Daily Times

Five rockets were fired at Kabul’s international airport but failed to hit the target due to an effective  missile defence system. President Joe Biden informed on Monday the operations at the Kabul Hamid Karzai airport were continued after the rocket attack. “National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chief of Staff Ron Klain have briefed the President on the rocket attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport.”

US and allied forces are rushing to move out  their remaining citizens and at-risk Afghans before completing their own abolition by Tuesday to meet a deadline agreed between the Taliban and Washington. The mission became more urgent after a Daesh suicide bomb attack on Thursday killed 13 US military personnel and scores of Afghan civilians outside the airport.

In the initial report, the latest rocket attack hasn’t confirmed any  US casualties but the information might be changed later, said US officials. Afghan media reports said the rocket attack was launched from the back of a vehicle. According to Pajhwok news agency several rockets struck different parts of the Afghan capital.

“We tried every option because our lives are in danger. They (the Americans or foreign powers) must show us a way to be saved. We should leave Afghanistan or they should provide a safe place for us,” said one woman outside the airport. Tens of thousands desperate Afghans face being left behind and about 114,400 people have been moved out including foreign nationals and helpless Afghans.

Evacuations would continue on Monday, prioritising people who are at extreme risk. Other countries have also given last minute requests to bring out people, the officials said. To honour members of the US military killed in Thursday’s attack US President Joe Biden attended a ceremony on Sunday at Dover Air Force Base.

Biden shut his eyes and tilted his head back as the flag-draped transfer caskets carrying the remains emerged from a military plane. From the killed military members no one was over the age of 31, and five were just 20, as old as the war in Afghanistan itself. Biden has promised to avenge the Daesh attack.

A suicide car bomber was killed in a US drone strike on Sunday who Pentagon officials said was all set to attack the airport on behalf of Daesh. US Central Command said it was investigating reports of civilian casualties from the strike  by the US military against suspected Daesh militants.

“We know that there were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle, indicating a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties,” it said. The departure of the last troops will mark the end of the US-led military involvement in Afghanistan, which began in late 2001, after the Al Qaeda September 11 attacks on the United States.