89 flights out of Kabul in past 24 hours as UN warns half a million more may flee Afghanistan in coming months
Own Afghans Citizens Countries In By Allied Of Out 20 Their Had Of Kabul Evacuations The Involved More Friday Than Airlifting Said Pleted And They Most
Some 89 flights have left Kabul in the past 24 hours helping 12,500 people flee the Taliban's rule.
US and allied forces continued to help evacuate Afghans at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport on Friday, a day after a deadly Islamic State attack killed 90 people including 13 US service members at one of the airports entry gates.
Around 5,400 individuals remain at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport waiting to be evacuated, the Pentagon confirmed on Friday.
General Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, said US commanders were watching for more attacks by Islamic State, including possible rockets or car bomb attacks.
"We're doing everything we can to be prepared," McKenzie said, adding that some intelligence was being shared with the Taliban and he believed "some attacks have been thwarted by them".
The United States will press on with evacuations despite the threat of further attacks, McKenzie said, noting that there were still about 1,000 U.S. citizens in Afghanistan.
The pace of flights accelerated on Friday and American passport holders had been allowed to enter the airport compound, according to a Western security official inside the airport.
Most of the more than 20 allied countries involved in airlifting Afghans and their own citizens out of Kabul said they had completed evacuations by Friday.
Britain said it was in the final stages while the United State said it would continue airlifting people right up to next Tuesday although it would will prioritize the removal of U.S. troops and military equipment on the last couple of days.
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the threat of attacks would increase as Western troops got closer to completing the huge airlift and leaving.
"The narrative is always going to be, as we leave, certain groups such as ISIS will want to stake a claim that they have driven out the US or the UK," Wallace told He also vowed action against ISIS wherever it manifests itself.
The Foreign Office also confirmed on Friday that two British adults and the child of a British national were among the dead in the Kabul airport attack.
The UN refugee agency is gearing up for as many as half a million people or more to flee from Afghanistan in a “worst-case scenario” over coming months.
The UNHCR said the situation in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover last week “remains uncertain and may evolve rapidly”, with up to 515,000 new refugees fleeing.
The agency said on Friday that it would add to the 2.2 million Afghans who were already registered as refugees abroad — nearly all of them in Pakistan and Iran.
The agency estimates that 558,000 people had been internally displaced within Afghanistan this year due to armed conflict.