As the last of the remaining Americans try to escape Afghanistan, President Joe Biden’s is warning of another Kabul attack. “The president said an attack was “highly likely” at the Afghan capital’s airport, where dwindling numbers are being flown out,” The New York Times reported on Saturday.
Media reports on Sunday afternoon suggest a rocket was fired towards the Kabul airport. “A rocket has struck a neighbourhood north-west of Kabul’s international airport and killed a child,” British newspaper The Guardian reported.
Meanwhile, retaliatory drone strikes against the Islamic State in Afghanistan continue. Taliban sources claim the an ISIS suicide bomber driving toward the Kabul airport was eliminated in a U.S. strike.
It is unclear if there is some level of operational coordination between the Taliban and the ISIS. In the past, the Taliban has used suicide bombings to target government and civilians in Kabul.
President Biden’s debacle in Afghanistan has not only handed the country to the Taliban and al Qaeda, it has also resurrected the Islamic State which former President Donald Trump help destroy in Syria and Iraq.
Fearing another ISIS attack in Kabul, the U.S. State Department is warning Americans stranded in the Afghan capital to avoid going to the airport. “Due to a specific, credible threat, all U.S. citizens in the vicinity of Kabul airport (HKIA), … should leave the airport area,” the State Department warned. “U.S. citizens should avoid traveling to the airport and avoid all airport gates at this time,” the U.S. embassy cautioned on its website.
Hundred of Americans could still be stranded in Taliban-held Afghanistan. “The U.S. State Department estimates about 350 Americans are still awaiting evacuation,” The New York Times reported on Saturday.
The Associated Press reported Biden administration’s warning:
The evacuation proceeded as tensions rose over the prospect of another IS attack. The State Department issued a new security alert early Sunday morning Kabul time instructing people to leave the airport area immediately “due to a specific, credible threat.”“Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours,” Biden said, adding that he has instructed them to take all possible measures to protect their troops, who are securing the airport and helping bring onto the airfield Americans and others desperate to escape Taliban rule.
News reports on Saturday claimed that the Taliban is moving in to take control of the airport as the airlift winds down. “Taliban forces sealed off Kabul’s airport Saturday to most Afghans hoping for evacuation, as the U.S. and its allies were ending a chaotic airlift that will end their troops’ two decades in Afghanistan,” The Associated Press reported.
European and NATO allies have already halted their evacuation missions following the Kabul airport blast. Hundreds of German nationals could still be in the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate, European media reported.
The lives of tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the U.S. and the NATO allies could also be at stake. The Taliban has mobilized a death squad to hunt for them, news reports say.
There are reports in leading British newspapers that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and member of his cabinet may have used harsh words to describe President Biden after the debacle he engineered in Afghanistan. Some cabinet ministers may have even questioned his mental ability to hold the office, calling to him “doolally,” British slang for someone who is mentally deranged.
“British Cabinet insiders were quoted as suggesting the US president ‘looked gaga’ and described him as ‘doolally’,” UK’s Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday.
Many UK newspapers reported that Prime Minister Johnson may have personally referred to President Biden as “Sleepy Joe.” The 10 Downing Street denied those reports.
On Saturday, London-based weekly The Economist reported the heated remarks made by top UK politicians:
During debate in Parliament and in unattributed briefings, British mps, ministers and officials have used language to describe America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, and America’s leader, rarely heard from such mouths. The withdrawal was “shameful”, “dishonourable” and “catastrophic”. President Joe Biden was “gaga” and “doolally”. (…) Other reports, soon denied, claimed that the current prime minister, Boris Johnson, had referred to Mr Biden by the pejorative coined by his predecessor, Donald Trump: “Sleepy Joe”.
With the German election just weeks away, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is trying to allay fears that Europe was at the cusp of another migrant wave.
Merkel’s Christian Democratic party (CDU) is polling at 22 percent, 12 points ahead of the right-wing Alterative for Germany (AfD). Events resembling the migrant crisis of 2015 could move conservative and right-leaning voters towards the AfD.
Ahead of 2022 French presidential election, President Macron is polling neck and neck with Marine Le Pen of the right-wing National Rally.
“Not everyone who wants to enter our country will be allowed to enter,” Merkel’s Interior Minister Horst Seehofer declared on Sunday. “We will do everything we can to prevent the uncontrolled influx of migrants to Europe.” he assured.
After the 2015 migrant crisis triggered a string of Islamic terror attacks and a surge in violent migrant crimes, other European countries also have little appetite for coping with a new migrant wave.
“French President Emmanuel Macron has said Europe should protect itself from the new wave of Afghan migrants. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is equally reluctant to accept more Afghan refugees,” Germany’s state-run DW News reported.
News reports suggest that more and more Afghans are turning up at Europe’s southern border. Greece has been one of the main entry points into Europe for many Afghan refugees. According to a recent report by the UN Refugee Agency, around 45.3% of refugees who entered Greece by sea in June 2021, were from Afghanistan,” the DW News added on Saturday.
These figures should however be treated with caution. Not every immigrant claiming to be refugee fleeing the Afghan or Syria war zone is actually from those countries. In the wake of the 2015 migrant crisis, millions of economic migrants from Arab North African and the Middle East entered Europe claiming to be asylum seekers.
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