KABUL, 17 August 2021, (TON): At least five people were killed as thousands packed into the Afghan capital's airport on Monday, rushing the tarmac and pushing onto planes in desperate attempts to flee the country after the Taliban overthrew the Western-backed government.

US soldiers fired warning shots as they struggled to manage the chaotic evacuation.

Senior US military officials said “the chaos at Kabul airport left seven people dead, including some who fell from a departing American military transport jet. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to publicly discuss ongoing operations.”

One witness told Reuters he had seen the bodies of five people being taken to a vehicle. Another witness said it was not clear whether the victims were killed by gunshots or in a stampede.

Meanwhile, a Pentagon official said “US soldiers had killed two armed men at the airport.”

The official said, insisting on anonymity “in the thousands of people who were there peacefully, two guys who had weapons brandished them menacingly. They were both killed.”

Some of the thousands of Afghans trying to flee clung to the side of a US military plane before takeoff, in a widely shared video that captured the sense of desperation as America's 20-year war comes to a chaotic end.