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One of the officials also revealed that US special operations forces had set up a “secret door” at the airport and established “call centers” to guide Americans through the evacuation process.
Officials said the Americans were told to assemble at pre-defined “assembly points” near the airport where the Taliban would check their credentials and lead them a short distance to a gate manned by. American forces standing at their disposal to let them in amid huge crowds of Afghans seeking to flee.
US troops could see the Americans approaching with their Taliban escorts as they advanced through the crowd, presumably ready to step in in case something happened.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the arrangements, which have so far not been disclosed as the United States was concerned about the Taliban’s reaction to any publicity, as well as the threat. ISIS-K attacks if its operatives realized the Americans were being escorted in groups, officials said.
The ISIS branch, a nemesis of the Taliban, claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a gate at Kabul airport last week that killed 13 US servicemen and more than 170 Afghans.
The United States has maintained military and diplomatic contact with the Taliban for years through political talks and conflict resolution efforts, but the secret evacuation deal between the militant group and the U.S. military reflects a unprecedented level of tactical coordination. Although it is not known if there is a link, CIA Director William Burns paid a very unusual visit last week to Kabul, where he met Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar while the Biden administration struggled to keep air transport operations running smoothly.
Throughout the evacuation, officials in the Biden administration stressed that the Taliban was cooperating, and senior officials repeatedly stressed that the militant group was committed to providing “safe passage” for Americans.
Taliban escort missions took place “several times a day,” according to one of the officials. One of the main assembly points was an Interior Department building just outside the airport gates where nearby US forces could easily observe the US approach. The Americans were informed by various messages as to where to assemble.
“It worked, it worked wonderfully,” one official said of the arrangement. When the United States completed its withdrawal on Monday, more than 122,000 people had been airlifted from Hamid Karzai International Airport since July and more than 6,000 American civilians had been evacuated.
It is not clear whether the Taliban who verified credentials during these efforts pushed back any of the Americans. There have been numerous reports that some Americans with passports and US green card holders have been turned away from Taliban checkpoints near the airport and sometimes beaten.
In another separate secret arrangement not disclosed before the end of the operation, elite troops from the Joint Special Operations Command and other special operations units were also on the ground to help the Americans escape into contacting them through “call centers,” one of the officials said.
Special operations forces set up their own secret door at the airport and were sometimes in direct communication with the Americans, telling them exactly where to walk to find the door and be able to enter the airport.
The Secret Door allowed the US military to offer some protection to Americans by avoiding the publicly known and highly vulnerable gates of Afghanistan’s only airstrip for international flights.
As the evacuation began, thousands of people flocked to the airport gates hoping to get inside and catch flights, raising concerns over a terrorist attack centered on one of these entries.
On Sunday August 22, as he confirmed his decision not to extend the evacuation deadline beyond August 31, President Joe Biden acknowledged the growing threat ISIS-K posed to the airport.
“Threats outside the gates”
“Every day that we’re on the ground is another day that we know ISIS-K is looking to target the airport and attack both US and Allied forces as well as innocent civilians,” Biden said.
Last Wednesday, a US defense official told CNN that based on a very specific threat flow, it seemed clear that ISIS-K was planning to attack the crowds outside the airport. . The US Embassy in Kabul has warned US citizens at the airport gates to “leave immediately” and noted “security threats outside the gates.”
Thursday, the ISIS branch struck with its suicide bomber.
U.S. Central Command Commander Gen. Frank McKenzie first publicly disclosed the involvement of special operations forces at a press conference on Monday, saying the forces helped evacuate more than 1,000 citizens Americans and more than 2,000 Afghans “via phone calls, vectors and escorts.”
Special operations forces “have reached out to help bring in more than 1,064 US citizens and 2,017 SIVs or Afghans at risk, and 127 third-country nationals, all via phone calls, vectors and escorts.” , did he declare. But in the public comments, McKenzie did not specify the involvement of the JSOC, which includes forces that carry out the most dangerous counterterrorism missions such as the Army’s Delta Force and Navy SEALS.
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