Airlift Evacuation Winding Down On Kabul

Airlift Evacuation Winding Down On Kabul
Anxious crowds of Afghans still hoping to join the western evacuation airlift from Kabul have crowded airport gates less than a day after scores were killed in a devastating Islamic State suicide bombing.

As flights from Afghanistan resumed with fresh urgency on Friday, amid fears that the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) affiliate could attack again, more countries announced they had completed their evacuations with only days to go before the deadline for withdrawal by US-led troops.

With a Pentagon reporting continuing specific credible threats at the airport, they added that several countries appeared to be willing to work with the Taliban after the evacuation concludes to keep the airport open.

The UN security council joined international statements of condemnation of the Kabul airport bombings, describing it as “especially abhorrent” for deliberately targeting civilians and personnel assisting in the evacuation.

Thursday’s bombings near the airport killed at least 95 Afghans and 13 US troops, Afghan and US officials said, in the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan since August 2011.

Among the dead, the Foreign Office announced on Friday, were two British nationals and the child of another British national. The Pentagon said it appeared a single bomber who had caused the carnage at one of the airport gates rather than two as originally reported.

Amid warnings from UN agencies of an emerging “catastrophic” humanitarian situation, officials said they were planning for a “worst-case scenario” that would displace more than 500,000 across the country’s borders.

While the US has said more than 105,000 people have been safely evacuated from Kabul, as many as 1,000 US citizens and tens of

thousands more Afghans are struggling to leave in one of the largest airlifts in history.

Sweden was among the countries ending their evacuation missions on Friday, the foreign minister, Ann Linde, announced.

“All in all, some 1,100 people have been evacuated by the foreign ministry. All locally employed embassy staff and their families have been evacuated,” Linde told a news conference.

The UK’s evacuation efforts were also expected to end on Friday, while the last German civilian plane carrying Afghans fleeing Taliban rule landed in Frankfurt on Friday.

With an end to the often chaotic airlift imminent, Afghans continued to arrive at the airport, even as countries shut down their visa processing.

The scenes at the airport, with people standing knee-deep in sewage and families thrusting documents and even young children toward US troops behind razor wire, have horrified many around the world as efforts continued to help people escape.

Jamshad, who gave just his one name, arrived early on Friday with his wife and three small children, clutching an invitation to a western country he did not want to name.

This was his first attempt to leave, he said: “After the explosion, I decided I would try because I am afraid now there will be more attacks and I think now I have to leave.”

Another man, Ahmadullah Herawi, said: “Believe me, I think that an explosion will happen any second or minute, God is my witness, but we have lots of challenges in our lives. That is why we take the risk to come here and we overcome fear.”

As the evacuation began to wind down, the head of US Central Command, GenFrank McKenzie, said further attempted attacks were expected.

Joe Biden has vowed to complete the evacuation of US citizens and others from Afghanistan despite the deadly attack at the airport.