Strong explosion outside Kabul airport, it would be a suicide attack
Afghanistan, amb.
Pontecorvo: "Possibility of Isis terrorist infiltration among refugees"
Kabul effect, President Biden collapses in all polls
Netherlands, protests outside the base hosting evacuated Afghans
Afghanistan, the deadline for withdrawal remains August 31st.
UN: "We will stay here alongside the people"
The Taliban: "Don't take our engineers and doctors away"
Afghanistan.
Gentiloni: "May the EU welcome even without unanimity"
Afghanistan, US weapons in the hands of the Taliban
Share
August 26, 2021
Frantic hours, with security deteriorating by the minute around Kabul airport, the only hope left for tens of thousands of people fleeing the Emirate of Afghanistan.
A suicide bomber blew himself up near the 'Abbey' Gate of the airport. Access to the area, managed by the military of the US contingent, is forbidden. No countryman was involved.
There would be injuries among the Afghans. Some American soldiers, marines, were also reportedly injured in the explosion. This second news is reported by some US media, including Fox News.
The blast, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Twitter, was followed by gunshots.
The United States, the United Kingdom and Australia had warned their citizens a few hours earlier to leave the airport due to the danger of an imminent ISIS attack.
A few hours earlier, moments of panic occurred aboard an Italian Air Force C130, after the Taliban fired machine gun shots to disperse the crowd.
The pilot, a captain, carried out diversionary maneuvers to avoid entering the line of fire during the take-off phase from Kabul airport.
This was explained by intelligence sources, according to which no shots were directed towards the plane, on which the journalists and 98 Afghan civilians were.
According to sources, an Afghan pickup truck equipped with machine guns and located away from the runway fired a few rounds from a 14.5-caliber machine gun overhead to disperse the crowd that was pressing towards the gate. The pilot of the Italian C130 then made a tactical take-off to escape a potential threat.
Serious and imminent
threat The terrorist threat against Kabul airport is "very serious" and "imminent," British Deputy Defense Minister James Heappey said today after the government advised its citizens late yesterday evening. , not to go to the airport of the capital. "Don't go to Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport," the Ministry of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs wrote on its website in recent years. "There is a high and permanent threat of a terrorist attack, while thousands of Afghans are still massed at the gates of the airport in the hope of fleeing the country that has fallen into the hands of the Taliban".
"The news over the course of the week has become more and more credible. And it's about imminent and serious threats to life," Heappey told Times Radio this morning. "This is a very serious, very imminent threat."
Italy too - according to what is learned from Italian sources in Afghanistan - is on alert.
The Slovenian presidency of the EU Council has called an extraordinary meeting on Afghanistan of the interior ministers for Tuesday 31 August, deadline for the conclusion of the evacuation operations.
We learn from EU sources.
A meeting of the 27 ambassadors is scheduled for today at 2 pm.
Meanwhile, thousands of Afghans are massing at the Spin Boldak crossing, on the border with Pakistan, where there are no Western forces to help.
This was reported by freelance journalist Natiq Malikzada, relaunched by the Guardian.
Posting a video of the crowd, the reporter warns that "the situation here is much worse than at Kabul airport, but as there are no foreign forces, it is not covered by the media."
In order to enter the country you need a visa.
This is not #Kabulairport, this is Spin Boldak border where thousands of people wants to flee Afghanistan to Pakistan.
The situation here is far worse than the situation at #KabulAirport but because there are no foreign forces here, it has not been covered by the media.
pic.twitter.com/LrUuXk1JSv
- Natiq Malikzada (@natiqmalikzada) August 25, 2021
Europeans are closing the airlift
The threat of attacks and the US decision to keep the deadline of 31 August has given a strong acceleration towards the conclusion of the airlift for many European countries. If yesterday
Germany
officially said it wanted to conclude operations tomorrow, Friday, according to rumors reported by the international media, today's four flights could be the last. Even
France
it will put an end to evacuation flights from Kabul on Friday evening: French Prime Minister Jean Castex said speaking on RTL radio. "From tomorrow evening we will no longer be able to evacuate people from Kabul airport" due to the American withdrawal scheduled for August 31, he said. France has evacuated over 2,000 Afghans and around 100 French from Afghanistan since flights began last week.
The
Dutch government
has instead announced that it will stop flights today, at the request of US forces, which must complete their operations. "The Netherlands was informed today by the United States that they must leave and in all likelihood will make the last flights by today," Dutch foreign and defense ministers said in a letter to Parliament. Even
Poland
completed its evacuation mission from Kabul "for security reasons", after transporting more than 1,300 people, the Polish authorities said today. "More than 1,300 people were transported to Poland," the Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz, underlining that the mission "organized for Poles and collaborators from Poland" ended "for security reasons". The mission of
Denmark
also ended
, while yesterday it was
Belgium
who announced the stop.
Karzai and Abdullah are under house arrest
The Taliban have removed the security men of former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah: a source told CNN, according to which Karzai and Abdullah are in fact under house arrest at the moment , without the bodyguards and at the mercy of the Taliban. The former Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, and the former deputy of his successor Ashraf Ghani, Abdullah Abdullah, were to be part, together with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, of the 12-member council that will govern Afghanistan.
The Taliban, according to the source reported by CNN, first confiscated weapons and means of transport from Karzai's armed escort and then forced him to move to Abdullah.
The latter's home was previously searched, placed under surveillance and the tenants were deprived of their vehicles.
They would therefore not be allowed to make any displacements.
Karzai and Abdullah are therefore "locked" inside the house without security agents and controlled by the Taliban.
Thus, their entry into an enlarged and inclusive government seems further away, as initially hinted at by the Afghan Islamic extremist movement.
Various options on presence after August 31
The United States is studying "various options" on the possible maintenance of a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan after August 31, the deadline for the withdrawal of the American armed forces from the Asian country, Blinken added.