NATO Sec.-Gen. evaluates threat of terror attack at Kabul airport

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary-general, said that the terrorist threat faced at the Kabul airport was not “theoretical” but “a real danger,” Report informs referring to the Financial Times.

“On the one hand, we would like to have as much time as possible to get as many people out as possible,” Stoltenberg said in an interview. “At the same time… if we stay beyond [the] August 31 [deadline], especially if we don’t have at least a kind of tacit consent of the Taliban, the danger increases [of] attacks.”

Within hours of the secretary-general’s warning, the UK government issued guidance to British nationals in Afghanistan advising against traveling to Kabul airport because of the “ongoing and high threat” of a terrorist attack.

Stoltenberg described the effort as one of the biggest evacuation attempts in history, adding that roughly 20,000 people a day were being airlifted from the country, including a growing number of Afghans.

When the military process was over, NATO would continue to work on getting people out via commercial flights and would press the Taliban to open up land routes, he said.