Several rockets were fired at Kabul airport on Monday, less than 48 hours before the United States is due to complete its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Eyewitnesses said the rockets were launched from a car and were aimed towards the airport on Monday morning. It appears Salim Karwan, a neighbourhood adjacent to the airport, was hit in one of the blasts. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Smoke could be seen rising above buildings in the north of the city, where the Hamid Karzai international airport is located, and gunfire could be heard after the explosions.
Locals reported hearing the activation of airport’s missile defence system, and pictures on social media showed shrapnel falling on to rooftops and the street, suggesting that at least one rocket had been intercepted.
Social media posts, which could not immediately be verified, also showed a vehicle in flames after being apparently struck by retaliatory fire.
In Washington, the White House issued a statement saying President Joe Biden was being briefed on “the rocket attack at Hamid Karzai international airport” in Kabul.
“The president was informed that operations continue uninterrupted at HKIA [Hamid Karzai international airport], and has reconfirmed his order that commanders redouble their efforts to prioritise doing whatever is necessary to protect our forces on the ground,” the statement said.
It followed warnings issued by Biden on Saturday that another terrorist attack in Kabul was highly likely in the next 24 to 36 hours. On Thursday, Islamic State, rivals of the Taliban, carried out a suicide bomb attack at the airport that killed more than 150 people, including 13 US troops, and IS militants pose the greatest threat to the final phase of US evacuations.
Biden has set a deadline of 31 August to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan, drawing to a close his nation’s longest military conflict. The UK, Nato and all other western countries ended their evacuation missions over the weekend.
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James Cleverly defended the response of the UK foreign office and his boss Dominic Raab to the crisis in Afghanistan.
The foreign office minister told ITV’s Good Morning Britain:
This was, at every level – from senior ministerial level right through to the people on the ground in Afghanistan – a team effort and every bit of the team pulled out the stops.
It could never be a perfect operation because of the circumstances that we were operating in.
Stephen Kinnock accused the British government of an “unforgivable” failure to evacuate thousands of eligible Afghans.
“Government ministers have had 18 months to prepare for this. The French government started evacuating its people in May so it is utterly unforgivable that we have left so many behind,” the shadow minister,” the shadow foreign office minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He said:
The efforts of our armed forces, our diplomats, our civil servants on the ground, have been incredibly impressive and we should be very proud of that.
But they have been badly let down by their political masters who have failed to prepare and therefore we are in this situation where we are leaving thousands behind.
Labour has claimed as many as 5,000 people need help to get out following the Taliban takeover and Kinnock criticised the foreign secretary for failing to facilitate overland exit routes.
He said:
It’s shocking that whilst Dominic Raab was on the sun lounger he should have been speaking with his counterparts in Pakistan and the other neighbouring countries.
Foreign office minister James Cleverly said the UK would have to work with the Taliban to help ensure the safe passage of Afghans out of the country.
“We will judge the Taliban by their actions. They have made certain commitments about not taking out reprisals on individuals, about facilitating exit,” he told Sky News.
Obviously we are sceptical about those commitments but we will continue working with them to an extent, based on their conduct, to try to facilitate that further evacuation and repatriation effort.
What we are not going to do is just assume good faith in every respect – we are going to judge them on their actions, we are going to hold them to account if they fall short of their promises and commitments.
But we are going to keep working to get people out of Afghanistan that need to leave Afghanistan.
Paul “Pen” Farthing dismissed claims that he was helped by the UK government to get into Kabul airport with his animals.
The former marine and founder of the Nowzad charity told ITV’s Good Morning Britain:
Nobody in the British government facilitated my entry into that airport – I did that with the Taliban.
I came up to the British checkpoint, that was the first time – and this is well into the airport, the Taliban and British are stood there, there’s some barbed wire separating them – that was the first time I spoke to any British people.
So whoever is making any accusations or any comments needs to actually have been stood there on the ground to see how I got into that airport.
Nobody facilitated my entry… any interpreters or anybody else, there was me and the truck full of dogs and cats, which went into a cargo hold where you cannot put people.
James Cleverly acknowledged that emails from Afghans desperate to leave the country may not have been read.
Asked if he had unread emails in his inbox, the UK foreign office minister told the BBC: “I suspect everybody has.”
