Evacuation flights resume after deadly Kabul bombings
27 August 2021, 08:24
US president Joe Biden blamed the so-called Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate for the killing of 60 Afghans and 13 US troops.
Evacuation flights from Afghanistan have resumed a day after two suicide bombings targeted thousands of desperate people fleeing the Taliban takeover.
The US government has said further attempted attacks are expected ahead of the Tuesday deadline for foreign troops to leave, ending America’s longest war.
Kabul residents said several flights took off on Friday morning.
Thursday’s bombings near Kabul’s international airport killed at least 60 Afghans and 13 US troops in the deadliest day for US forces in Afghanistan since August 2011.
In an emotional speech in Washington DC, US president Joe Biden blamed the incident on the affiliate of the so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan (Isis-K), a far more radical force than the Taliban militants who seized power less than two weeks ago.
Mr Biden said: “We will rescue the Americans; we will get our Afghan allies out, and our mission will go on.”
But despite intense pressure to extend Tuesday’s deadline, he has cited the threat of terrorist attacks as a reason to keep to his plan.
The Taliban, back in control of Afghanistan two decades after they were ousted in a US-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks, insists on the deadline.
In February 2020, the Trump administration struck an agreement with the Taliban that called for it to halt attacks on Americans in exchange for the removal of all US troops and contractors by May 2021.
Mr Biden announced in April he would have them out by September.
While the US on Thursday said more than 100,000 people have been safely evacuated from Kabul, as many as 1,000 Americans and tens of thousands more Afghans are struggling to leave in one of history’s largest airlifts.
General Frank McKenzie, the US Central Command chief overseeing the evacuation, said about 5,000 people are awaiting flights on the airfield.
The scenes at the airport, with people standing knee-deep in sewage and families thrusting documents and even young children towards US troops behind razor wire, have horrified many around the world as efforts continue to help people escape.
But those chances are fading fast for many. Some US allies have said they are ending evacuation efforts, in part to give the US time to wrap up its evacuation work before getting 5,000 of its troops out by Tuesday.
The UK said its evacuations from Afghanistan will end within hours, and the main British processing centre for eligible Afghans has been closed.
The Spanish government said it has ended its evacuation operation.
Untold thousands of Afghans, especially ones who had worked with the US and other Western countries, are now in hiding from the Taliban, fearing retaliation despite the group’s offer of full amnesty.
The militant group has claimed it has become more moderate since its harsh rule from 1996 to 2001, when it largely confined women to their homes, banned television and music and held public executions.
But Afghans in Kabul and elsewhere have reported that some Taliban members are barring girls from attending school and going door-to-door in search of people who had worked with western forces.
No-one knows how effective the Taliban will be at combating the Sunni extremists of IS, who have links to the group’s more well-known affiliate in Syria and Iraq and have carried out a series of brutal attacks in Afghanistan, mainly targeting its Shia Muslim minority.
