US tells citizens to avoid Kabul airport amid 'security threats'
U.S. Soldiers, assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, arrive to provide security in support of Operation Allies Refuge at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 20, 2021. Senior Airman Taylor Crul/U.S. Air Force/Handout via REUTERS
WASHINGTON: The United States on Saturday (Aug 21) urged its citizens in Afghanistan to avoid travelling to the Kabul airport for now, citing "potential security threats" near its gates.
That warning, posted on the website of the US Embassy in Afghanistan and tweeted by the State Department in Washington, offered no detail on the nature of the threat.
But conditions outside Hamid Karzai International Airport have been chaotic, with reports of people seeking to leave being beaten by Taliban fighters.
At least 12 people have been killed in and around the single runway airfield since Sunday, NATO and Taliban officials said.
"Because of potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport, we are advising US citizens to avoid travelling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a US government representative to do so," the embassy alert said.
Switzerland meanwhile postponed a charter flight from Kabul because of the chaos.
"The security situation around Kabul airport has worsened significantly in the last hours. A large number of people in front of the airport and sometimes violent confrontations are hindering access to the airport," the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The United States hopes to evacuate 30,000 Americans and Afghan civilians through its bases in Kuwait and Qatar, and says it has already helped 13,000 people leave the country since Aug 14.
On Friday, the US military sent helicopters to rescue more than 150 Americans unable to reach the airport gates, an official said.
That was the first evidence that US forces were willing and able to go beyond the US-secured compound to help people seeking evacuation.
American officials earlier confirmed that evacuation operations from Afghanistan had stalled for about seven hours Friday, because the receiving base in Qatar was overflowing.
Thousands of Afghans, already cleared to leave their country for the United States, are still waiting at the Kabul airport for available flights, while thousands of others wait outside.
US President Joe Biden has promised to help any American in Afghanistan seeking to evacuate.
But he has admitted that the presence of thousands of US soldiers at the airport does not guarantee safe passage to that vast compound.
