Afghanistan: ‘Very high risk of terrorist attack’ against UK and allies evacuation – British source | world News

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A senior British source said there was a “very high risk of a terrorist attack” against the evacuation by British, US and other allied forces in Kabul.

The source said the most worrying group is an affiliate of the Islamic State in Afghanistan called Islamic State-Khorasan or ISIS-K.

The type of attacks they are known to carry out in particular are suicide bombings, such as detonating a car bomb or an individual blowing themselves up.

British, American and other allied forces are particularly at risk because they do not have complete control over their security, and instead have to rely on the Taliban to help secure access to the airport.

In recent days, ministers, including the defense minister and the armed forces minister, have raised concerns about the security threat to forces involved in the evacuation efforts.

This morning Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said around 2,000 people had been returned to the UK from Kabul airport in the past 24 hours and that “the system is running at full speed”.

“We will use every remaining hour and day to take back everyone we can bring back, the British citizens, the Afghans who have worked so faithfully for us, bringing back Chevening scholars, as well as women’s rights advocates and journalists.”

He added: “Single citizens, so the single-citizenship UK who got documents, and the lion’s share, almost all who want to get out have been sent home.

Photo: Since the Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15, crowds of people have waited outside the airport as they try to board evacuation flights.

“The rest, and we’ve done a great job, two and a half thousand British nationals if you go back to April … What’s left are rather complicated cases, large family units where you can clearly document or maybe even be a citizen, but it’s not clear if The rest are citizens.

When asked about reports that the airport could switch to allowing people to leave on civilian planes instead of military flights, Mr. Raab said: “We are dealing with the Taliban militarily on the ground, and in Doha with political representation.

“We would like to see Kabul airport return to work. It will require security on the ground, it will require doing it safely, and of course, it will require the Taliban to fulfill their guarantees about allowing the safety to exit.”

Raab added that it would take time to withdraw the British military operation in Afghanistan.

“Military planners are going to work out how much time they need to pull their equipment and personnel, and what’s really important is that we’re going to make the most of all the time we have left,” he said.

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The Taliban set an August 31 exit date for all foreign evacuations and Boris Johnson failed to secure an extension to the US deadline for all Western forces to leave during a meeting with G7 nations on Tuesday.

A team of more than 1,000 British soldiers and diplomats running the British evacuation mission on the ground will need a period of time to pack their equipment and leave before the August 31 US exit deadline.

This means that the evacuation flights of Afghan civilians desperate to flee the country after the Taliban’s takeover must stop at least several days before that date.

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