Afghanistan live news warnings of imminent terror attack as evacuations enter final phase

Nearly 400 evacuated Afghans arrived today in Seoul, where the government said it was amending the law to allow long-term stays for those who worked on South Korean projects in Afghanistan before the Taliban seized power this month.

Immigration is a contentious issue in South Korea, where many pride themselves on ethnic homogeneity, even as the population of 52 million ages rapidly and the labour force dwindles.

At least two flights were to bring in 391 people, including the families of workers at the Korean embassy, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), a hospital and Korean government-run vocational training institute and military bases, Reuters reports.

Justice Minister Park Beom-kye said many Koreans had received international support after having had to flee during the Korean War, from 1950 to 1953.

“Now it is time for us to return the favour,” he told a briefing at Incheon airport outside the capital, before the arrival.

The government was in the process of amending immigration laws to grant the Afghans long-term residency as foreigners who had provided special service to the country, Park added.

He acknowledged controversy over the plan, saying the decision to accept the Afghan evacuees had been “difficult”, but added that South Korea could not give up on its friends.

Despite the fact that we are physically apart in a distant country, they were practically our neighbours. How could we possibly turn a blind eye to them when their lives are at risk because of the fact that they worked with us?

South Korea has accepted more than 30,000 North Korean defectors over the years, but it approves a much smaller number of asylum seekers from other countries.

In case you missed this earlier, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, Shah Meer Baloch and Lorenzo Tondo have written this informative piece about the treacherous routes refugees from Afghanistan are forced to take.

Hundreds of people each day are crossing the border at Chaman from Pakistan into Afghanistan to visit relatives, receive medical treatment and for business-related activities.

Pakistan has not placed any curbs on their movement despite the thousands of people fleeing Afghanistan.

Greek officials have said that Greece will not become a “gateway” to Europe for Afghan asylum seekers and have called for a united response to predictions of an increase in refugee arrivals to the country.

Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotaki, has spoken to Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, about the developing situation in Afghanistan this week. Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi last week said: “We cannot have millions of people leaving Afghanistan and coming to the European Union … and certainly not through Greece.” The country has just completed a 25-mile (40km) wall along its land border with Turkey and installed an automated surveillance system with cameras, radars and drones.

The Dutch government expects to run its last evacuation flight out of Afghanistan today, it said in a letter to parliament, Reuters reports.

It said:

The Netherlands has been informed by the United States that it has to depart today and will most likely perform the last flights later today.

This is a painful moment because it means that despite all the great efforts of the past period, people who are eligible for evacuation to the Netherlands will be left behind.

Colonel Richard Kemp, former head of British forces in Afghanistan, said the threat of a terrorist attack at Kabul airport “has existed right the way from when this evacuation began”.

He told BBC Breakfast:

That threat of terrorist attack, whether it’s from Taliban, the Islamic State, or al Qaida, it could equally be all three of those groups.

The fact that people are talking about Islamic State doesn’t make that the most likely threat.

I think that threat has existed right the way from when this evacuation began, and I have no doubt that our forces are fully aware of the threat and already, for days now, have been taking measures to try and mitigate it, to prevent something like that happening.

But, clearly, there could be a terrorist attack of some sort against the forces in the airport, maybe forces outside the airport, and of course the people trying to get in.

A French court has handed a 10-month suspended jail sentence to an Afghan man for violating the terms of a surveillance order, days after France evacuated him from Taliban-controlled Kabul.

The man, Ahmat M, is one of five people who were placed under surveillance after their arrival in France as part of an investigation into links with the Taliban, AFP reports.

The surveillance order included strict limits on movements and Ahmat M, who arrived at the weekend, was convicted by a court late Wednesday for straying outside of this zone.

Ahmat M, who says he was a prosecutor in Afghanistan before resuming his law studies, had been ordered not to leave the Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Grand, where he was living with his wife, baby daughter and several other family members.

He told the court he wanted to buy medicine because he suffered from headaches and vomiting since arriving in France. In sometimes confused remarks, he said he followed a man living in the same hotel who offered to buy him these medicines, without realising that he was going to central Paris.

The possibility that there could be Taliban members among the hundreds of Afghans evacuated by France over the last fortnight has ignited a storm of controversy in France, with migration set to be a prime battleground in 2022 presidential elections.

The right has accused the government of President Emmanuel Macron of failing to carry out proper security checks while he has also faced criticism from the left who accuse him of letting down ordinary Afghans by only allowing limited numbers into France.

European nations have offered stark warnings about the waning days of a massive airlift to bring people out of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, with a British official saying there were credible reports of an “imminent attack” at Kabul’s international airport.

France said it would halt its evacuations Friday while Denmark said its last flight had already left Kabul’s airport, which has seen thousands throng around it in the days since the Taliban took the capital.

Overnight, new warnings emerged from Western capitals about a possible threat from Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate, which likely has seen its ranks boosted by the Taliban freeing prisoners across the country. Already, military cargo planes leaving Kabul airport have launched flares to disrupt any potential surface-to-air missile fire as fleeing Afghan troops abandoned heavy weapons and equipment across the country in their collapse following America’s withdrawal of troops, AP reports.

British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey told the BBC on Thursday there was “very, very credible reporting of an imminent attack” at the airport, possibly within “hours.”

Heappey conceded that people are desperate to leave and “there is an appetite by many in the queue to take their chances, but the reporting of this threat is very credible indeed and there is a real imminence to it.”

“We will do our best to protect those who are there,” he said. “There is every chance that as further reporting comes in, we may be able to change the advice again and process people anew but there’s no guarantee of that.”

Outside of a missile attack, troops have been worried about the uncontrolled, teeming crowds outside the airport. While the Taliban and others have tried to control them, there’s no formal screening process on the way the airport as there was under Afghanistan’s former government. That means someone carrying a suicide bomb could slip through â€" or an explosives-laden vehicle could barrel through.

