Taleban to allow for safe passage of Americans, says US official

WASHINGTON • The Biden administration expects the Taleban to continue allowing safe passage for Americans and others to leave Afghanistan after the US military withdrawal is completed this week, according to a top official.

"The Taleban have communicated both privately and publicly that they will allow for safe passage," said Mr Jake Sullivan, United States President Joe Biden's National Security Adviser, in a CBS TV interview that was set to be broadcast yesterday.

Such safe passage would suggest some form of ongoing cooperation between Washington and the Taleban, which now controls a country it ran from 1996 to 2001, before being toppled by the US.

"Our current plan is not to have an ongoing embassy presence in Afghanistan as of Sept 1," said Mr Sullivan.

"After Aug 31, we will make sure there is safe passage for any American citizen, any legal permanent resident," Mr Sullivan said, according to a transcript of CBS' Face The Nation. "And yes, we will ensure the safe passage of those Afghans who helped us to continue coming out after Aug 31."

The US carried out a military strike yesterday in Kabul, two US officials told Reuters. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the strike targeted suspected militants belonging to ISIS-K, the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror group. They said they were citing initial information and cautioned it could change.

Witnesses reported an explosion near Kabul airport and television footage showed black smoke rising into the sky. There was no immediate word on casualties. Two witnesses said the blast appeared to have been caused by a rocket that struck a house in an area to the northern side of the airport, but there was no immediate confirmation.

Mr Sullivan said more strikes and "other operations" are under consideration to retaliate for last Thursday's attack, which was claimed by ISIS-K and was the most lethal incident for US service members in Afghanistan in a decade.

Mr Sullivan also said US officials do not believe that "the relevant terrorist groups in Afghanistan" have an advanced ability to plot attacks abroad.

Britain's last military flight left Kabul last Saturday night after a chaotic two weeks at the airport that was plunged into a bloodbath last Thursday when an ISIS-K suicide bomb attack outside the airport gates killed at least 90 Afghans and 13 American troops.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the evacuation operation, but he faced accusations that his government had been "asleep on watch".

Mr Biden travelled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware yesterday morning, where he was set to pay respects to the 13 service members who were killed in the airport attack.

He and his wife Jill "will meet with the families of fallen American service members who gave their lives to save Americans, our partners and our Afghan allies in Kabul", ahead of a transfer of the remains, according to the President's daily schedule.

US forces are in the final phase of pulling out of Kabul, ending two decades of costly involvement in Afghanistan, as the country's new Taleban rulers prepared to take control of the airport.

Around 300 civilians remained at the airport yesterday to be flown out before the troops finally leave, another Western security official said.

The official added that crowds at the Kabul airport gates had diminished after a specific warning from the US government of another attack by ISIS-K.

Mr Biden has said he will stick by his deadline to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan by tomorrow.

A US official said last Saturday that fewer than 4,000 troops remained at the airport.

The airlift - one of the biggest such evacuation operations ever - marked the end of a 20-year Western mission in Afghanistan that began when US-led forces ousted a Taleban government that had provided safe haven for the perpetrators of the Sept 11, 2001, attack.

The US and allies have taken about 113,500 people out of Afghanistan in the past two weeks, but tens of thousands who want to go will be left behind.

"We tried every option because our lives are in danger. They (the Americans or foreigners) must show us a way to be saved," said one woman outside the airport.

"We should leave Afghanistan or they should provide a safe place for us," she said.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE