Overnight Defense & National Security: US braces for potentially more attacks in Kabul

It’s Friday, welcome to Overnight Defense & National Security, your nightly guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. Subscribe here: digital-staging.thehill.com/newsletter-signup.

Following the suicide bombing and gunfight outside Kabul’s airport on Thursday, the White House and Pentagon have indicated more attacks could be coming.

We’ll share what intelligence the Biden administration is relaying, how it’s affected evacuations and how the U.S. military is shoring up its airport defenses.

For The Hill, we’re Ellen Mitchell and Rebecca Kheel. Write to us with tips: emitchell@digital-staging.thehill.com and rkheel@digital-staging.thehill.com. 

Let’s get to it.

 

Another attack likely before US troops leave 

National security officials on Friday warned President Biden that another terrorist attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, is “likely” in the final days of the U.S. military mission in the country.

Biden and Vice President Harris met with Pentagon officials and members of the president’s national security team one day after an ISIS suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport killed more than a dozen U.S. service members and more than a hundred Afghan civilians.

What they’re warning: “They advised the president and vice president that another terror attack in Kabul is likely, but that they are taking maximum force protection measures at the Kabul airport,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a briefing.

“The next few days of this mission will be the most dangerous period to date,” Psaki added.

Pentagon officials had warned in the aftermath of Thursday’s bombing that another attack, including one using a car bomb or some other device, was still a possibility. The airport at Kabul has been a target for terrorists, officials have warned, as thousands of Afghan civilians and American citizens make their way there to evacuate the country before the military withdrawal at the end of the month.

Evacuations continue: Defense officials also reported that “even in the face of those threats, our courageous service women and men are continuing to operate a historic evacuation operation,” Psaki said. “The U.S. military is airlifting out thousands of people every few hours.”

Biden has remained committed to getting all troops out of Afghanistan by Aug. 31, despite the terrorist attack on Thursday prompting some lawmakers to call for an extension so all Americans and Afghans who aided in the war effort can be safely taken out of the country.

ONLY ONE BOMBING, NOT TWO

The Pentagon on Friday said the deadly attack outside Kabul airport the previous day was carried out by one suicide bomber and that there was not a second explosion at a nearby hotel.

“I can confirm for you that we do not believe that there was a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, that it was one suicide bomber,” Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, deputy director of the joint staff for regional operations, told reporters at the Pentagon.

What they said earlier: Defense officials initially said a second bombing had taken place outside the Baron Hotel, which is adjacent to the airfield and a key site in the effort to evacuate U.S. and British citizens.

Mixed signals: But on Friday, Taylor said Defense officials don’t know the source of that initial report.

“We’re not sure how that report was provided incorrectly, but we do know it’s not any surprise that in the confusion of very dynamic events like this can cause information sometimes to be misreported or garbled,” he said. “Details are continuing to be collected.”

An update on the wounded: Eighteen service members who were wounded in the blast have since landed at Ramstein Air Base, a U.S. Air Force base in Germany, and have been transferred to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center for treatment, Taylor added.

Numerous Afghan civilians were also injured in Thursday’s explosion. ISIS-K militants claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

12,500 EVACUATED

Roughly 12,500 people were evacuated from Afghanistan between early Thursday morning and Friday, the White House said.

Of the 12,500 evacuees, roughly 8,500 of them were on 35 U.S. military flights out of Kabul, which included 29 C-17 planes and six C-130 planes. Another 4,000 people were carried on 54 coalition flights out of Kabul.

The total so far: White House officials said that since Aug. 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of about 105,000 people out of Afghanistan. Since the end of July, approximately 110,600 people have been relocated. 

About 7,500 people were evacuated from Kabul on Thursday alone. Roughly 5,100 people were carried on 14 U.S. military flights and 2,400 people on 39 coalition flights. The U.S. on Thursday topped 100,000 people evacuated since Aug. 14.

Evacuations upended by attack

The deadly ISIS-K attack at the Kabul airport on Thursday has upended U.S. evacuation efforts and confirmed widespread fears that a terrorist group would seek to capitalize on the chaos as thousands scramble to leave Afghanistan’s capital before next week.

