Afghanistan: Australia urges people to leave Kabul airport area due to terrorist threats-News

Australian Foreign Minister Mary Spean said on Thursday that the threat of a terrorist attack near Kabul Airport is high because Canberra urges its citizens and holders of Australian visas to leave the area.

For more than a week, Australia has been evacuating its citizens and visa holders from Kabul Airport, where Canberra urged people to travel there to prepare for transportation.

Late Wednesday, Australia changed its recommendations for the region, which Payne said was based on high concerns about the attack.

Payne told reporters in Canberra: “The continuing threat of terrorist attacks is very high.”

As Canberra prepares to end its evacuation plan, the warning increases the risk that dozens of Afghans holding Australian visas may be left behind.

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has previously stated that Australia is unlikely to evacuate everyone, but declined to comment on whether Australia will continue to fly before the August 31 deadline that the Taliban insisted they must comply with.

Morrison said that after another 1,200 people were airlifted overnight, Australia has now evacuated approximately 4,000 people from Afghanistan.

Morrison said many of them remained in the United Arab Emirates, while 639 had been evacuated to Australia.

In the years after the militants were expelled in 2001, Australia was part of the NATO-led international force that fought the Taliban and trained Afghan security forces.

More than 39,000 Australian soldiers served in Afghanistan and 41 of them were killed there.