On Wednesday, the US Embassy in Kabul issued a security alert warning American citizens away from three specific airport gates, but gave no further explanation.
Senior US officials said the warning was related to ongoing and specific threats involving the Islamic State and potential vehicle bombs. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss ongoing military operations.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex told French radio RTL on Thursday that “from tomorrow evening onwards, we are not able to evacuate people from the Kabul airport” due to the Aug. 31 American withdrawal.

Meanwhile, Danish defence minister Trine Bramsen bluntly warned: “It is no longer safe to fly in or out of Kabul.” Denmark’s last flight, carrying 90 people plus soldiers and diplomats, already had left Kabul.

Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Thursday the Group of 20 major economies must be committed to making sure women preserve fundamental freedoms and basic rights in the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

In opening remarks at the G20 Conference on Women’s Empowerment, Draghi said:

The G20 must do all it can to ensure that Afghan women preserve their fundamental freedoms and basic rights, especially the right to education. Progress made over the past twenty years must be preserved.

The chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband, said many Afghans are scared that the withdrawal of troops from the country will also mean humanitarian aid workers will not be able to help millions of those in need.

Mr Miliband, a former UK foreign secretary, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

I think that it’s a desperate situation for humanitarian aid workers in Afghanistan at the moment. There’s also an invisible crisis which is also desperate.

That’s a crisis of tens of millions of Afghans who need humanitarian aid, who need to be served by the humanitarian aid community who are desperately worried that the military withdrawal on the 31st of August will not just mean the end of the possibility of people to leave who need to do so but also will signal a humanitarian aid withdrawal, a diplomatic withdrawal, a political withdrawal that will leave them at the mercy of not just political events but of a collapsing economy, of Covid running rampant, of drought in 80% of the country.

An Afghan journalist has reported being beaten by the Taliban:

Ziar Khan Yaad (@ziaryaad)

I was beaten by the Taliban in Kabul's New City while reporting. Cameras, technical equipment and my personal mobile phone have also been hijacked
Some people have spread the news of my death which is false.The The Taliban got out of an armored Land Cruiser and hit me at gunpoint

August 26, 2021

If you’re just joining us, my colleague Helen Sullivan has written this about the current international situation for Afghanistan, which should bring you up to speed.

UK armed forces minister James Heappey said a possible terror attack in Kabul could come within “hours”.

He told LBC:

I was given lines today for what might happen if the attack happened while I was doing this media round.

He added:

I don’t think everybody should be surprised by this, Daesh, or Islamic State, are guilty of all sorts of evil.

But the opportunism of wanting to target a major international humanitarian mission is just utterly deplorable but sadly true to form for an organisation as barbarous as Daesh.

The Danish defence minister has warned that “it is no longer safe to fly in or out of Kabul” after the country’s last flight left.

Speaking to Danish broadcaster TV2, Trine Bramsen said there were about 90 people â€" plus the last Danish soldiers and diplomats sent to help with the evacuation â€" on the last plane to leave Afghanistan’s capital.

France’s prime minister says his country will no longer be able to evacuate people from Kabul airport after Friday night.

The announcement by Jean Castex today comes as the US and Western allies face a 31 August deadline to pull out of Afghanistan.

Thousands have been trying to flee the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, many through Kabul’s international airport. That triggered a massive airlift of those trying to escape.

Castex told French radio RTL “from tomorrow evening onwards, we are not able to evacuate people from the Kabul airport” due to the 31 August American withdrawal.

More than 2,000 Afghans and a hundred French people have been evacuated by France since the beginning of the operation last week.

UK armed forces minister James Heappey described the terror threat to people outside Kabul airport as “lethal” amid concerns over an affiliate of the so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan, Isis-K.

He told BBC Breakfast:

I can’t stress the desperation of the situation enough, the threat is credible, it is imminent, it is lethal.

And we wouldn’t be saying this if we weren’t genuinely concerned about offering Islamic State a target.

Hungary’s two military passenger planes and all its troops taking part in evacuations have left Afghanistan and returned safely to Hungary, the Hungarian Defence Ministry said in a statement today.

Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday that Hungary’s evacuation flights from Afghanistan were nearing an end after the central European country airlifted more than 500 people from Kabul.

Pressure to complete the evacuations of thousands of foreigners and Afghans who helped Western countries during the 20-year war against the Taliban has intensified, with all U.S. and allied troops due to leave the airport next week.

The United States and allies urged people to move away from Kabul airport on Thursday due to the threat of an Islamic State attack as Western troops hurry to evacuate as many Afghans as possible before a 31 August deadline.

Hungary, an opponent of irregular migration to Europe, has rejected any plans to accommodate large numbers of Afghan refugees, and said it would only evacuate people whose lives were at risk for supporting the NATO presence in Afghanistan.

Sir Mark Lyall-Grant, a former UK national security adviser, said the withdrawal from Afghanistan was “damaging” for the US and allied countries in the West.

Asked if the current situation looked like defeat, he told LBC:

It’s clearly a defeat, yes. We haven’t left as we would have liked to have done.

We are in the hands of the Americans, they have taken the decisions.

The British Government would have been prepared to stay in Afghanistan longer, with the sort of limited commitment that we had made over the last three or four years.

But once the Americans decided that they were going to leave, then obviously all the other Nato forces had to leave.

And I think the manner in which we have left has been damaging for the United States, and damaging for the western countries more generally.

UK armed forces minister James Heappey said 1,988 people left Kabul over eight RAF flights in the past 24 hours.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that this takes the total to 12,279.

He said the number under the Afghan relocation and assistance policy (Arap) scheme outstanding is now “potentially half” of the previous estimate of nearly 2,000.

Share this post