The terrorist strike — the deadliest for U.S. forces in Afghanistan in a decade — sent shockwaves across Kabul and rattled global leaders. It came amid an already tense evacuation that has gripped the U.S. as the administration races to complete its withdrawal by the Tuesday deadline maintained by President Biden.

A dent: The attack put a dent in evacuation numbers out of the airport Thursday, with about 12,500 people evacuated between early Thursday morning and early Friday morning, a significant drop from the roughly 20,000-person daily average in the week prior.

Allies leave: A day after the blast, the United Kingdom announced it would wrap up its evacuation efforts, and it would only fly out the individuals already inside the Kabul airport.

Troops are beginning the final stage of leaving the country and will be gone “in a few days,” British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said Friday.

And Germany on Thursday announced that its military had evacuated Kabul after the explosions.

The country’s Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in a Twitter statement said no German soldiers were injured in the blasts and an emergency departure had occurred.

“An extension of the operation in Kabul was not possible. The worsening security situation on site and the unequivocal decision of the Taliban made this impossible,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said.

Warnings from 2019: In February 2019, then-Vice Director for Operation of the Joint Staff Air Force Lt. Gen. James Hecker and former Assistant Secretary of Defense Owen West told the House Armed Services Committee that ISIS-K numbers were growing.

“Their tactics are pretty ruthless,” Heckler said. “We see some of the things they do. They like high-profile attacks. They like to go to downtown Kabul and take a suicide bomber, get as many civilians around them as they can, and blow themselves up.”

Asked whether he believes that ISIS-K potentially poses a threat to the United States, West replied: “The intelligence community believes that, yes.”

Read the rest here.

Three more US bases to house Afghans

The Pentagon has added three more U.S. military bases to the list of installations that will help temporarily house Afghan evacuees who make it stateside, press secretary John Kirby confirmed Friday.

“Today the Department of Defense can announce that it has authorized Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va.; Fort Pickett, Va.; and Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., to provide additional support to the U.S. mission to evacuate Afghan special immigrant visa applicants, their families, and other at-risk individuals,” Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon.

Where else evacuees are headed: Kirby said the three new bases join Fort Lee, Va.; Fort McCoy, Wis.; Fort Bliss, Texas, and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., in providing support. Combined, the seven installations have the capacity for up to 50,000 Afghans and their families.

Who is in charge?: U.S. Northern Command will coordinate the accommodation details with the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, Kirby added.

How many are here now?: As of Friday, “just under 7,000” Afghan evacuees are in the United States and are being processed.

The United States has used a combination of U.S. military, coalition and commercial flights to remove vulnerable Afghans from the Kabul airport to overseas military bases. The far-flung installations are being used as staging areas to process the evacuees before moving them to the United States for safe haven.

Bottlenecks complicate: But the use of commercial flights is creating a bottleneck at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., where numerous evacuation flights have flown in in the past week carrying thousands of people.

Afghan refugees have reportedly had to wait hours on the tarmac as officials process the passengers.

Kirby on Friday acknowledged the reports and said “they have proven accurate in the last couple of days.”

He said the holdup is “really more an issue for Customs and Border Patrol and the process,” but as of Friday morning, “they have worked through the difficulties and we believe that wait time now upon landing is going to get much, much shorter.”

WHAT WE’RE READING

• US flags to be lowered to half-staff to honor slain troops…
• Psaki: Biden doesn’t want Kabul attack perpetrators ‘to live on the Earth anymore’…
• Fox’s Wallace: An Afghanistan-based attack on US ‘could be curtains’ for Biden presidency…
• Republicans call on Biden to recognize opposition group in Afghanistan…
• US takes in dozens of unaccompanied children from Afghanistan…
• NATO allies fly flags at half-staff to honor US service members killed in Kabul…
• Taliban promises Afghans they will be able to travel…
• Military Times: ‘Just one more’: Inside the massive military community effort to save Afghans

 

That’s it for today. Check out The Hill’s defense and national security pages for the latest coverage. We’ll see you Monday.

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