re: Taliban has taken Kabul. Terrorist attack at Airport at least 12 marines confirmed killed

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Reuters has compiled a list of the evacuations so far by country as the pace picks up in the wake of the attacks – and with days to go until the official 31 August deadline (though as we have just heard, western forces are reportedly aiming for 30 August).

US: Washington has so far evacuated 4,500 US citizens and their families, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

There are still about 1,500 US citizens in Afghanistan and the US government is working to either contact them or has already given them instructions on how to get to Kabul airport, Blinken said.

Britain: The UK has declined to specify when its last evacuation flight would leave, beyond saying that British troops would have to have left ahead of the last US flights out on 31 August. The Ministry of Defence said 13,146 people have been brought out of Kabul while armed forces minister James Heappey said about 400 people who needed to be evacuated were still in the country.

Germany: Angela Merkel has said Germany will continue evacuation flights as long as possible. By early on Thursday, the German military had evacuated 5,193 people on 34 flights. The ministry said on Wednesday it estimated more than 200 German citizens remained in Kabul. Some 540 Germans had already been evacuated.

Overall, Germany had said it had identified 10,000 people who needed to be evacuated, including Afghan local staff, journalists and human rights activists.

France:French Prime Minister Jean Castex says France expects to complete its evacuation flights from Kabul on Friday evening. The French foreign ministry said that, as of Wednesday evening, more than 100 French nationals and more than 2,000 Afghans had reached French soil after being evacuated from Kabul airport.

Qatar: Qatar said on Thursday it has so far helped evacuate more than 40,000 people to Doha and “evacuation efforts will continue in the coming days in consultation with international partners”.

Belgium: Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Thursday Belgium ended its evacuation operations after US sources informed the government of an imminent suicide bomb attack around Kabul airport. A little over 1,400 people were evacuated by Belgium from Kabul, with the last flight arriving at Islamabad on Wednesday night, he said.

Canada: Canadian forces in Kabul ended evacuation efforts for their citizens and Afghans on Thursday, ahead of an Aug. 31 deadline, acting chief of the defence staff General Wayne Eyre said. He said Canada had evacuated or facilitated the evacuation of around 3,700 Canadian and Afghan citizens.

Turkey: Turkey has evacuated at least 1,400 people from Afghanistan, including around 1,000 Turkish citizens, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier this week. Turkey also began to evacuate its troops in Afghanistan, with the first flight due to arrive in Ankara on Thursday.

Poland: Poland has evacuated about 900 people from Afghanistan, including about 300 women and 300 children, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday. He said the final flight had been due to land in Warsaw on Thursday morning.

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Thursday Night Summary

At least 72 civilians and 13 US service members were killed on Thursday when two suicide bombers and a gunman struck one of the main entrances to Kabul’s international airport, just hours after western intelligence agencies warned of an imminent threat to the ongoing, urgent evacuation operation. Children were among those who died.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks.Amaq news agency said on its Telegram channel that an IS member called Abdul Rahman al-Logari carried out “the martyrdom operation near Kabul Airport”.

Foreign forces are reportedly aiming to evacuate citizens, embassy employees by 30 August. An unnamed NATO diplomat has told Reuters that all foreign forces are now aiming to evacuate their citizens and embassy employees from the country by Monday, 30 August – a day before the US deadline. The diplomat added that Taliban forces will tighten security and add more forces to manage the crowds at the airports gates.

The attack marks deadliest day for US troops in more than a decade. Thursday’s attacks marked the deadliest day for US troops in Afghanistan since 6 August 2011, and the first military deaths since February 2020.

Joe Biden vowed revenge when he spoke briefly at the White House on Thursday afternoon. “We will not forget,” he said, as he vowed to “hunt down” the people behind the attacks. He held firm on the 31 August deadline and said that the US would get any Americans left in Afghanistan out of the country. The Islamic State leaders who ordered the attacks would be found “without large military operations”, he said.

American forces in Kabul are bracing for more Islamic State attacks while winding up their evacuation mission, US officials say. Marine Corps General Frank McKenzie, head of the US military’s Central Command, told a news briefing, “We believe it is their desire to continue these attacks and we expect those attacks to continue – and we’re doing everything we can to be prepared.”

US secretary of state Antony Blinken confirmed 100,000 people have now been evacuated from Kabul. In a statement, he called the bombings “a devastating reminder of the dangerous conditions in which our service members and diplomats are operating as we conclude the United States’ 20-year military mission in Afghanistan”.

General Frank McKenzie also said the US is prepared to take action against those responsible for the Kabul attack. Mckenzie said that cooperation with the Taliban had probably thwarted earlier attacks. Responding to the attacks, McKenzie insisted the evacuation operation would go on.

US flags are being flown at half-staff at Capitol. House speaker Nancy Pelosi has ordered the flags at the US Capitol in Washington to be flown at half-staff “in honour of the US service members and others” killed in the attack.

A blast heard in Kabul after the terror attacks was a controlled explosion by US military who were destroying ammunition, according to a Taliban spokesperson, via Reuters.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry rejected the attacks as “incompatible with all religious principles and moral and human values”. The ministry said it stood “with the Afghan people” and offered “condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims and the Afghan people”.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson said of the UK’s ongoing evacuation effort, “we’re going to keep going until the last moment”, despite the bombings.

French President Emmanuel Macron has offered “his condolences to the families of the American and Afghan victims” and saluted “the heroism of those who are on the ground to carry out the evacuation operations” in response to the attacks. He also pledged to see the evacuations “through to the end”.

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Mckenzie said that cooperation with the Taliban had probably thwarted earlier attacks. Responding to the attacks, McKenzie insisted the evacuation operation would go on.

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TutHillTiger

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TutHillTiger

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Any of these folks stop to think the Taliban is feeding us self serving information and propaganda to manipulate us. Leading is to believe they are cooperating.

While at the same to planning car bombs and suicide bombers or colluding with them to let them through and guiding them to the right target at the right time to do maximum destruction.

I have little doubt the Taliban is playing both sides of the fence here and using their position to manipulate us.

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