“We believe it is their desire to continue those attacks, and we expect those attacks to continue,” Marine Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters Thursday. He outlined security measures in place, including securing the boundary of the airfield and using anti-rocket and mortar systems, as well as sharing some information with Taliban militants operating checkpoints outside the airport.
Here’s what to know
Britain reportedly rescues three Afghan families exposed in rush to evacuate embassy
Britain has rescued three Afghan families whose details were exposed by officials in the rush to leave the country’s embassy in Kabul.
Documents identifying seven Afghans who worked for the British diplomatic mission in Afghanistan were found by reporters from the Times of London on Tuesday as Taliban fighters patrolled the compound, the newspaper said.
Embassy employees apparently left the documents — which reportedly included the details of a senior embassy staffer, other staff members and the resumes of people who had applied to be interpreters — scattered on the ground in their haste to evacuate.
Some of the people had already been resettled in Britain, the newspaper reported.
The British Foreign Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. According to a number of media reports, officials acknowledged the apparent error that led to the exposure of Afghan staff, saying that employees had tried to destroy sensitive material before leaving the embassy.
“We have worked tirelessly to secure the safety of those who worked for us in Afghanistan and continue to do so,” a representative for the Foreign Office told the Guardian newspaper. “The drawdown of our embassy was done at pace as the situation in Kabul deteriorated. Every effort was made to destroy sensitive material.”
Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative lawmaker who chairs a parliamentary committee that oversees the Foreign Office, said that an official inquiry will be launched into the incident. “The evidence is already coming in,” he tweeted.
The fate of Afghans who worked with Western and allied governments during the two decades-long conflict is uncertain after the Taliban’s swift takeover of the country this month. The Islamist militant organization has promised not to retaliate, but evidence of Taliban killings, detentions and intimidation have emerged across Afghanistan.
More than 104,000 people have been flown out of the country since Aug. 14, the Pentagon said, including foreign citizens and vulnerable Afghans who may have faced retribution under Taliban rule.
British evacuation mission ending in ‘hours,’ defense chief says
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Friday that the country’s evacuation mission in Afghanistan was about to end.
“We will process the people that we’ve brought with us, the 1,000 people approximately in the airfield now,” he told British media. “But overall the main processing is now closed and we have a matter of hours.”
Not everyone that Britain had sought to rescue would manage to be evacuated, he said.
Wallace’s remarks came a day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged that London would continue evacuation operations in Afghanistan “until the last moment."
Johnson had said that the “despicable” attacks at Kabul airport Thursday that killed dozens, including 13 American service members, did not change British airlift plans. “We are able to continue with the program in the way we have been running it, according to the timetable that we have got,” he said.
Local media had previously reported that the British airlifts might stop as early as Wednesday evening. The White House has set an Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan; their presence is critical to the airlift and Kabul airport’s security.
The prime minister said that London would continue pushing the new Taliban regime to let Afghans out. Britain “fully expects” that all who want to leave after Aug. 31 are allowed to do so, he said. “We will use all the influence that we can bring to bear … to encourage the new authorities in Afghanistan to do that.”
Johnson’s remarks come as President Biden declared his intent to complete U.S. evacuation operations despite the ISIS attacks. “We will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuation,” the president said.
The British Embassy in Washington flew flags at half-staff on Thursday, saying it stands in solidarity with the United States and troops killed in the attacks.
London has evacuated over 11,400 people — mostly Afghans — from Taliban rule since mid-August.
Attorney for Afghan girls’ robotics team tells Oklahoma woman to stop taking credit for rescue
An attorney for the famed all-girls Afghan robotics team has sent a cease-and-desist letter to an Oklahoma woman, telling her to stop taking credit for the girls’ escape from Kabul and warning that her numerous media appearances endanger their organization’s remaining members in Afghanistan.
The woman, Allyson Reneau, spoke last week to Today.com and to several other media outlets, telling a story of her supposed involvement in the evacuation of several members of the robotics team, known internationally as the “Afghan Dreamers.” These outlets reported that she had “saved” the girls from probable oppression under the Taliban.
