US in final phase of evacuations

KABUL－US forces were in the final phase of leaving Kabul after a two-week scramble by Washington and its allies to evacuate citizens and at-risk Afghans, a Western security official said on Sunday.

The Taliban is prepared to take control of the airport, an official from the group said. The Pentagon said on Saturday that US troops had begun withdrawing from the airport.

The Western security official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters a date and time for the end of the operation was yet to be decided.

US President Joe Biden has said he will stick by his deadline to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by Tuesday.

The Taliban official told Reuters the Islamist group had engineers and technicians ready to take charge of the airport.

"We are waiting for the final nod from the Americans to secure full control over Kabul airport as both sides aim for a swift handover," the official said on condition of anonymity.

As Washington neared the end of its military involvement in the country, the United States said it killed two Islamic State militants planning attacks in Afghanistan in an airstrike, after a deadly suicide bombing outside the airport on Thursday.

At least 170 people died in the attack, including 13 US service personnel.

Biden also warned on Saturday that airstrikes would be kept up against the Islamic State group.

"This strike was not the last. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay," he said.

The United Kingdom on Sunday ended its two-week evacuation operation as military aircraft carrying British troops and diplomats from Kabul landed at a UK air base.

The UK Ambassador to Afghanistan, Laurie Bristow, was among those who arrived at RAF Brize Norton northwest of London, hours after the government announced that all British personnel had left Kabul.

Earlier on Saturday the UK sent out a final aircraft carrying only civilian evacuees as it wound up its operation to fly out civilians, diplomats and troops before the deadline of Tuesday agreed with the Taliban for US troop withdrawal.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson thanked those behind the rescue operation, saying they had helped more than 15,000 people in less than two weeks.

On Saturday the head of the UK armed forces, General Sir Nick Carter, told the BBC the evacuation operation had "gone as well as it could do" but admitted it was "heartbreaking" that "we haven't been able to bring everybody out".

UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace earlier estimated that up to 1,100 Afghans eligible for relocation under the UK's scheme "didn't make it".

Agencies Via Xinhua