Afghanistan: Evacuation flights resume in Kabul after deadly bombings

Kabul, Aug 27: Evacuation flights from Afghanistan resumed with new urgency on Friday, a day after two suicide bombings targeted the thousands of desperate people fleeing the Taliban takeover.

The US says further attempted attacks are expected ahead of the Tuesday deadline for foreign troops to leave, ending America's longest war. Kabul residents said several flights took off Friday morning. Thursday's bombings near Kabul's international airport killed at least 60 Afghans and 13 US troops, Afghan and US officials said, in the deadliest day for US forces in Afghanistan since August 2011.

In an emotional speech, President Joe Biden blamed the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate, far more radical than the Taliban militants who seized power less than two weeks ago. “We will rescue the Americans; we will get our Afghan allies out, and our mission will go on,” Biden said.

But despite intense pressure to extend Tuesday's deadline, he has cited the threat of terrorist attacks as a reason to keep to his plan. The Taliban, back in control of Afghanistan two decades after they were ousted in a US-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks, insist on the deadline.

The Trump administration in February 2020 struck an agreement with the Taliban that called for it to halt attacks on Americans in exchange for the removal of all U.S. troops and contractors by May; Biden announced in April he would have them out by September.

While the US on Thursday said more than 100,000 people have been safely evacuated from Kabul, as many as 1,000 Americans and tens of thousands more Afghans are struggling to leave in one of history's largest airlifts.

Gen Frank McKenzie, the US Central Command chief overseeing the evacuation, on Thursday said about 5,000 people were awaiting flights on the airfield. The scenes at the airport, with people standing knee-deep in sewage and families thrusting documents and even young children toward U.S. troops behind razor wire, have horrified many around the world as far-flung efforts continue to help people escape. But those chances are fading fast for many.

Some US allies have said they are ending evacuation efforts, in part to give the US time to wrap up its evacuation work before getting 5,000 of its troops out by Tuesday.

Britain said Friday its evacuations from Afghanistan will end within hours, and the main British processing center for eligible Afghans has been closed. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News there would be “eight or nine” evacuation flights on Friday, and they will be the last.

British troops will leave over the next few days. The Spanish government said it has ended its evacuation operation.