Rockets fired at Kabul airport as US troops race to finish evacuation

US anti-missile defences intercepted as many as 5 rockets that had been fired at Kabul’s airport early on Monday morning, a U.S. official stated, because the United States rushed to finish its withdrawal from Afghanistan to finish its longest warfare.
U.S. and allied forces are hurrying to evacuate their remaining residents and at-risk Afghans earlier than finishing their very own withdrawal by Tuesday to fulfill a deadline agreed between the Taliban and Washington.

The mission grew to become extra pressing and harmful after an Islamic State suicide bomb assault on Thursday killed 13 U.S. navy personnel and scores of Afghan civilians outdoors the airport.
The U.S. official, talking on the situation of anonymity, instructed Reuters preliminary reviews didn’t point out any U.S casualties from the newest rocket assault, however that data may change.
Afghan media reviews stated the rocket assault was mounted from the again of a automobile. According to Pajhwok information company a number of rockets struck totally different components of the Afghan capital.
The United States and allies have evacuated about 114,400 folks – together with international nationals and weak Afghans – in an operation that started a day earlier than Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15, however tens of 1000’s extra determined Afghans face being left behind.
“We tried every option because our lives are in danger. They (the Americans or foreign powers) must show us a way to be saved. We should leave Afghanistan or they should provide a safe place for us,” stated one lady outdoors the airport.
Two U.S. officers instructed Reuters evacuations would proceed on Monday, prioritising folks deemed at excessive danger. Other international locations have additionally put in final minute requests to convey out folks underneath that class, the officers stated.
U.S. President Joe Biden attended a ceremony on Sunday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to honour members of the U.S. navy killed in Thursday’s assault.
Biden shut his eyes and tilted his head again because the flag-draped switch caskets carrying the stays emerged from a navy aircraft.
None of the fallen service members was over the age of 31, and 5 had been simply 20, as outdated because the warfare in Afghanistan itself.
Biden has vowed to avenge the Islamic State assault.
A U.S. drone strike on Sunday killed a suicide automotive bomber who Pentagon officers stated was getting ready to assault the airport on behalf of ISIS-Ok, a neighborhood affiliate of Islamic State that’s an enemy of each the West and the Taliban.
U.S. Central Command stated it was investigating reviews of civilian casualties from the strike, the second by the U.S. navy in opposition to suspected ISIS-Ok militants.

“We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties,” it stated.
The departure of the final troops will mark the top of the U.S.-led navy intervention in Afghanistan, which started in late 2001, after the al Qaeda Sept. 11 assaults on the United States.
U.S.-backed pressured ousted a Taliban authorities that had supplied secure haven for al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who was lastly killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan in 2011, and have concerned in a counter-insurgency warfare in opposition to the Islamist militants for the previous 20 years.
The Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule was marked by a harsh model of sharia, Islamic regulation, with many political rights and primary freedoms curtailed and ladies severely oppressed.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has stated the group will announce a full Cabinet within the coming days, and that the difficulties will subside shortly as soon as the brand new administration is up and working.
But with its economic system shattered by a long time of warfare, Afghanistan now faces a sudden halt in inflows of billions of {dollars} in international assist.