Gunfire at Kabul airport kills 1; Taliban mass near Panjshir

The German military says a firefight at one of the gates of Kabul’s international airport killed at least one Afghan security officer and wounded three others

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A firefight at one of the gates of Kabul's international airport killed at least one Afghan security officer early Monday, German officials said, the latest chaos to engulf Western efforts to evacuate those fleeing the Taliban takeover of the country. The shooting near the military side of the airport came as the Taliban sent fighters northward to face a nascent rebellion against the insurgents who seized the country over a week ago in a lightning offensive. So far, the Taliban said there had been no fighting though the rebels already have seized three rural districts in the mountains of the Hindu Kush. Though the security forces of Afghanistan's central government largely collapsed or fled the Taliban advance, some armed Afghans remain at Kabul airport assisting Western countries and others as they struggle to evacuate those gathered there. It remains unclear whether they belong to the Afghan border forces that once guarded the airport or whether they were attached to the Western militaries as private armed guards now providing security there. The gunfire that killed the Afghan officer early Monday broke out near the airport's northern gate — the same scene of chaos that on Saturday saw a crush of a panicked crowd kill seven Afghan civilians.