways flight to Doha on Thursday. The departure is the first large-scale evacuation since U.S. and NATO forces left Afghanistan late last month. News reports indicated that another 200 foreigners, including Americans, would fly out in the next couple of days.

Are Afghans allowed to leave? Hundreds of Afghans who are at risk because of their past work with Americans have gathered for more than a week in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, waiting for permission to board privately chartered evacuation flights out of the country. The Taliban said it would let passengers with valid travel documents leave, but many of those at the northern airport did not have such papers.

Dig deeper: Read WORLD’s ongoing coverage of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.