A pregnant woman from California who is trapped in the Afghan capital of Kabul has said the Taliban is hunting Americans and seeking out U.S. citizens in door-to-door searches.
The woman, who was identified only as Nasria, spoke to Voice of America (VOA) on Friday about her experiences since U.S. forces left Afghanistan on the August 31 withdrawal deadline.
The 25-year-old had traveled to the country in June to visit family and get married but is now stranded there with no apparent way to get home. She was referred to only by her first name for safety reasons.
"There's been days, you know, where I think to myself, 'Am I gonna make it home? Am I gonna to end up living here? Am I gonna end up dying here?" she said.
Nasria said the Taliban, who now control Kabul and most of the country, were hunting Americans.
"Apparently they're going door-to-door [...] trying to see, you know, if anybody has the blue passport," she said.
She had booked a return flight to the U.S. but that was canceled.
Nasria said she and her husband had tried to get on an evacuation flight from Kabul airport and the State Department had advised her where to wait for admittance.
However, Nasria said the Taliban would not let her pass despite showing her U.S. passport.
"It was so hard to just get on a flight. There was a couple days where we had to sleep on streets. People were literally stepping over people. That's how bad it was," Nasria said.
Nasria described how the Taliban prevented her and her husband from entering the airport as U.S. forces were carrying out evacuations of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies.
"Our troops were literally at the gate just waiting for us to continue walking and they had blocked us," she said. "There was a time where like, I went past them and started walking as fast as I can, and they started shooting right by my leg and told me to come back."
Her husband, who is an Afghan national, at one point pleaded with the Taliban to let Nasria go on her own but she refused because she's pregnant and knew she would never return to Afghanistan.
"My child is gonna need a father. I'm gonna need a husband by my side," she said.
Nasria said the State Department has told her to stay where she is and they will find a way to get her out of the country but she expressed skepticism following her experience.
"If I was only 15 steps away from the airport, and I was told people are going to come out of the airport to get me - so what hope am I supposed to have now?" she said.
