Following an alert of “potential security threats” outside the gates of Kabul’s airport on Saturday, U.S. defense officials are warning that the Islamic State affiliate ISIS Khorasan may be trying to target American citizens near the evacuation center in Afghanistan.
“We are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so,” the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan wrote Saturday.
Defense officials have reportedly said ISIS might be trying to target U.S. citizens, thousands of whom have fled the country since the Taliban’s Sunday takeover, at Hamid Karzai International Airport, according to multiple outlets.
“This is a specific threat that ISIS, the Islamic State, may be trying to target Americans,” NBC News correspondent Courtney Kube said Saturday after speaking with defense officials.
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Officials also told the outlet that the military is attempting to find a way to usher U.S. citizens safely to the airport, including methods such as “having small groups of Americans meet at locations where they can be safely brought to the airport in small groups,” Kube added.
“There is a strong possibility ISIS-K is trying to carry off an attack at the airport,” a U.S. defense official reportedly told CNN.
The outlet also reported that “a senior diplomat in Kabul said they are aware of a credible but not immediate threat by Islamic State against Americans at Hamid Karzai International Airport.”
CNN said a defense official “described the military effort to establish alternative routes” for Americans, qualified Afghans, and third-party nationals “to get to Kabul airport and its access gates.”
Defense spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on “specific details about the threat environment” in Kabul at a Pentagon press briefing Saturday, saying only that “the situation in Kabul … in the whole city is fluid and dynamic, and you’ve seen the images over the last 24 to 48 hours yourself of the situation outside the perimeter of the airport.”
A spokesperson for the National Security Council told the Washington Examiner that the NSC would not comment on specific threat streams but pointed to the readout of Biden’s national security meeting earlier Saturday.
A White House official provided the readout, which read, “This morning, the President met with his national security team. The Vice President joined by secure video teleconference en route to Singapore. They discussed the security situation in Afghanistan and counterterrorism operations, including ISIS-K.”
Biden mentioned ISIS-K during his remarks on Friday.
“We’re also keeping a close watch on any potential terrorist threat at or around the airport, including from the ISIS affiliates in Afghanistan who were released from prison when the prisons were emptied. And because they are, by the way, to make everybody understand, that the ISIS in Afghanistan are the — have been the sworn enemy of the Taliban,” the president said in his address to the nation.
When Biden said Friday that al Qaeda was “gone” from Afghanistan, he was quickly contradicted by Kirby, who said “that we know that al Qaeda is a presence, as well as ISIS, in Afghanistan, and we’ve talked about that for quite some time.”
The particular ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan often attempts to recruit Taliban defectors and has clashed with the Taliban in the past.
Taliban and al Qaeda fighters are believed to have been among the thousands of prisoners freed from the Parwan Detention Facility when the Taliban entered Kabul over the weekend. The prison is right next to Bagram Air Base, which the United States quietly abandoned in July.
Pentagon officials confirmed the airport gates had been temporarily closed Saturday but were open intermittently to allow U.S. citizens with proper credentials to enter. The Taliban control Kabul and the land surrounding the airport up to the entry gates, where U.S. and British military troops control direct access into the gates.
Army Major Gen. William Taylor said that six U.S. C-17 aircraft and 32 charter planes departed Kabul “within the past 24 hours,” noting the passenger count on all of those flights was “approximately 3,800.” So far, the U.S. has evacuated 17,000 people from Kabul since Aug. 14, including roughly 2,500 U.S. residents. As of Wednesday, up to 15,000 U.S. residents remained in Kabul.
Taylor added that commanders at the airport were “metering” the flow of U.S. citizens, Afghan allies, and other foreigners with proper credentials to ensure everyone was thoroughly screened and vetted.
The lead inspector general for Operation Freedom’s Sentinel released a May report warning that ISIS-K was strengthening itself in 2021.
“After a string of major defeats and setbacks last year, ISIS-K regained strength this quarter. According to media sources, the group has maintained a steady operational tempo and retains the ability to carry out terrorist attacks in Kabul and other major cities. According to media reporting, ISIS-K has replenished its ranks by appealing to disaffected members of the Taliban,” the watchdog’s May report said, adding that, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency, “the Biden Administration’s review of the U.S.-Taliban agreement has likely had little impact on ISIS-K, which continues to oppose the Taliban’s presence. However, ISIS-K may be attempting to recruit Taliban members disillusioned with the peace process.”
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The inspector general noted that U.S. forces, before they were withdrawn, had two main goals: “participation in the NATO-led Resolute Support mission” to train and support Afghan forces, as well as “counterterrorism operations against al Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria–Khorasan, and their affiliates in Afghanistan.”
