US military commanders have warned that another attack on Kabul airport is “highly likely” in the next 24-36 hours, president Joe Biden said, as western countries wrap up desperate efforts to evacuate thousands of Afghans and foreign nationals trying to flee.
Biden said in a statement on Saturday that the situation remained “extremely dangerous”, and “the threat of terrorist attacks on the airport remains high” ahead of Tuesday’s deadline for withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan.
“Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours. I directed them to take every possible measure to prioritise force protection, and ensured that they have all the authorities, resources and plans to protect our men and women on the ground,” he added.
The US said on Friday that it had carried out a drone strike in eastern Afghanistan that killed two members of Isis-K, the group that claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on Kabul airport that killed more than 100 Afghan civilians and 13 US military personnel.
Pentagon officials said the Isis-K members killed in the air strike in Nangarhar province were “planners” and “facilitators” of terrorist attacks. A third Isis-K member was injured.
“This strike was not the last,” Biden said. “We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.”
Thousands of people remain on the airport’s grounds awaiting evacuation, though their hopes of getting out are fading as countries conduct their final evacuation flights and Taliban fighters turn away eligible evacuees.
Many of them, who worked with or were associated with foreign forces or organisations, are in imminent danger of reprisal from the Taliban if left behind, say international humanitarian groups.
The UK Ministry of Defence confirmed on Saturday that the final British flight evacuating civilians had left the international airport in Kabul.
Nick Carter, the UK’s chief of defence staff, told the BBC that Britain that not everyone had been evacuated. “We haven’t been able to bring everyone out,” he said. “That has been heartbreaking. There have been some very challenging judgments that have had to be made on the ground.”
The UK government said as many as 1,100 Afghans eligible to travel were likely to be left behind, though opposition MPs said the true figure was much higher. Other countries including Italy, Canada and the Netherlands have already ended their evacuation operations.
US officials said that approximately 114,800 people had been evacuated since the end of June, including more than 12,000 on Friday. But added that more than 5,000 people were still awaiting evacuation at Kabul airport.
The US embassy in Kabul on Friday reiterated calls for citizens to avoid travelling to the Afghan capital’s airport and to leave any of its entrances “immediately” as it feared another terror attack.
Locals say few Afghan citizens are now able to get through the Taliban checkpoints set up to control access to the airport, with the militants turning them away despite having passage to leave.
One man in his early 30s, his wife and two young daughters boarded a bus chartered to take Europe-bound evacuees to the airport on Thursday, but ended up being stuck for 36 hours in the chaos that followed the terrorist attack.
“There was no access to [a] toilet, proper food, meal, water,” the man said. “Anything we had we were sharing with each other.”
On Friday night, the bus had crossed the first Taliban checkpoint at the entrance to the airport when a fighter boarded. “He asked us, ‘Why are you leaving my brothers? Who are you scared of? Please go back home, the country needs you’.”
Only the foreign citizens on the bus were allowed through. The man and his family are now back home awaiting another attempt at evacuation, though their hopes are fading.
The Taliban now claim to control some of Kabul airport’s gates, though the Pentagon has denied this.
Additional reporting by Fazelminallah Qazizai in Kabul
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