Shortly before the end of the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, the airport in Kabul was again the target of attacks by the local branch of the terrorist organization “Islamic State” (IS).

According to the news channel CNN, IS fired at least five rockets in the direction of Hamid Karzai International Airport, where the Americans were conducting their evacuation mission.

There was initially no information on possible victims.

The broadcaster reported that the missile defense system installed at the airport had been activated.

The Afghan IS branch accused itself of the act.

"Soldiers of the caliphate" attacked the airport with six Katyusha rockets, said the terrorist organization, which is hostile to the Taliban, on the Nashir News platform.

Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America based in Washington.

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The White House said President Joe Biden had been informed of the missile attack. The Commander in Chief had also been informed that operations at the airport would continue uninterrupted. According to the Pentagon, the attack did no harm either. In the course of their evacuation mission at the airport, the US armed forces had recently brought more people out of the country within 24 hours. The White House said another 1200 people were flown out from Sunday morning to Monday morning. Since the start of the evacuation mission in mid-August, around 116,700 people have been brought out of the country from Afghanistan. Washington has now ended the evacuation mission. The Afghans, who were still waiting to leave, were told that the airlift had ended.It was regretted to have to inform them that the military operation had ended and that no Afghans willing to leave would be allowed onto the airport premises, it said in a statement. Biden had expressed his willingness to finish the mission by Tuesday. The Americans have been reducing their troops in Kabul for days.

At least ten civilians are said to have been killed in a US air strike in Kabul over the weekend. Among the dead in the attack on Sunday were children, the local television station ToloNews reported, citing residents on Monday. The American Central Command (US CENTCOM) responsible for the operation announced on Sunday that it was investigating reports of possible civilian casualties after the IS air strike on a car. The operation successfully averted an "immediate threat" to the airport from the terrorists, and the results of the air strike are still being examined. It was pointed out that the force of the explosion could have been increased by the explosive devices in the vehicle.The Taliban had condemned this operation just as much as it had previously condemned an American drone attack on an IS position in Afghanistan. A Taliban spokesman said that the Taliban leader Haibatullah Achundsada, who had not been seen for years, was in Kandahar in the south of the country. Achundsada is currently holding talks there.

The UN Security Council wanted to vote on Monday on a resolution that should lead to the safe departure of people from Afghanistan.

The adoption of a corresponding Franco-British text would, among other things, increase the pressure on the Taliban.

According to diplomats, the veto powers Russia and China were open to an agreement during negotiations at the weekend.

However, approval is not yet certain, it said.

Russia proposed an international conference to rebuild the economy on Monday.

"All wealthy countries in the world must meet with representatives of the new Afghan authorities to discuss the issues of economic and social reconstruction," said the Russian President's Afghanistan envoy Samir Kabulov.