As the frantic operation to withdraw Americans and Afghans approaches its last hours, activities at the Kabul airfield are moving to focus on the removal of US troops and weapons. There is yet to be a solution to the issue of those left behind after Tuesday’s deadline.
Civilians are being processed at the terminal with a restricted capacity, according to a military officer. We’ll get an American on an aircraft if they stumble up to the gate and flash a blue passport.
The Taliban Are Making Operations Difficult
In the final hours of the rescue operation, the Taliban have reinforced their protective cordons surrounding the airport, making it even more difficult for civilians to get to the gates. As a result, it’s unclear how many more personnel will be capable of making it to the runway by the deadline of Tuesday for all US troops to exit the country.
Nine members of one family, including six children, were killed in the drone strike, a brother of one of those killed told a local journalist working with @CNN. US Central Command said earlier they were assessing the possibility of civilian casualties. https://t.co/PQ5zWnGvJ2
— Tara Copp (@TaraCopp) August 29, 2021
As per The New York Times, the international force led by the United States sent messages to Afghans wishing to flee over the weekend; these messages are notifying them that foreign peacekeeping evacuations from Kabul airport had finished and they could no longer be called forward for rescue flights.
A request for information from the Pentagon was not immediately returned. Thousands of Afghans were squeezing through the airfield gates just days ago, but they are now mostly vacant, with Taliban fighters lounging around outside while US troops finish their work within.
NEW: Hundreds of Afghan students & alumni of American University in Kabul told evacuations are canceled after 7 hours waiting in buses today to get to the airport. They are in panic and say their names and passport information was shared with the Taliban.https://t.co/5TeA6N59z9
— Farnaz Fassihi (@farnazfassihi) August 29, 2021
ISIS Strikes back with Rockets – They are Intercepted
A missile strike launched by the ISIS-K faction Monday morning punctured the last hours of the international project. Several of them were destroyed by American air defenses before they could even cause significant harm.
The assault on Monday came after an American drone attack in Kabul on Sunday; this drone attack destroyed a car loaded with explosives on its way to the airport, according to US officials.
According to early accounts, some Afghan citizens were killed at the hands of a secondary explosion, which the US Central Command is reviewing. Approximately 122,000 people, both Americans and Afghans, have been evacuated from Afghanistan in a historical airlift ever since the end of July.
📸: U.S. Marine with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit carries a baby as the family processes through the Evacuation Control Center at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. https://t.co/cehKAbqNev pic.twitter.com/rTMX1fKRsD
— ABC News (@ABC) August 30, 2021
Because the hasty effort left little chance to sort out much precise information about the many Afghan refugees, it’s unknown how many Americans who worked for the US made it out in time.
The Biden government has promised to keep trying to get disadvantaged Afghans and hundreds of Americans out of the nation, and the Taliban has promised to let those who want to leave go.
Nevertheless, with the world’s attention focused on the nation’s rising humanitarian catastrophe, doubts remain about how the organization will seek to administer the country or handle people that worked with the US and its NATO allies.
