The United States on Saturday told Americans in Afghanistan to avoid traveling to Kabul airport, citing security threats outside the gates at the airport as thousands of desperate people gathered trying to flee almost a week after Taliban Islamists took control.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a new security alert on Saturday warned Americans not to travel to the Kabul airport.
“Because of potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so,” read a travel advisory.
The embassy didn’t elaborate on the security threat in the Saturday alert.
A US defense official told CNN “there is a strong possibility ISIS-K is trying to carry off an attack at the airport.”
A senior diplomat in Kabul told CNN that they are aware of a credible but not immediate threat by Islamic State against Americans at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
The embassy alert Saturday followed another issued three days earlier that warned the U.S. “cannot ensure safe passage” to the airport in Kabul.
“The security situation in Kabul continues to change quickly, including at the airport,” that alert read.
As of Saturday, the Pentagon said that the U.S. had evacuated about 17,000 people from Afghanistan within the past week, with a total of 22,000 secured passage out of the country since the end of July, when the Taliban had been reporting rapid territorial gains amid the Biden administration’s withdrawal of U.S. troops.
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