Biden travels to air base to honour US troops killed in Afghanistan - CNA

US DIPLOMATIC PRESENCE "UNLIKELY"

The United States has evacuated nearly 5,500 American citizens from Afghanistan since Aug 14, including 50 in the last day, and was still working to get about 250 American citizens still in the country onto evacuation flights, a State Department spokesman said.

The Taliban had pledged to allow Afghans to leave Afghanistan after Tuesday's deadline for the withdrawal of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops, after which the United States was unlikely to have any diplomats in the country to help at-risk Afghans who miss out on the evacuation flights, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press programme.

"In terms of having an on-the-ground diplomatic presence on September 1st, that's not likely to happen," Blinken said.

Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the administration had failed to plan for a Taliban takeover, and criticised Blinken for giving an overly positive view of the evacuation effort.

"Their plan has basically been happy talk. People have died and people are going to die because President Biden decided to rely on happy talk instead of reality," Sasse told ABC's This Week.

Other members of Congress have vowed to probe what went awry in Afghanistan.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, a Democrat, said earlier this month that his panel will hold a hearing on US policy towards Afghanistan "including the Trump administration’s flawed negotiations with (the) Taliban, and the Biden administration's flawed execution of the US withdrawal".

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2021-08-29 15:39:10Z
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US in final phase of Kabul evacuations, Taliban prepares government - CNA

FINANCIAL AND HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

The collapse of the government leaves an administrative vacuum that has led to fears of an economic crisis and widespread hunger.

Prices for commodities like flour, oil and rice are rapidly rising and the currency is plunging, with money changers across the border in Pakistan already refusing to accept the afghani.

On Saturday, officials ordered banks to reopen and imposed a limit on withdrawals of US$200 or 20,000 afghani. Long queues of people trying to withdraw money formed outside bank branches.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has said that the difficulties will subside quickly once the new administration is up and running.

But with its economy shattered by 40 years of war, Afghanistan is now facing the end of billions of dollars in foreign aid poured in by Western donors.

Mujahid said that the Taliban would announce a full Cabinet in the coming days. It had appointed governors and police chiefs in all but one of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, he said.

It also appealed to the United States and other Western nations to maintain diplomatic relations after withdrawing. Britain said that should happen only if the Taliban allow safe passage for those who want to leave and respect human rights.

The Taliban's 1996 to 2001 rule was marked by a harsh version of sharia, Islamic law, with many political rights and basic freedoms curtailed and women severely oppressed.

Afghanistan was also a hub for anti-Western militants, and Washington, London and others fear it might become so again.

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2021-08-29 12:15:41Z
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US in final phase of evacuations from Kabul, Taliban says ready to take over airport - CNA

US forces are in the final phase of leaving Kabul, ending two decades of involvement in Afghanistan, and just over 1,000 civilians at the airport remain to be flown out before troops withdraw, a Western security official said on Sunday (Aug 29).

The country's new Taliban rulers are prepared to take control of the airport, said an official from the hardline Islamist movement that has swept cross Afghanistan, crushing the US-backed government.

The Western security official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters a date and time for the end of the operation was yet to be decided.

President Joe Biden has said he will stick by his deadline to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by Tuesday, 20 years after they invaded Kabul and ousted the Taliban government for shielding the perpetrators of the Sep 11, 2001 attacks.

"We want to ensure that every foreign civilian and those who are at risk are evacuated today. Forces will start flying out once this process is over," said the official, who is stationed at the airport.

The Western-backed government and Afghan army melted away as the Taliban entered the capital on Aug 15, leaving an administrative vacuum that has bolstered fears of a financial collapse and widespread hunger.

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2021-08-29 05:35:55Z
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US warns of more terror attacks at Kabul airport - CNA

KABUL: Suicide bomb threats hung over the final phase of the US military's airlift operation from Kabul on Sunday (Aug 29), with President Joe Biden warning another attack was highly likely before the evacuations end.

More than 112,000 people have fled Afghanistan via the massive US-led airlift since the Taliban movement swept back into power a fortnight ago, and the operation is winding down despite Western powers saying thousands may be left behind.

What had already been a chaotic and desperate evacuation turned bloody on Thursday when a suicide bomber from the local chapter of the Islamic State group targeted US troops stopping huge crowds of people from entering the airport.

More than 100 people died in the attack, including 13 US service personnel, slowing down the airlifts ahead of Biden's deadline for evacuations to end by Tuesday.

The Pentagon said Saturday retaliation drone strikes had killed two "high-level" IS extremists in eastern Afghanistan, but Biden warned of more attacks from the group.

"The situation on the ground continues to be extremely dangerous, and the threat of terrorist attacks on the airport remains high," Biden said.

"Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours."

The US embassy in Kabul later released an alert warning of credible threats at specific areas of the airport, including access gates.

In recent years, the Islamic State's Afghanistan-Pakistan chapter has been responsible for some of the deadliest attacks in those countries.

They have massacred civilians at mosques, public squares, schools, and even hospitals.

While both IS and the Taliban are hardline Sunni Islamists, they are bitter foes - with each claiming to be the true flag-bearers of jihad.

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2021-08-29 03:24:54Z
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US believes new Kabul airport attack 'highly likely' soon, says President Joe Biden - The Straits Times

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US military commanders believe that another terror attack like the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport is "highly likely in the next 24-36 hours," President Joe Biden warned on Saturday (Aug 28).

After a briefing from his national security team, Biden said in a statement that a US drone strike targeting the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) group, which claimed responsibility for Thursday's carnage at the airport, was "not the last."

"The situation on the ground continues to be extremely dangerous, and the threat of terrorist attacks on the airport remains high," Biden said.

"Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours."

Scores of Afghan civilians were killed in the Kabul bombing on Thursday, along with 13 US troops - several of them born around the time US military operations in Afghanistan began 20 years ago.

The Pentagon said on Saturday it had killed two "high profile" targets - logistics experts for the militant group - and wounded another in a drone strike in eastern Afghanistan in retaliation for the suicide bombing.

No civilians were hurt in the attack, Major-General Hank Taylor told a news conference in Washington.

"The fact that two of these individuals are no longer walking on the face of the Earth, that's a good thing," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

US troops have been scrambling in dangerous and chaotic conditions to complete a massive evacuation operation from the Kabul airport by an Aug 31 deadline.

Biden has pledged to stick to the agreed cut-off and had vowed to punish those responsible for the suicide blast.

He said on Saturday that the drone attack would not be the last.

"We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay," he said.

"Whenever anyone seeks to harm the United States or attack our troops, we will respond. That will never be in doubt."

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2021-08-28 20:19:09Z
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US starts troop withdrawal from Kabul; hits Islamic State with drone attack - CNA

DANGEROUS FINAL DAYS

The White House said the next few days were likely to be the most dangerous of the evacuation operation. The United States and allies have taken about 111,900 people out of Afghanistan in the past two weeks, the Pentagon has said.

With another attack against Kabul airport a near certainty, according to US officials, the US Embassy in Kabul warned Americans to avoid the airport.

The last British flight evacuating civilians from Afghanistan left Kabul on Saturday. British troops would take small numbers of Afghan citizens with them as they leave this weekend, a defense ministry spokesperson said. Armed forces chief Nick Carter said hundreds of people who had worked with Britain would not make it through.

In the Pentagon's strike on militant suspects in Nangarhar, a US official said on Friday that an MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft flown from the Middle East targeted an Islamic State militant who was planning attacks and was in a car with an associate.

Residents of Jalalabad, the provincial capital, said they had heard several explosions around midnight and community elder Malik Adib said three people were killed and four were wounded in an air strike, adding that he had been summoned by the Taliban investigating the incident.

"Women and children are among the victims," said Adib, though he did not have information about their identity.

The US military said in a statement that it knew of no civilian casualties.

While Kabul's airport has been in chaos, the rest of the city has been generally calm. The Taliban have told residents to hand over government equipment including weapons and vehicles within a week, the group's spokesman said.

The airport attack added fuel to criticism Biden faced at home and abroad for the chaos after Afghanistan's government and military collapsed before a lightning Taliban advance. He has defended his decisions, saying the United States long ago achieved its rationale for invading in 2001.

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2021-08-28 18:02:00Z
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Taleban fighters ensure orderly evacuations at Kabul airport after blast - The Straits Times

KABUL (AFP) - Order replaced chaos at Kabul airport Saturday (Aug 28) with Taleban fighters escorting a steady stream of Afghans from buses to the main passenger terminal, handing them over to US troops for evacuation.

Gone are the tens of thousands clamouring to get inside the airport grounds in the hope of getting aboard a flight before Aug 31, when the US-led evacuation ends and the last foreign troops depart.

The deadly Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) suicide blast at a secondary entrance on Thursday likely scared away many looking for a way to escape the return to power of the hardline Islamists, but the Taleban have also sealed off all roads leading to the airport and are now only letting sanctioned buses pass.

"We have lists from the Americans... if your name is on the list, you can come through," one Taleban official told AFP near the civilian passenger terminal of Hamid Karzai International Airport. "If your name isn't here, then you cannot come through."

On Saturday, AFP saw more than a dozen small- and medium-sized buses disgorge tense-looking passengers at the main gate of the airport.

It was unclear who had organised the buses - or where they had come from - and the Taleban officials and guards present would not allow the passengers to be interviewed.

The men and women were separated and made to walk on opposite sides of the road, but both groups carried infants or led children by the hand - some oblivious to their ordeal and skipping as if on an adventure.

Everyone was stripped of their luggage apart from what they could keep in a plastic bag - but a Taleban official was quick to offer an explanation.

"Because of the blast, the Americans won't let them take anything," he said.

"We tell them to take the money and the gold in their pockets. If they leave clothes we will give to other people."

Heavily armed Taleban fighters were seen throughout the grounds and auxiliary buildings of the airport complex, while US marines peered at them from the passenger terminal roof.

After a 20-year war, the foes were within open sight of each other, separated by just 30 metres, and holding fire.

Also in view of the American troops were Badri special forces in humvees gifted to the Afghan defence forces, but now flying the white Taleban flag.

The US and other nations that had a military stake in Afghanistan planned for years to offer sanctuary to those who helped their troops - some more generously than others.

But plans for a staggered and orderly relocation were thrown into disarray by the Taleban's stunningly swift return to power.

Until Thursday's ISIS attack, tens of thousands of people had besieged the airport since Aug 15, when the Taleban rolled into Kabul having swept through the rest of the country in a lightning offensive.

The Taleban insist there will be no recriminations for those who helped foreign forces, but many Afghans - particularly the country's educated middle class - fear a return to the fundamentalist Islamist rule that effectively barred women from public life and punished crime with public floggings and executions.

The Pentagon says more than 110,000 Afghans and foreigners have been evacuated since Aug 14 - most to start a new life abroad with nothing more than their skills and what they can carry in a plastic bag.

An AFP photographer saw a journalist friend Saturday among those brought by bus for evacuation - he had worked for the US-led coalition force's media department and was considered at risk of Taleban retribution.

They embraced briefly before parting ways.

"Good luck," they told each other - one staying behind, and the other on his way to a new life.

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2021-08-28 15:16:52Z
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