Taliban urge people to leave Kabul airport after 12 people killed there since Sunday

Those killed have died as a result of either gunshots or stampedes, Taliban and NATO officials said on Thursday

The Taliban have urged people to leave Kabul airport after 12 people were killed there since Sunday.

They died in and around the airport either as a result of gunshots or a stampede, Taliban and NATO officials said.

Thousands are still trying to flee Afghanistan via the capital's Hamid Karzai International Airport.

But the Taliban have warned people to leave and go back to their homes, with an official saying: "We don't want to hurt anyone at the airport."

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Scenes there have become increasingly desperate in recent days, with new footage showing a child being passed to a foreign soldier in the hope they might be able to escape.

Another clip, thought to have been filmed on Tuesday, captures shots being fired near large crowds and fighters kicking those trying to flee.

Thursday is Afghanistan Independence Day, with the Taliban claiming they are marking it by celebrating beating the "arrogant of power of the world".

Fighters are reported to have fired shots at people for not waving the Taliban flag, but it is not clear whether they died as a result of gunfire or a stampede, witnesses say.

At the airport, foreign embassies have set up evacuation centres inside a compound, including the UK and US who have committed to airlifting thousands of their own nationals and eligible Afghans in the coming weeks.

Speaking to Sky News this morning, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said that the Taliban are cooperating with the British by letting people through to be evacuated.

But he said the real challenge for embassy staff at the airport is "crowd issues" as hundreds battle for safety.

"It is very, very difficult for those soldiers dealing with some desperate, desperate people," he told Kay Burley.

In terms of numbers, he committed to "calling forward nearly 2,000 people" to board evacuation flights in the coming days.

Asked about footage of parents offering up their children to be rescued by Western soldiers, he said the armed forces cannot take youngsters without their families.

"We can't just take a minor on their own," he said.

Sky correspondent Stuart Ramsay, who is on the ground in Kabul, said crowds around the barbed wire fence to the airport were "absolute chaos" on Thursday morning.

He described "thousands upon thousands" of families with children trying to get to evacuation centres inside the compound, particularly via the US gate.

For the most part, Taliban fighters are not stopping people entering, he added, but thousands coming in "with no hope of getting on a flight", mean those who are eligible for asylum are not able to get through.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has committed to keeping US troops on the ground for as long as it takes to get every last American out.

Speaking to ABC News, he said: "If there's American citizens left, we're gonna stay till we get them all out."

Defending the decision to pull out troops ahead of the 20-year anniversary of 9/11, he said there was "no way" to do it "without chaos ensuing".