One killed in Kabul airport shooting; fears of terror attack

KABUL/WASHINGTON • A firefight broke out between unidentified gunmen, Western security forces and Afghan guards at the North Gate of Kabul airport yesterday, Germany's armed forces said, as thousands of Afghans and foreigners thronged the airport, seeking to flee Taleban rule.

One Afghan guard was killed and three others were injured in the fight, which also involved US and German forces, the German military said on Twitter, without specifying whether the dead Afghan was one of the Taleban fighters deployed to guard the airport.

The airport has been a scene of chaos since the Taleban seized the Afghan capital on Aug 15 amid attempts by American and international forces to evacuate citizens and vulnerable Afghans.

On Sunday, Taleban fighters beat back crowds at the airport, a day after seven Afghans were killed in a crush at the gates as the deadline for the withdrawal of foreign troops approaches.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan warned on Sunday that the threat of a terrorist attack by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria posed a serious danger to the administration's evacuation of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies from the airport.

"The threat is real. It is acute. It is persistent. And it is something that we are focused on with every tool in our arsenal," said Mr Sullivan.

His comments were the most urgent so far regarding a range of steadily increasing threats that intelligence and military officials have privately briefed Mr Biden and his top aides on in recent days, officials said.

Neither he nor other senior American military or intelligence officials gave details about the threats. Current and former officials say, however, that they range from a missile attack against a transport plane taking off or landing at Hamid Karzai International Airport to a bomb-laden truck or suicide bombers infiltrating the crowd outside the airport.

An attack on the airport, officials said, would be a strategic blow to both the United States and the Taleban, which is trying to show that it can control Afghanistan.

A Taleban official yesterday said foreign forces in the country have not sought to extend the Aug 31 deadline to leave, after President Joe Biden said US troops might stay longer to oversee a "hard and painful" evacuation.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called a virtual meeting of leaders of the Group of Seven (G-7) wealthy nations today to "ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis and support the Afghan people".

Britain plans to push world leaders to consider new sanctions on the Taleban when the G-7 meets, sources said. Mr Biden has said he would support that effort, depending on the conduct of the Taleban.

Mr Biden, who last week flagged the possibility of troops staying on longer, on Sunday said the security situation in Afghanistan was changing rapidly and remained dangerous. "Let me be clear, the evacuation of thousands from Kabul is going to be hard and painful" and would have been "no matter when it began", he said in a media briefing. "We have a long way to go and a lot could still go wrong."

Asked by a reporter whether the US would extend the Aug 31 deadline for evacuations, Mr Biden replied: "Our hope is we will not have to extend, but there are going to be discussions I suspect, on how far along we are in the process."

Mr Biden also said he had directed the State Department to contact Americans stranded in the country. "We're executing a plan to move groups of these Americans to safety and to safely and effectively move them to the airport compound. For security reasons, I'm not going into detail... but I will say again today what I've said before: Any American who wants to get home will get home."

Afghan allies of the West and vulnerable Afghans such as women activists and journalists would be helped too, he said.

Panicked Afghans have clamoured to board flights out of Kabul, fearing reprisals and a return to a harsh version of Islamic law that the Sunni Muslim group implemented when it was last in power two decades ago.

Meanwhile, Taleban leaders, who have sought to show a more moderate face since capturing Kabul, have begun talks on forming a government. They face opposition from forces in northern Afghanistan, which said this weekend that they had taken three districts close to the Panjshir valley.

Anti-Taleban leader Ahmad Massoud on Sunday said he hoped to hold peaceful talks with the Islamist movement, but that his forces in the Panjshir - remnants of army units, special forces and militiamen - were ready to fight.

"We want to make the Taleban realise that the only way forward is through negotiation," he said. "We do not want a war to break out."

The Taleban said hundreds of its fighters were heading towards Panjshir, showing a video on Twitter of a column of captured trucks with the white Taleban flag, but still bearing their government markings, moving along a highway.

REUTERS, NYTIMES