Afghan national team footballer Zaki Anwari died in a fall from a United States plane at Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport on Monday, the Afghan news agency Ariana said on Thursday.
Zaki Anwari, a footballer of the Afghanistan Youth National Team was one of the unfortunate persons who was shown falling from a USAF Boeing C-17 plane while it just taken off, his identity was confirmed by the Afghan Directorate of Sports. pic.twitter.com/ftnqY0dJEJ
— Iftikhar Firdous (@IftikharFirdous) August 19, 2021
Crowds of people seeking to flee Afghanistan have spilled into the airport since Taliban insurgents swept to power on Sunday, many seen trying to board a moving plane.
Ariana said Zaki Anwari fell from a USAF Boeing C-17 and that the death had been confirmed by the General Directorate for Sport.
Military flights evacuating diplomats and civilians from Afghanistan resumed early on Tuesday after the runway at Kabul’s airport was cleared of thousands of people desperate to flee after the Taliban seized the capital.
U.S. forces took charge of the airport, their only way to fly out of the country, on Sunday, as the militants were winding up a dramatic week of advances across the country with their takeover of the capital without a fight. Flights were suspended for much of Monday, when at least five people were killed, witnesses said, although it was unclear whether they had been shot or crushed in a stampede.
Media reported two people fell to their deaths from the underside of a U.S. military aircraft after it took off, crashing to their deaths on roofs of homes near the airport.