The British government had received a “huge number of emails directly from Afghanistan and from third parties” after announcing it would help Afghans at risk of reprisals from the Taliban.
He said:
Obviously we had a limited time window and limited flight availability in Kabul airport. We of course were prioritising getting people who had been processed, who were at the airport, on to planes and out of the country.
We will continue to work with those Afghans in other parts of Afghanistan who had not been processed when the airport closed and we will continue working to get them out of the country.
We have been and will continue to work through the significant number of emails that we have received to try to get as many other people out of Afghanistan as possible.
A former Royal Marine said there were “several empty seats” on his evacuation flight with around 170 dogs and cats from an animal shelter in Afghanistan.
Paul “Pen” Farthing told ITV’s Good Morning Britain he was the only person on the flight.
He added:
I went around and they reassured me that they had enough capacity for all the people that needed to leave.
I was probably like the last person to enter that airport – it was closed. Americans, the British, had obviously stopped taking people in because there had to be a point where they stopped taking people in.
So they assured me they had enough capacity for everybody who was inside the airport.
He said emotions “got the better” of him during an expletive-laden message left for a government aide.
A recording, obtained by The Times, captured Farthing berating Peter Quentin, a special adviser to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who he accused of “blocking” efforts to arrange the evacuation flight.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain:
I’m incredibly embarrassed about my language, I do apologise to everybody who’s listened to that.
I was at the lowest point I could possibly be. I understand how the world works but emotions got the better of me, so for all those who had to listen to that I do apologise for my language.
I should not have said it like that, but the sentiment, yes, I was just incredibly upset, angry, frustrated, it was the lowest point. I had no other option, I didn’t know what else to do.
So that’s why you’ve probably heard some colourful language.
James Cleverly, the UK foreign minister, said it was impossible to say how many people were left in Afghanistan who were eligible to come to the UK.
“That’s an impossible number to put a figure on,” he told Sky News.
The “vast, vast bulk” of British nationals had left Afghanistan, he said, but there were also eligible people under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme – for people who helped UK forces – and others who could be under threat from the Taliban.
He said:
We are going to continue working to get people out who fall into those groups – predominantly now, of course, it will be in that third group – people at risk of reprisals, whether they be high-profile individuals, of religious minorities or others who may be under severe risk of reprisals from the Taliban.
That’s it from me, Helen Livingstone, for today, I’m handing over to my UK colleague Nicola Slawson.
Here’s a a summary of recent developments:
Up to five rockets were fired at Kabul airport from a car in a northern suburb of the city, but were intercepted by a US anti-missile shield. Shrapnel landed in the neighbourhood of Salim Karwan. There have, as yet, been no reports of injuries. The White House has said there was no interruption to its evacuations, which have entered their last 48 hours (to end a 20-year war).
A US drone strike on a vehicle in a Kabul neighbourhood has killed nine people, including, allegedly, an unconfirmed number of children, according to local reports. The death toll has not been confirmed. US Central Command has said it is assessing the possibility of civilian casualties. It reported the vehicle was carrying explosives and suicide bombers who were set to target Kabul airport imminently.
Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said the US would continue working with the Taliban to ensure safe passage for those wishing to leave Afghanistan beyond the 31 August deadline. Nearly 100 countries have issued a joint statement saying foreign nationals, Afghans who worked alongside coalition forces, and vulnerable people, would be allowed to leave the country.
Coalition countries say the Taliban has committed to allowing safe passage for those seeking to leave Afghanistan. “We have received assurances from the Taliban that all foreign nationals and any Afghan citizen with travel authorisation from our countries will be allowed to proceed in a safe and orderly manner to points of departure and travel outside the country,” a joint statement, from nearly 100 countries, said.
The Taliban has confirmed its supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who has never made a public appearance and whose whereabouts have largely remained unknown, is in Afghanistan.
US president Joe Biden travelled to Dover Airbase for the return to home soil of the bodies of 11 of the 13 American service members killed in the Kabul attack last week which also killed 169 Afghans.
France and Britain will submit a resolution to an emergency United Nations meeting due Monday on Afghanistan proposing a safe zone in Kabul to protect people trying to leave the country, French president Emmanuel Macron said.
