U.S. allies announce end to evacuation efforts in Kabul, citing terror threat
A number of U.S. allies announced an end to evacuations from the Kabul airport Thursday, citing intelligence of an imminent terror threat and a looming deadline for U.S. withdrawal.
Canada and several European nations, including Belgium, Denmark and Poland, all said that they had halted flights and France said it was stopping its rescue efforts Friday..
Belgium’s prime minister said that reports of planned suicide attacks meant that the airport had become too dangerous. The Dutch government said in a letter to parliament that it expected its last evacuation flight to leave Afghanistan on Thursday.
“This is a painful moment because it means that despite all the great efforts of the past period, people who are eligible for evacuation to the Netherlands will be left behind,” Reuters quoted the letter as saying.
Also Thursday, German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said that the effort was “now in what is certainly the most hectic, dangerous and sensitive phase.”
“We know that the terror threats have intensified massively and that they have become significantly more concrete,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said, the Associated Press reported.
