Avoid travel to airport due to security threats, US mission tells Americans as clock ticks on challenging Kabul airlift

The US Embassy in Kabul warned Americans of “potential security threats” on Saturday and asked them to avoid traveling to the airport and airport gates without “individual instructions from a US government representative”.

Afghans — fearing a return of the harsh Taliban rule — have tried to flee the country after the insurgents seized power in a lightning offensive that stunned Western powers, with the rushed exit leading to sporadic firing at the airport, people falling to their deaths from planes and roads paralysed with traffic.

Tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan waited nervously on Saturday to see whether the United States would deliver on President Joe Biden’s new pledge to evacuate all Americans and all Afghans who aided the war effort.

But time is running out ahead of Biden’s 31 August deadline to withdraw most remaining US troops, and the president on Friday night did not commit to extending it. He faces growing criticism as videos depict pandemonium and occasional violence outside the airport, and as vulnerable Afghans who fear the Taliban’s retaliation send desperate pleas not to be left behind.

Saturday’s advisory by the American mission said all US citizens, who want to leave Afghanistan, should complete the “Repatriation Assistance Request”.

“Spouses and minor children of US citizens in Afghanistan who are awaiting immigrant visas should also complete this form if they wish to depart…We will contact registered US citizens as the security situation changes to provide further instructions,” it said.

It recommended to its citizens a series of actions, including being aware of the “surroundings at all times, especially in large crowds”, following instructions by local authorities, having a contingency plan, and monitoring “local media for breaking events”, among others.

The advisory came on the day there were reports in the local media about the abduction of over 150 foreigners, including Indians, from outside the Kabul airport. Later, Indian government sources clarified that all Indians in Kabul were safe and their evacuation was underway. The Taliban too denied abducting foreigners. A member of the group held briefly by the insurgents said the foreigners were taken for a security check and later released.

‘Abide by Islamic custom’

Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy in Afghanistan “urged Chinese nationals there to strictly abide by Islamic custom including code of dressing and dining in public”, state media reported. The embassy also suggested that Chinese people keep their distance from the Kabul airport and other chaotic sites, Global Times said in a tweet.

Chinese embassy in Afghanistan on Saturday urged Chinese nationals there to strictly abide by Islamic custom including code of dressing and dining in public. The embassy also suggested Chinese people keep distance from the Kabul airport and other chaotic sites. pic.twitter.com/UkMdr8lJ0j

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 21, 2021

On Monday — a day after the Taliban seized power — China said it was ready to deepen “friendly and cooperative” relations with Afghanistan and “welcomed” the chance to deepen ties with the country that has for generations been coveted for its geo-strategic importance by bigger powers.

China also called on the Taliban to “ensure a smooth transition” of power and keep its promises to negotiate the establishment of an “open and inclusive Islamic government” and ensure the safety of Afghans and foreign citizens.

A top-level Taliban delegation met with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in Tianjin last month, promising that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militants. Beijing has long feared Afghanistan could become a staging point for minority Uyghur separatists in the sensitive border region of Xinjiang.

In exchange, China offered economic support and investment for Afghanistan’s reconstruction.

Challenges and assurances

Taliban militants seized control of the capital Kabul on Sunday after a rapid offensive across Afghanistan that shocked the UD and its foreign allies, who were just two weeks away from completing their withdrawal from the country.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday the main challenge “is ensuring that people can reach and enter Kabul airport.” He spoke at an emergency videolink conference of the alliance’s foreign ministers.

A German civilian was shot on his way to the airport, a spokeswoman for the German government said on Friday.

In professed rebrand, the Taliban have repeatedly vowed a complete amnesty but an intelligence document for the United Nations (UN) said militants were going door-to-door hunting down former government officials and those who worked with US and NATO forces.

According to a confidential document by the UN’s threat assessment consultants seen by AFP, militants were also screening people on the way to Kabul airport.

Biden, facing criticism over his country’s response to the Taliban takeover, sought to reassure the United States on the dramatic evacuation on Friday, promising no Americans would be abandoned.

“This is one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history,” he said in a televised address from the White House. “I cannot promise what the final outcome will be.” But he said firmly: “Let me be clear: any American who wants to come home, we will get you home.”

He also said the US was “committed” to rescuing Afghans who had worked alongside US forces against the Taliban and who now fear retribution.

And earlier, Biden pledged to send more troops to evacuate civilians after the Taliban’s Kabul takeover on 15 August, while warning the insurgents not to threaten that mission. Biden said a total of “approximately 5,000” US soldiers — up from 3,000 — will now help organise evacuations and the end of the US mission after 20 years on the ground.

He warned the Taliban that any action “that puts US personnel or our mission at risk there, will be met with a swift and strong US military response.”

A long wait

On Saturday, crowds remained outside its concrete barriers, clutching documents and sometimes stunned-looking children, blocked from flight by coils of razor wire.

Tens of thousands of Afghan translators and others, and their close family members, seek evacuation after the Taliban’s shockingly swift takeover of Afghanistan in a little over a week’s time. The fall of Kabul marked the final chapter of America’s longest war, which began after the 11 September, 2001, terror attacks.

Evacuations continued, though some outgoing flights were far from full because of the airport chaos, Taliban checkpoints and bureaucratic challenges. A German flight on Friday night carried 172 evacuees, but two subsequent flights carried out just seven and eight people.

After a backlog at a transit facility in Qatar forced flights from the Kabul international airport to stop for several hours on Friday, the Gulf nation of Bahrain on Saturday announced it was allowing flights to use its transit facilities for the evacuation. The United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, said it would host up to 5,000 Afghans “prior to their departure to other countries.”

On Friday, a defence official said about 5,700 people, including about 250 Americans, were flown out of Kabul aboard 16 C-17 transport planes, guarded by a temporary US military deployment that’s building to 6,000 troops. On each of the previous two days, about 2,000 people were airlifted.

Officials also confirmed that US military helicopters flew beyond the Kabul airport to scoop up 169 Americans seeking to evacuate. No one knows how many US citizens remain in Afghanistan, but estimates have ranged as high as 15,000.

So far, 13 countries have agreed to host at-risk Afghans at least temporarily, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Another 12 have agreed to serve as transit points for evacuees, including Americans and others. About 300 evacuees arrived Friday night from Qatar at the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany, one transit point for people being taken to the US, the American military said.

But the growing question for many other Afghans is, where will they finally call home? Already, European leaders who fear a repeat of the 2015 migration crisis are signaling that fleeing Afghans who didn’t help Western forces during the war should stay in neighboring countries instead. The desperate scenes of people clinging to aircraft taking off from Kabul’s airport have only deepened Europe’s anxiety.

Many Afghans fear a return to the Taliban’s harsh rule (1996-2001), when the group barred women from attending school or working outside the home, banned television and music, chopped off the hands of suspected thieves and held public executions.

“Today some of my friends went to work at the court and the Taliban didn’t let them into their offices. They showed their guns and said, ‘You’re not eligible to work in this government if you worked in the past one,’” one women’s activist in Kabul told The Associated Press on Saturday. She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

With a Turkish visa but no way to safely reach the airport, the activist described the gap between the Taliban’s words and actions as “very alarming.” She said she was holed up in the city with a colleague, eating food delivered by a friend.

With inputs from agencies