The United States yesterday urged its citizens in Afghanistan to avoid travelling to the Kabul airport, citing “potential security threats” near its gates.
The warning from the US embassy in Kabul provided no detail on the danger, but a White House official later confirmed that aides had briefed President Joe Biden on “counterterrorism operations” in Afghanistan, including against the Islamic State group.
Conditions outside Hamid Karzai International Airport have been chaotic amid the crush of people hoping to flee the Taliban takeover of the country a week ago.
As thousands of Americans and Afghans wait at the airport for flights or gather nervously outside its gates, there have been “sporadic” reports, confirmed by the Pentagon, of Taliban fighters or other militants beating and harassing people trying to flee.
“Because of potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport, we are advising US citizens to avoid travelling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a US government representative to do so,” the US embassy alert said.
In a telephone briefing Sunday, senior government officials from Canada described conditions around the airport as “tenuous, chaotic and desperate.”
They said Canadian troops had evacuated nearly 1,000 Afghans from the country, adding: “This is a dangerous mission.”
Underlining the threat that the White House sees in the unfolding chaos — and likely also due to concern over a hurricane approaching the US northeast — President Joe Biden cancelled a planned trip home to Delaware yesterday.
“This morning, the president met with his national security team... They discussed the security situation in Afghanistan and counter-terrorism operations, including ISIS-K,” a White House official said.
Known as Islamic State in the Khorasan (IS-K or ISIS-K), the Afghan IS branch has been on the back foot since suffering heavy losses in 2019 but it retains the ability to carry out devastating attacks in urban areas, including Kabul.
“There has been no reported change to the current enemy situation in and around the airport at this time,” US Major General Hank Taylor said, however.
But Pentagon spokesman John Kirby conveyed a sense of urgency as the military, under heavy pressure, pursues the goal of completing the evacuation by August 31. “We’ve been very honest about the fact that we know that we’re fighting against both time and space,” he said, adding, “That’s the race we’re in right now.”
The United States hopes to evacuate 30,000 Americans and Afghan civilians.
Taylor said 17,000 people had been taken out since the operation began on August 14. The total included 2,500 Americans. In the past 24 hours, Taylor said, six military C-17 planes and 32 charter flights had departed the Kabul airport, carrying 3,800 people — a sharp decline from the previous day.
On Friday, the US military sent helicopters to rescue over 150 Americans unable to reach the airport gates, an official said.
Joe Biden (file picture)
