The threat of a terrorist attack by the Islamic State (IS) against the crowds gathered at the Kabul airport is “real” and “persistent,” acknowledged this Sunday Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser to President Joe Biden.
In an interview on CNN television , Sullivan remarked that “the threat is real, serious and persistent” and stressed that preventing an attack on the airfield is one of the “top priorities” for US troops.
“Our commanders on the ground have a wide variety of options that they are employing to defend the airport against a potential terrorist attack. We are working hard with our intelligence community to isolate and determine where an attack could come from , “ Sullivan said.
Thousands of people crowd at the entrance to the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul with the aim of getting on one of the planes to leave the country, amid the chaos that is experienced after the takeover of the capital by the Taliban a week ago.
This Saturday, the US embassy in the Afghan capital advised in a message sent to its citizens “to avoid traveling to the airport or the airport gates unless they receive direct information from a US official to do so” in the face of “potential security threats.” at the aerodrome gates.
Sullivan avoided giving a precise figure on the number of Americans still in Afghanistan waiting to leave the country, but noted that they are “several thousand . “
The Pentagon reported this Saturday that “in the last 24 hours” 3,800 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan, which puts the total figure in the last week at 17,000, of which 2,500 are US citizens.
According to White House estimates, there are still between 10,000 and 15,000 Americans in Afghanistan who need to be evacuated, in addition to between 50,000 and 65,000 Afghans and their families whom the US also wants to remove from the country.
The evacuation of Americans and their Afghan collaborators on military flights is proceeding at a slower rate than expected amid an “extremely dynamic” security situation in Kabul , raising doubts that the August 31 deadline for complete the withdrawal of troops from the Asian country. EFE News