But a lawyer for the team’s parent organization, the Digital Citizen Fund, said Reneau has overstated her role and has put the girls and their families at risk because her claims are undermining ongoing rescue efforts in the country.
Analysis: The numbers behind the Kabul airlift
Every morning for the past week or so, the White House has released numbers detailing the scope of the effort to airlift Americans and others out of Afghanistan. The data clearly had been meant to reinforce that the effort to bring threatened individuals to safety was moving forward at a staggering clip and, therefore, that reports about the chaos that preceded those evacuations were less dire. What the recent numbers also show is that the effort slowed in recent days, with nonmilitary flights making up a large percentage of the total.
Pulling the numbers from the daily updates shows that more than 100,000 people have been airlifted out of Afghanistan since Aug. 1. The White House refers to this total as the number of people the United States evacuated or whose evacuation it “facilitated,” referring to those nonmilitary flights. The most evacuations happened in the 24-hour period ending Tuesday morning, when 21,600 people were evacuated. In the 24 hours before Thursday morning, the number was 13,400.
Australia completed evacuation just before bombings; New Zealand condemns ‘despicable’ attacks
SYDNEY — Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia condemned the “evil” attacks that killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghans at Kabul airport Thursday, adding that his country had “completed” its evacuation operation shortly before the incidents.
“We join with our American and Afghan friends in mourning their terrible and awful loss,” he said, adding that he had sent a letter expressing his condolences to President Biden.
Morrison said that Australian soldiers had been guarding the airport’s Abbey gate just hours before the attack there but that all government personnel had made it out before the twin bombings.
In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called the bombings “despicable” and said that conditions on the ground in Kabul made it too difficult for her country to continue evacuating people. New Zealand also withdrew its troops shortly before the attacks.
“New Zealand’s thoughts and condolences are with those who helped us to get our citizens and visa holders home,” she added.
Australia deployed more than 250 troops in its operation — though some remained at an air base in the United Arab Emirates — and evacuated 4,100 people, including more than 3,200 Australians and Afghan visa holders. Nearly 800 of the people who fled are already in quarantine in Australia. Morrison would not say how many Australian citizens or visa holders were still in Afghanistan but said opportunities to get them out were now “very restricted.”
Roughly 40 New Zealand troops were involved in its rescue mission, which had evacuated 276 New Zealanders before a final flight carrying around 100 people, including some Australians, left on Thursday. Some visa holders and citizens remained behind, Ardern said.
“We are just unfortunately not clear on the numbers,” she said. “But I can say, we know with absolute certainty we did not get everyone out.”
Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton said the deadly attack underscored why his country fought in Afghanistan, losing 41 troops.
“They have demonstrated through those barbaric actions exactly the reason why Australia was with our allied forces in Afghanistan,” he said. “Over the last 20 years, 39,000 Australians have worn the uniform and have fought in our country’s name to keep that sort of barbaric act from our shores.”
Biden criticized by GOP, some Democrats in aftermath of attack
President Biden faced criticism from congressional Republicans after the attacks in Kabul, and some senior Democrats questioned the Pentagon’s reliance on the Taliban to protect the airport where a deadly strike took place.
While some Republicans said Biden should resign, most focused on demanding that the withdrawal timeline, set for Tuesday, be lifted to allow a forceful counter attack against the Islamic State forces that took credit for the bombings, which killed 13 U.S. service members.
Some Republicans called for an emergency session of Congress, which is on its late-summer break and is not slated to return until mid-September.
The most vocal Democratic criticism came from Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who questioned whether Taliban guards had failed in letting the ISIS bombers get so close to the Kabul airport.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned lawmakers against another unofficial visit to Kabul after the actions of two congressmen this week, about 48 hours before explosions rocked the city.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called on Congress to pass legislation that would prohibit the complete withdrawal from Afghanistan “until every American is out of Afghanistan.”
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