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The United States has said it will continue to evacuate Afghans from Kabul airport until the “last moment”, despite lingering concerns over attacks by the Islamic State (IS) group.
Reports from Kabul now suggest 170 people died in Thursday’s attack on crowds at the airport gate.
The Pentagon says there are still credible threats against the airport.
The United States still treats Afghans desperate to leave. Most NATO countries have now ended their emergency flights.
France put an end to its evacuation efforts on Friday, blaming the deterioration in security at the airport. He said he had transported nearly 3,000 people out of the country.
The deadline set by the United States for the departure of its forces from Afghanistan expires on August 31.
The BBC’s chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet, who is in Kabul, has been told by sources that US and British troops are “preparing” at the airport and that the Taliban will take over in “a few hours.” .
A Taliban spokesman said on Friday evening that they had now taken control of parts of the airport. However, the Pentagon disputed this.
According to the Pentagon, more than 5,000 people remain inside the airport, waiting to be evacuated. Officials also said measures had been implemented, in conjunction with the Taliban, to improve security.
The White House says more than 111,000 people have been evacuated since the airlift began nearly two weeks ago.
The mission, a White House official said, would prioritize remaining US citizens wishing to leave, with US forces “engaging in various means to get them to the airport safely.”
Meanwhile, the United States Embassy in Kabul advises American citizens to avoid going to the airport and to avoid the airport gates due to security threats.
The Kabul airport attack was carried out by a suicide bomber who entered the crowd of families waiting outside one of the gates, according to British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.
There was no second explosion near an airport hotel, as originally believed, US officials said on Friday.
Dozens of Afghans have been killed – a definitive number has yet to be established. In addition, 13 United States personnel, two British nationals and the child of a British national were among the dead.
Some victims were blown into a sewage ditch where Afghans were waiting to be treated, while dozens were rushed to hospital.
Hospitals in Kabul, already struggling with fewer staff since the Taliban took power almost two weeks ago, have been inundated with patients.
Injured US personnel were airlifted to a US air base in Germany.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has been warned that another terrorist attack in Kabul is likely in the coming days.
The next few days would be “the most dangerous period yet,” said a White House official, adding that US forces were studying possible ISIS targets.
IS-K, or Islamic State of Khorasan Province, is the group that claimed to be behind Thursday’s deadly airport attack.
It is the most extreme and the most violent of all the militant jihadist groups in Afghanistan. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the United States took the group “very seriously.”
“Obviously, they pose a serious terrorist threat,” he said, adding, “I think the threat is real and no one wants to see it grow.
“We are not going to allow attacks on the homeland to emanate from Afghanistan again like they did 20 years ago.”
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