TINDERBOX

Threat of ISIS Attack Causes Panic at Kabul Airport, Reports Say

A threat by Islamic State militants led the U.S. military security the airport in Kabul to advise Afghans hoping to evacuate to stay clear of the airport.

Adding misery to mayhem, the U.S. and its allies have told Afghans hoping to be evacuated in the final days of the American-led 20-year mission in Afghanistan to stay away from the Kabul airport due to the threat of an imminent terror attack from an Islamic State affiliate. Citing intelligence reports that Islamic State militants could stage a suicide bomber or other attack on people waiting to get inside the fortified walls of the airport, the U.S. and British militaries advised against massing at the airport perimeter. “It’s very easy for a suicide bomber to attack the corridors filled with people and warnings have been issued repeatedly,” Afghan civil aviation official Ahmedullah Rafiqzai told Reuters. “But people don’t want to move, it’s their determination to leave this country that they are not scared to even die, everyone is risking their lives.” A senior U.S. official told The New York Times there has been a “specific” and “credible” threat to the airport from ISIS-K, an Afghan branch of Islamic State.