One of the two people who fell to death off a U.S. Air Force plane departing from Kabul’s international airport Sunday was identified to be a player of Afghanistan’s National youth soccer team, a sports federation said Thursday.
A 17-year-old Zaki Anwari was captured on camera falling off a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft after an unsuccessful attempt to cling to the military plane’s exterior.
“Anwari was one of hundreds of young people who wanted to leave the country and, in an incident, fell off an American military plane and died,” Afghanistan’s General Directorate of Physical Education and Sports said Thursday in a Facebook statement.
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
The teenager was among at least three people who died during the U.S. military’s hasty evacuation efforts in the aftermath of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan’s capital Sunday.
Aside from the two people who fell off shortly after the aircraft’s takeoff, the remains of a third unidentified person were found in the wheel well of the military plane upon its arrival in the Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the U.S. Air Force said Tuesday. (RELATED: Shocking Video Appears To Show Afghan Hanging Out Of Landing Gear)
President Joe Biden said Wednesday the U.S. would keep troops in Afghanistan past his Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline in order to evacuate all Americans who are currently in the country.