In case you missed it, Suzanne Wrack has written this equally heart-rending, but also hopeful, account of how a dedicated crew of people helped the Afghan women’s national football team and others to flee the Taliban.
Associated Press has the story of several of those who were killed in last week’s suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport. It’s heart-wrenching reading:
Mohammed Jan Sultani had clutched his national Taekwondo championship certificates as he waded through the multitudes pushing to get into Kabul airport late last week.
The 25-year-old athlete wasn’t on any evacuation lists. Yet he had hoped his achievements would make him and his young family special enough to be let into the gate and onto one of the flights rescuing foreigners and Afghans fleeing the Taliban.
As he forged ahead, an Islamic State suicide bomber detonated two dozen pounds of explosives in the crowd just before nightfall Thursday, killing 169 Afghans, including Sultani, and 13 US service members.
Mohammed Jan Sultani’s father, Ali, right, looks at his son’s Taekwondo championship certificates along with picture of him. Photograph: Kathy Gannon/AP
His wife and two children, 4-year-old Zahid and 2-year-old Zahra, survived; he had told them to stay back a bit as he advanced toward the gate.
Three days later, Zahid remains in shock. He cries, but doesn’t speak.
The athlete’s father, Ali, said his son had expected a bleak future under the Taliban.
“He didn’t know where he would go,” the bereaved man, who goes by the last name Rahmani, said Sunday. “The United States, Europe, it didn’t matter,” Rahmani said, holding some of his son’s medals, his voice laced with sadness. “Everyone in the country seemed to be escaping,” he said.
Najma Sadeqi was also among those trying to get out that afternoon. The 20-year-old, who was in her last semester in journalism school, feared the Taliban’s return to power would bring a harsh version of Islamic rule in which women would largely be confined to their homes.
Getting through those airport gates held the promise of career somewhere else, far away from all the threats and judgement.
Thursday’s blast killed Najma, as well as her brother and a cousin who had escorted her to the airport to ensure her safety.
Najma had gotten her start in journalism with a YouTube channel a few years back and eventually went to work for a couple of private broadcasters, said her older sister, Freshta.
In the two decades since the US-led invasion drove the Taliban from power, women have made gains in education, politics and business — but it hasn’t been easy.
Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative country, especially outside urban areas. Many of Najma’s own relatives objected to her nascent career, with some even cutting off contact.
Freshta said her sister received threatening phone calls and text messages from unknown men who objected to her appearing in public.
“I was the only one she told about her security concerns,” Freshta said. “She didn’t want to share it with the family because they might prevent her from working with media.”
Najma and tens of thousands of others outside the airport gate have not been swayed by Taliban promises to allow women in public life and girls to attend schools.
Ali Reza Ahmadi, a 34-year-old who had worked as a journalist for nearly a decade, was so desperate to get out that he went to the airport just months after getting engaged. He and his younger brother, who had hoped to travel with him, were both killed, according to Khadim Karimi, a close friend and colleague.
He said Ahmadi was already struggling with depression and financial problems before the Taliban swept in. “He was so distraught, so he decided to go to the airport and stay there until he could get an airlift from whatever country would take him,” Karimi said.
The Russian embassy in Kabul has said it is accepting applications from those seeking to leave Afghanistan on additional evacuation flights, after Moscow evacuated about 360 people from the country last week, Reuters reports.
The embassy said in a series of tweets that the flights would be open to Russian citizens and residents as well as nationals of countries that are members of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, a Moscow-led post-Soviet security bloc.
Hello, this is Helen Livingstone here bringing you our rolling coverage of Afghanistan, a day before all foreign troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan after a 20-year presence.
If you’re just joining us, here’s our latest news story on events on the ground in Afghanistan from our correspondent Hannah Ellis-Peterson, who writes:
Several rockets were fired at Kabul airport on Monday, less than 48 hours before the United States is due to complete its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Eyewitnesses said the rockets were launched from a car and were aimed towards the airport on Monday morning. It appears Salim Karwan, a neighbourhood adjacent to the airport, was hit in one of the blasts. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Locals reported hearing the activation of airport’s missile defence system, and pictures on social media showed shrapnel falling on to rooftops and the street, suggesting that at least one rocket had been intercepted.
Social media posts, which could not immediately be verified, also showed a vehicle in flames after being apparently struck by retaliatory fire.
