NBC News reports:

Local staff members at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul are “deeply disheartened” by U.S. evacuation efforts and have expressed a sense of betrayal and distrust in the American government, according to a State Department diplomatic cable obtained by NBC News.

Sent Saturday, the cable said that memos had been sent to Afghan staff at the Embassy on Wednesday, inviting them to head to the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. It told them to take food and prepare for difficult conditions.

“However, no one anticipated the brutal experience that occurred,” the cable said.

Staffers reported being jostled, hit, spat on and cursed at by Taliban fighters at checkpoints near the airport, it said, adding that criminals were taking advantage of the chaos while the U.S. military tried to maintain order “in an extremely physical situation.”

Some staff members reported that they were almost separated from their children, while others collapsed in crush of people and had to be taken to hospital with injuries, the cable said. Others said they had collapsed on the road because of heat exhaustion, it added.

“It would be better to die under the Taliban’s bullet” than face the crowds again, one staff member was quoted as saying in the cable. [Continue reading…]