West warns of possible attack at Kabul airport amid airlift

US Air Force loadmasters and pilots assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, load people being evacuated from Afghanistan onto a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan (Master Sgt Donald R Allen/US Air Force via AP)

Western nations have warned of a possible attack on Kabul’s airport, where thousands have flocked as they try to flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the waning days of a massive airlift.

With the August 31 deadline looming for the US to totally withdraw troops from America’s longest war, several nations have landed flight after flight on to the single runway at Kabul’s international airport to evacuate thousands of people who fear a return to the Taliban’s brutal rule.

Some countries have begun to pull their soldiers and diplomats out, which is likely to signal the beginning of the end of one of history’s largest airlifts.

The Taliban has so far honoured a pledge not to attack Western forces during the evacuation, but insists the foreign troops must be out by the end of the month.

Hundreds of people gather near an evacuation control checkpoint during ongoing evacuations at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul (AP)

But overnight, new warnings emerged from Western capitals about a possible threat from the affiliate of the so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan, Isis-K, which is likely to have seen its ranks boosted by the Taliban’s freeing of prisoners during its blitz across the country.

Already, military cargo planes leaving Kabul airport have launched flares to disrupt any potential missile fire.

British armed forces minister James Heappey told the BBC on Thursday there was ”very, very credible reporting of an imminent attack” at the airport.

Mr Heappey conceded that people are desperate to leave and “there is an appetite by many in the queue to take their chances, but the reporting of this threat is very credible indeed and there is a real imminence to it”.

“There is every chance that as further reporting comes in, we may be able to change the advice again and process people anew but there’s no guarantee of that.”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied that any attack was imminent.

“It’s not correct,” he wrote in a text message after being asked about the warnings.

The warnings come as many Afghans are fleeing the country in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

Two paratroopers conduct security while a C-130 Hercules takes off during an evacuation operation in Kabul (Department of Defence via AP)

It wrested back control of the country nearly 20 years after it was ousted in a US-led invasion following the September 11 attacks, which al Qaida orchestrated while being sheltered by the group.

Outside of a missile attack, troops have been worried about the uncontrolled, teeming crowds outside the airport.

While the Taliban and others have tried to control them, there is no formal screening process on the way to the airport as there was under Afghanistan’s former government.

That means someone carrying a suicide bomb could slip through – or an explosives-laden vehicle could barrel through.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said his country had received information about just that kind of attack.

“We received information at the military level from the United States, but also from other countries, that there were indications that there was a threat of suicide attacks on the mass of people,” he said, talking about the threat around Kabul airport.

Kabul’s international airport is seen as an evacuation flight taxis to the military side of the airport (Planet Labs Inc. via AP)

On Wednesday, the US embassy in Kabul issued a security alert warning American citizens away from three specific airport gates, but gave no further explanation.

Senior US officials said the warning was related to ongoing and specific threats involving IS and potential vehicle bombs.

Isis-K grew out of disaffected Taliban members who hold an even more extreme view of Islam, riding on a wave when the militants seized territory across Iraq and Syria.

Naming themselves after Khorasan, a historic name for the greater region, the extremists embarked on a series of brutal attacks that included a 2020 assault on a maternity hospital in Kabul that saw infants and women killed.

The Taliban has fought against IS militants in Afghanistan.

However, its advance across the country is likely to have seen IS fighters freed alongside the Taliban’s own.

There are particular concerns that extremists may have seized heavy weapons and equipment abandoned by Afghan troops who fled the Taliban advance.

Afghan refugees arriving in a military plane at Roissy airport, north of Paris (Eric Cadiou/Etat Major des Armees via AP)

Amid the warnings and the pending American withdrawal, European nations said they would have to end their evacuations.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex told French radio RTL on Thursday that “from tomorrow evening onwards, we are not able to evacuate people from the Kabul airport” due to the upcoming American withdrawal.

Danish defence minister Trine Bramsen bluntly warned: “It is no longer safe to fly in or out of Kabul.”

Denmark’s last flight, carrying 90 people plus soldiers and diplomats, has already departed, and Poland and Belgium have also announced the end of their evacuations.

The Taliban has said it will allow Afghans to leave via commercial flights after the deadline next week, but it remains unclear which airlines would return to an airport controlled by the militants.

Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said talks were under way between his country and the Taliban about allowing Turkish civilian experts to help run the facility.

But Turkish troops are starting to withdraw currently, he said.