In Washington, the White House issued a statement saying president Joe Biden was being briefed on “the rocket attack at Hamid Karzai international airport” in Kabul.
Smoke could be seen rising above buildings in the north of the city, where the Hamid Karzai international airport is located, and gunfire could be heard after the explosions.
This is Ben Doherty, signing off. Thanks all for your comments, correspondence and company. My apparently, indefatigable colleague Helen Livingstone is helming our coverage from here on.
I leave you with a summary of recent developments:
Up to five rockets were fired at Kabul airport from a car in a northern suburb of the city, but were intercepted by a US anti-missile shield. Shrapnel landed in the neighbourhood of Salim Karwan. There have, as yet, been no reports of injuries. The White House has said there was no interruption to its evacuations, which have entered their last 48 hours (to end a 20-year war).
A US drone strike on a vehicle in a Kabul neighbourhood has killed nine people, including, allegedly, an unconfirmed number of children, according to local reports. The death toll has not been confirmed. US Central Command has said it is assessing the possibility of civilian casualties. It reported the vehicle was carrying explosives and suicide bombers who were set to target Kabul airport imminently.
Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said the US would continue working with the Taliban to ensure safe passage for those wishing to leave Afghanistan beyond the 31 August deadline. Nearly 100 countries have issued a joint statement saying foreign nationals, Afghans who worked alongside coalition forces, and vulnerable people, would be allowed to leave the country.
Coalition countries say the Taliban has committed to allowing safe passage for those seeking to leave Afghanistan. “We have received assurances from the Taliban that all foreign nationals and any Afghan citizen with travel authorisation from our countries will be allowed to proceed in a safe and orderly manner to points of departure and travel outside the country,” a joint statement, from nearly 100 countries, said.
The Taliban has confirmed its supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who has never made a public appearance and whose whereabouts have largely remained unknown, is in Afghanistan.
US president Joe Biden travelled to Dover Airbase for the return to home soil of the bodies of 11 of the 13 American service members killed in the Kabul attack last week which also killed 169 Afghans.
France and Britain will submit a resolution to an emergency United Nations meeting due Monday on Afghanistan proposing a safe zone in Kabul to protect people trying to leave the country, French president Emmanuel Macron said.
They arrived shoeless and shivering, with some toddlers wearing the same nappies they wore when fleeing their homes days earlier. Volunteers have described the extraordinary dignity and stoicism of the Afghan refugees, including about 2,200 children, who were airlifted to the UK out of the clutches of the Taliban.
Some of the new arrivals were passing out from exhaustion in airport terminals, said Dara Leonard, a team leader for the British Red Cross. Others, including pregnant women and “the sick and incredibly frail” were rushed straight to hospital.
“These were people on the far side of exhausted,” said Leonard, who was among the first to meet the Afghan families arriving at Heathrow airport last week.
“My word, they are so stoical, so dignified but they were literally putting one foot in front of the other. To see mothers pushing their children forward towards safety was quite phenomenal.”
Kevin Rawlinson and Josh Halliday report on the Afghan refugees who arrived in the UK
US president Joe Biden was briefed on the rocket attack at the Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul on Monday and was informed that operations at the airport were not interrupted, the White House said in a statement.
“National security adviser Jake Sullivan and chief of staff Ron Klain have briefed the president on the rocket attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport”, the White House said.
As many as five rockets were fired at Kabul’s international airport but were intercepted by a missile defence system, a US official told Reuters earlier. There have been no reports injuries yet, but this may change.
In the video, New Zealand flags are burning. Their edges curl and the stars of the southern cross turn black, crumbling into the soil of a Kabul backyard. The flags are printed on sheet after sheet of paper: certificates of appreciation, thanks, and recognition of service to New Zealand.
The family burning them has held on to them for the past decade, memorialising the translation services they provided for New Zealand troops in Afghanistan. Now, those papers have become a potentially deadly hazard.
“The first day when the Taliban arrived in Kabul, my house was searched by the Taliban,” says Abdul (whose name has been changed to protect family who remain in Afghanistan).
“Before my house was searched, just half an hour [before], I asked my brother to burn all the documents. And he burned all the documents … about 40 papers that I got from the New Zealand Defence Forces.”
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