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US, others issue security alert at Kabul airport

In this image provided by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Air Force loadmasters and pilots assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, load people being evacuated from Afghanistan onto a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. (Master Sgt. Donald R. Allen/U.S. Air Force via AP)

Australia on Thursday advised its citizens in Afghanistan not to travel to Kabul’s airport, where there as a “very high threat of a terrorist attack.”

Australians in the airport’s vicinity were advised to move to a safe location and await further advice.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the travel advice was consistent with revised British and New Zealand advice. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul warned American citizens away from three specific airport gates over an unspecified security issue.

Australia has helped evacuated around 4,000 people from the airport since Wednesday last week including 1,200 overnight, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

That was triple the number that Morrison said he thought was possible last week.

“It remains a highly dangerous environment,” Morrison said.

“That danger and those risks have been increasing each and every day as we always knew they would, and that’s why we’ve been moving with the haste that we have,” he added.

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