Explosion at Kabul airport as western countries rush to evacuate
Afghanistan updates
Sign up to myFT Daily Digest to be the first to know about Afghanistan news.
The US said there was an explosion outside Kabul airport as western countries scrambled to complete their last evacuation flights from the Afghan capital.
The Pentagon said the blast near the airport’s Abbey gate had resulted in an unknown number of casualties. The explosion came hours after warnings of security threats at the airport complicated attempts to provide safe passage for thousands of people. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear.
Western powers are rushing to evacuate thousands of foreigners and Afghans deemed to be at risk of reprisals from the Taliban ahead of a US deadline to pull its final troops out of Afghanistan by August 31. America’s Nato allies had pressured the Biden administration to extend the deadline but Washington rebuffed the requests.
The Taliban also warned that it would not accept an extension of the deadline. The airport has been the site of chaotic scenes since the Taliban seized power last week in the wake of the US’s withdrawal from the country.
While the US on Thursday said “we will continue to evacuate as many people as we can until the end of the mission”, other countries are trying to end their rescue missions.
The UK’s Boris Johnson said Britain had airlifted 15,000 people from Afghanistan in the past 10 days, representing the “overwhelming majority” of those to whom the UK owed a debt. But he admitted that the time left for evacuating those remaining was “quite short” as Britain prepared to wind down its civilian airlift by the weekend.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Germany’s defence minister, said European allies had begun to close their military missions. “We are now in certainly the most hectic, most dangerous and most sensitive phase,” she said.
German media has reported that the Bundeswehr, or federal armed forces, will end airlifts of German civilians and Afghan staff on Thursday, and aims to have its own forces largely withdrawn by Friday.
The Dutch government said it expected to carry out its last evacuation flight from Afghanistan later on Thursday. In Berlin, Kramp-Karrenbauer said efforts were already under way to move into a “phase 2” during which Berlin would seek to ensure people could continue to leave the country through diplomatic channels.
A further 13,400 people were evacuated from Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, the White House said on Thursday morning, bringing the total number of people taken out of the country since August 14 to 95,700.
Officials have highlighted the dangers of a possible attack from Isis-K, a terrorist group — warnings that are likely to make it even harder for thousands who say they are eligible for evacuation to get into the heavily-guarded airport.
Flight traffic at Kabul airport has been heavy with foreign military evacuations supplemented by private charter flights sent by international organisations, the Afghan diaspora and other private citizens seeking to help employees, friends and relatives escape.
The Taliban has insisted all foreign troops must leave Afghanistan by the end of the month to restore civilian commercial flight services from Kabul. But the Taliban also wants to stem the exodus of Afghans and has blocked locals from reaching the airport. Many planes sent to evacuate at-risk Afghans, including private charters, have departed from Kabul nearly empty, according to people arranging the flights.
The Biden administration has come under heavy criticism from US allies and American lawmakers over the chaotic exit from Afghanistan, which they said risked leaving many vulnerable people stuck in the country.
There was “no deadline” to help remaining US citizens and Afghans who had assisted American forces, US secretary of state Antony Blinken added, and Washington was developing “detailed plans” for providing consular support and facilitating departures after August 31.
US officials admit that the fate of anyone left in Afghanistan after that would be in the Taliban’s hands. The Taliban has said Afghans with valid paperwork will be permitted to leave the country after the deadline.
Additional reporting by Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad
