Afghanistan, Pentagon: “There is an Isis threat in Kabul”

“We know there is a threat from ISIS” around the Kabul airport. Pentagon spokesman Jack Kirby stressed this, reporting that the US “continues to maintain the protection of its forces at the highest level”, until the completion of the evacuation operation. Read also President Joe Biden also referred to the terrorist threat, as one of the reasons that led him to confirm the deadline of August 31 for the end of the evacuation operations from Afghanistan. Last night the US military conducted “an” operation to extract and safely evacuate “a group of” less than twenty people, “Kirby said. The operation, on which he did not wish to provide further details, took place within the city of Kabul to bring people to safety within the airport perimeter. Kirby did not specify which nationality the rescued people are. In the past 24 hours, US forces and those of their allies have evacuated about 19,000 people from the Kabul airport, said William Taylor, deputy director for regional operations for the General Staff Gathered, during the press conference at the Pentagon. In particular, the US evacuated 11,200 people on board 42 military aircraft, while the Allies evacuated 7,800 people on board 48 military aircraft. In total, Taylor said, about 88,000 people have left Kabul since the start of the evacuation operation and “another ten thousand are at the airport waiting to leave”. The mission, added Taylor, remains “unchanged” and will consist of “safely evacuating as many people as possible”. When the retreat is completed, the security of Kabul airport “will no longer” be a responsibility. US forces, Kirby remarked. The US forces involved in the evacuation operation in Kabul are in “daily communication” with the Taliban commanders on “who to let in” at Hamid Karzai airport, surrounded by checkpoints of the Taliban militias.