Kabul: Heappey issues warning over ‘security threat’

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James Heappey delivered a dire warning that ISIS attacks on US and UK military could occur if key dates and plans of the withdrawal in Kabul were made public as the terror group could capitalise on the diminishing security forces in Afghanistan. Mr Heappey said it was a “real security threat, particularly from Islamic State” as chaotic scenes around Kabul airport how shown stampedes that have already killed several people. The minister added if the timetable for evacuation was made public, then we could see a repeat of those stampedes and further deaths. 

Mr Heappey spoke on LBC and delivered an update on the situation in Kabul but worryingly stated he could not reveal all of the details as terror groups may capitalise on the chaos. 

He explained: “1821 people evacuated from Kabul over the last 24 hours across eight flights operated by the Royal Air Force.

“Brits and Afghan nationals, the flow remains good into the evacuation handling centre at the Barrett hotel and there are nine flights scheduled for the next 24 hours.

“The situation on the ground remains challenging though, there is a real security threat that we’re facing, particularly from Islamic State.

“And so, for that purpose, I’m afraid what we can’t do is really give you the exact dates of when each part of the mission culminates.

“Clearly at some point that you know the envelope that we’re working within is set by the August 31, that’s what we’re still working to within this building.”

Mr Heappey then said the upcoming G7 meeting which will look at the situation in Afghanistan may mean a change to the plans. 

Mr Biden revealed the G7 leaders would meet on Tuesday to come up with a unified response to Afghanistan with reports suggesting Prime Minister Boris Johnson will seek to extend the August 31 withdrawal date. 

Taliban says Joe Biden will 'provoke a reaction' if US troops stay

America has said it wants to withdraw all US forces by August 31 but the date may now be pushed back. 

Mr Heappey continued: “Notwithstanding that, there are conversations to follow at the G7 that might change that so at some point therefore before August 31 we will need to stop evacuating people at the pace that we are at the moment and switch to the military withdrawal.

“And we don’t want to advertise the date of the last evacuation flight because we don’t want to cause more of the sort of desperate scenes that you saw on Saturday where there was a crush outside the gates that killed seven people.

“And we can’t advertise the date of the last flights for the military because as you’ll appreciate the number of people guarding our mission reduces throughout the withdraw and obviously the risk to them, therefore, grows the further into the military withdrawal that we get.”

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Mr Biden said US forces have extended their border around Kabul airport as more troops land to help with the evacuation efforts. 

The Taliban have set up checkpoints around the capital to monitor where people are going with several checkpoints set up on roads leading to the airport. 

A Taliban spokesperson said they do not want to see people leave the country and urged western allies and others to stay as there would be “no revenge” for working against the Taliban. 

Mr Biden has come under strong criticisms for his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan after the Taliban retook the country in several weeks despite 20 years of US support in the country. 

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