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30-08-2021
By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies
KABUL/ WASHINGTON/ ISLAMABAD: The operations at the Kabul airport were unaffected after rockets were fired at Kabul airport Monday but were intercepted before they could do damage.
US President Joe Biden was briefed on the rocket attack at the Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul as per a statement from the White House. The US president was also informed that operations at the airport were not interrupted, the statement said.
“National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chief of Staff Ron Klain have briefed the President on the rocket attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport”, it added.
As many as five rockets were fired at Kabul’s international airport but were intercepted by a missile defense system, a US official told Reuters earlier.
Geo News correspondent in Kabul, Azaz Syed, visited the area where a burnt car can be seen in which rockets were fitted. He shared that one of the rocket had hit a nearby building.
America and allied forces are hurrying to evacuate their remaining citizens and at-risk Afghans before completing their own withdrawal by Tuesday to meet a deadline agreed between the Taliban and Washington.
The mission became more urgent and dangerous after a Daesh suicide bomb attack on Thursday killed 13 US military personnel and scores of Afghan civilians outside the airport.
The US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters initial reports did not indicate any US casualties from the latest rocket attack, but that information could change.
Afghan media reports said the rocket attack was mounted from the back of a vehicle. According to Pajhwok news agency several rockets struck different parts of the Afghan capital.
The United States and allies have evacuated about 114,400 people – including foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghans – in an operation that began a day before Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15, but tens of thousands more desperate Afghans face being left behind.
“We tried every option because our lives are in danger. They (the Americans or foreign powers) must show us a way to be saved. We should leave Afghanistan or they should provide a safe place for us,” said one woman outside the airport.
Two US officials told Reuters evacuations would continue on Monday, prioritizing people deemed at extreme risk. Other countries have also put in last minute requests to bring out people under that category, the officials said.
US President Joe Biden attended a ceremony on Sunday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to honor members of the US military killed in Thursday’s attack.
Biden shut his eyes and tilted his head back as the flag-draped transfer caskets carrying the remains emerged from a military plane.
None of the fallen service members was over the age of 31, and five were just 20, as old as the war in Afghanistan itself.
Biden has vowed to avenge the Daesh attack.
A US drone strike on Sunday killed a suicide car bomber who Pentagon officials said was preparing to attack the airport on behalf of Daesh.
US Central Command said it was investigating reports of civilian casualties from the strike, the second by the US military against suspected Daesh militants.
“We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties,” it said.
The departure of the last troops will mark the end of the US-led military intervention in Afghanistan, which began in late 2001, after the al Qaeda Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Taliban condemn US
A Taliban spokesman said a US drone strike targeting a suspected suicide bomber in Kabul on Sunday resulted in civilian casualties, and condemned the United States for failing to inform the Taliban before ordering the strike.
Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told China’s state television CGTN on Monday that seven people were killed in the drone attack, describing the US action on foreign soil as unlawful.
“If there was any potential threat in Afghanistan, it should have been reported to us, not an arbitrary attack that has resulted in civilian casualties,” Mujahid said in a written response to CGTN.
Meanwhile, Taliban have assured 98 countries that they will allow “safe and orderly” withdrawal of foreign citizens and Afghans with foreign travel documents to leave the country even after the US troop withdrawal ends Tuesday.
The 98-nation group includes the United States, Britain, France and Germany.
“We have received assurances from the Taliban that all foreign nationals and any Afghan citizen with travel authorization from our countries will be allowed to proceed in a safe and orderly manner to points of departure and travel outside the country,” the statement said.
“We are all committed to ensuring that our citizens, nationals and residents, employees, Afghans who have worked with us and those who are at risk can continue to travel freely to destinations outside Afghanistan,” added the statement, which was also signed by the European Union and NATO.
The group said it would continue issuing travel documents to “designated Afghans,” adding that “we have the clear expectation of and commitment from the Taliban that they can travel to our respective countries.”
Jake Sullivan, the national security advisor to US President Joe Biden, said earlier Sunday that any Americans who elect to remain “are not going to be stuck in Afghanistan.
The US has “a mechanism to get them out” if they choose to leave in the future, Sullivan added on the Fox News network, without elaborating.
“The Taliban have made commitments to us,” he said.
France and Britain plan to call on the United Nations on Monday to create a “safe zone” in Kabul to allow humanitarian operations to continue, French President Emmanuel Macron told the Journal du Dimanche, saying the proposal was “completely feasible.
“The permanent members of the UN Security Council, the US, Britain, China, France and Russia are to meet Monday to discuss the Afghanistan crisis.
France ended its evacuation efforts in Afghanistan on Friday and Britain followed suit on Saturday.
Even if an inclusive government is formed in Afghanistan, the United States and its allies would never accept it, says former Afghan prime minister and Hezb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Speaking to Pakistani journalists in Kabul, Hekmatyar said that consultation sessions for the formation of the government will be held after August 31, the deadline for the US exit.
“The council formed earlier will now discuss the issue of the formation of a new government with the Taliban,” he revealed, adding that the idea of setting up an interim government was suggested earlier, and according to the suggestions, interim heads of institutions are now being appointed.
“We want the Taliban government to work effectively, and therefore we suggest that the Afghan people should work together to help the new government,” Hekmatyar said.
Answering questions regarding India, Hekmatyar mentioned a video that went viral of a former Indian soldier in which he was asking India to give money to Ahmad Shah Masood and support him.
He said: “Peace in Afghanistan is in the interest of all other countries including India. India, like Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, should acknowledge the mistakes done in the past and declare non-interference.”
