US forces continue Kabul airlift under threat of further attacks

Evacuation flights from Afghanistan resumed with new urgency on Friday, a day after a suicide bombing targeted thousands of desperate people fleeing the Taliban takeover. The United States says more attempted attacks are expected before Tuesday’s deadline for foreign troops to leave, ending America’s longest war.

As the call to prayer echoed in Kabul on Friday, along with the roar of departing planes, the eager crowds that packed the airport in hopes of escaping the Taliban rule seemed as large as ever, a despite the scenes of the victims lying close together after the incident. bombing. Afghans, American citizens, and other foreigners were well aware that the window was closing to exit over the airlift.

Thursday’s bombing near Kabul International Airport killed at least 79 Afghans and 13 US soldiers, Afghan and US officials said, on the deadliest day for US forces in Afghanistan since August 2011. In an emotional speech, the president Joe Biden blamed the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State group. , much more radical than the Taliban militants who took power less than two weeks ago.

“We will rescue the Americans; We will bring out our Afghan allies and our mission will continue, ”Biden said. But despite intense pressure to extend Tuesday’s deadline, he has cited the threat of terrorist attacks as a reason for following through on his plan.

The Taliban, who regained control of Afghanistan two decades after they were toppled in a US-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks, insist on the deadline. The Trump administration in February 2020 reached an agreement with the Taliban calling for them to halt attacks on Americans in exchange for the removal of all US troops and contractors by May; Biden announced in April that he would take them out in September.

The United States will evacuate people ‘until the last moment’

While the United States says more than 100,000 people have been safely evacuated from Kabul, as many as 1,000 Americans and tens of thousands more Afghans still hope to leave on one of the largest airlifts in history. On Friday afternoon, General Hank Taylor told a Pentagon briefing that 5,400 people were inside the Kabul airport waiting to be evacuated from Afghanistan. The United States will be able to transport people by air “until the last moment,” Taylor told reporters.

However, more were coming. Thursday’s attack prompted Jamshad, who gave only his name, to come early Friday with his wife and three young children, with 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 give it a try because I’m afraid there will be more attacks now and I think now I have to go.”

‘Kabul still reeling from deadly attacks on Thursday’

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

But those possibilities are fading fast for many. Some US allies have said they are ending evacuation efforts, in part to give the United States time to complete its evacuation work before pulling out 5,000 of its troops by Tuesday.

Britain said on Friday that its evacuations from Afghanistan will end in a few hours and that the main British processing center for eligible Afghans has been closed. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News that there would be “eight or nine” evacuation flights on Friday and that they will be the last. British troops will be leaving in the next few days.

# Afghanistan | ❝ France joins the pain of the families of the victims of the Kabul terrorist attacks. Those who lead evacuation operations are heroes. We will complete these operations and continue our action to protect Afghans under threat.❞@EmmanuelMacron https://t.co/NNU9wgdeOd

– France Diplomacy🇫🇷 (@francediplo_EN) August 27, 2021

Italy, Spain and Switzerland said they had ended their evacuation operations. And French European Affairs Minister Clément Beaune said on French radio that France would end its evacuations “soon” but could try to extend them until after Friday night. A source in the French Foreign Ministry told Reuters that ministry officials were in “operational contact” with the Taliban in Kabul and Doha to facilitate evacuations.

Taliban say Afghans will be able to travel freely

Countless thousands of Afghans, especially those who had worked with the United States and other Western countries, are now hiding from the Taliban, fearing retaliation despite the group’s offer of full amnesty. The militant group has claimed that it has become more moderate since its harsh rule from 1996 to 2001, when it largely confined women to their homes, banned television and music, and carried out public executions.

But Afghans in Kabul and elsewhere have reported that some members of the Taliban are banning girls from school and going door-to-door looking for people who had worked with Western forces.

>> Afghan women’s groups look to an uncertain future under a vague ‘Islamic framework’

To allay fears of a crackdown on freedoms, a senior Taliban official said in a televised speech on Friday that Afghans with valid documents will be able to travel in the future at any time. “The Afghan borders will be open and people will be able to travel to and from Afghanistan at any time,” said Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, deputy head of the movement’s political commission.

Her speech came shortly after the Taliban issued a separate statement calling on female health personnel to return to work. The messages underscored efforts by Islamist militants to reassure wary Afghans and a deeply skeptical international community that they do not plan to return to their previous regime.

Hamid Karzai International Airport at the time of the August 26, 2021 attack © RFI / Creative Department, France Médias Monde

( Jowharwith AP and REUTERS)