US warns citizens to ‘immediately’ leave Kabul airport

The US Embassy in Kabul has warned Americans, who are looking to be evacuated out of Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover, to avoid traveling to the Kabul airport and asked them to “immediately leave” the gates.

"US citizens who are at the Abbey gate, East gate, North gate or the New Ministry of Interior gate now should leave immediately," the embassy said in a security alert on Saturday.

"Because of security threats at the Kabul airport, we continue to advise US citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates," it added.

The alert did not specify what the security threats might be, but it followed Thursday's bombing that killed scores of people including at least 13 US servicemen.

The warning came after the Pentagon warned on Friday that the airlift operation to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies still faced "specific, credible threats."

The Thursday attack claimed by the Daesh terrorist group targeted American forces but hit hardest the mass of Afghan civilians who had converged on the airport in desperate hopes of catching evacuation flights.

The US military said it carried out a drone strike against a Daesh planner early Saturday morning in what appeared to be a retaliatory attack for the bombing at Kabul airport.

“The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target,” Captain Bill Urban of the US Central Command said in a statement. “We know of no civilian casualties.”

An estimated 1,500 Americans and countless other foreigners, still stranded in Afghanistan, try to make it to the airport to leave before the deadline of August 31.

US President Joe Biden said this week he would not extend the deadline for the complete withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan after the Taliban warned that such a move would be unacceptable.

Biden has come under attack from all sides over the ill-planned and badly executed withdrawal process, with a growing chorus of Republicans amplifying their criticism by calling for the president to either resign or be impeached in the wake of the Kabul blast.

The outrage over the American deaths Thursday was compounded by news that the Biden administration gave the Taliban the names of Americans and Afghan allies it wanted to evacuate.

MG