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ISIS terror threat forces US military

to establish alternate routes to
Kabul airport
By Barbara Starr, Oren Liebermann, Ellie Kaufman and Nicole Gaouette, CNN
Updated 3:50 PM ET, Sat August 21, 2021 

TOPSHOT - Afghans gather on a roadside near the military part of the airport in Kabul on
August 20, 2021, hoping to flee from the country after the Taliban's military takeover of
Afghanistan. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP) (Photo by WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty
Images)
(CNN)The US military is establishing "alternative routes" to Kabul airport because of a threat
the terror group ISIS-K poses to the airport and its surroundings, as President Joe Biden met with
senior officials Saturday to discuss the security situation in Afghanistan and counter-terrorism
operations against the Islamic State offshoot.
"There is a strong possibility ISIS-K is trying to carry off an attack at the airport," a US defense
official told CNN. A senior diplomat in Kabul said they are aware of a credible but not
immediate threat by Islamic State against Americans at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Two US defense officials described the military effort to establish "alternative routes" for people
to get to Kabul airport and its access gates, with one saying these new routes will be available to
Americans, third party nationals and qualified Afghans.
The Taliban are aware of the new effort and are coordinating with the US, one of the officials
said.

Possible threats
The Pentagon has been monitoring the situation around the airport, aware that the swelling
crowds on the grounds and around the airfield create a target for ISIS-K and other organizations,
which may use car bombs or suicide bombers to attack, the second official said. Mortar attacks
are another possible threat.
Details of the plan are being closely held, but the broadly sketched-out details call for people to
follow new routes and access points in coordination with Taliban on the ground in an attempt to
help disperse the gathering of large crowds or avoid the crowds altogether, the two officials said.
US personnel would be in a position to observe the movement of people to ensure safety, but the
official would not specify if that involves direct observation by nearby troops as well as the use
of intelligence sensors.
"There's a whole canopy of security concerns we have," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby
said at a press briefing Saturday, as he described the military "fighting against both time and
space" in its effort to safely evacuate people.
"The idea is to get as many people out as fast as we can," Kirby said. "That's what the focus is. In
trying to accomplish that mission, we're taking in a whole wealth of information about what the
security environment looks like."

Rifles, Humvees and millions of rounds of ammo: Taliban celebrate their new American arsenal
Biden and his national security team met in the Situation Room on Saturday morning to discuss
"the security situation in Afghanistan and counterterrorism operations, including ISIS-K," the
White House said. "They discussed the massive logistical operation to evacuate American
citizens and their families, SIV applicants and their families, and vulnerable Afghans both on
U.S. military aircraft, as well as flight charters and coalition flights."
ISIS-K is a self-proclaimed branch of the terror group that first emerged in Syria and Iraq. While
the affiliates share an ideology and tactics, the depth of their relationship with regards to
organization and command and control has never been entirely established.
US intelligence officials previously told CNN the ISIS-K membership includes "a small number
of veteran jihadists from Syria and other foreign terrorist fighters," saying that the US had
identified 10 to 15 of their top operatives in Afghanistan. The group's name comes from its
terminology for the area that includes Afghanistan and Pakistan: "Khorasan."
Biden referred to the threat from Islamic State in an address to the nation on Friday, telling
Americans that, "we're also keeping a close watch on any potential terrorist threat at or around
the airport, including from the ISIS affiliates in Afghanistan who were released from prison
when the prisons were emptied."
Biden noted that ISIS in Afghanistan have been the sworn enemy of the Taliban, with which US
officials have been coordinating and communicating on a constant basis over access to the
airport. 
"I've said all along," Biden added, "We're going to retain a laser-focus on our counterterrorism
mission, working in close coordination with our allies and our partners and all those who have an
interest in ensuring stability in the region."

'The best job they can'

According to an official familiar with the matter, Biden has pushed his team to ramp up flights
and evacuations but accessing the airport has become difficult as crowds swarm the gates. 
Not long before the President met to confer with Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense
Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, Secretary of State Antony Blinken
and others on Saturday, the US embassy in Kabul sent a security alert saying that "because of
potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to
avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual
instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so."
At the Pentagon, where an official told CNN on Saturday that evacuations had slowed in the past
24 hours, spokesman Kirby said the State Department is "doing the best job they can to advise
Americans who still haven't made it to the airport, what the situation looks like around the
airport, that would be the prudent thing to do."
"If you're an American and you're at a gate, you will be let in that gate," Kirby said Saturday. 
But gates to the airport have been closed for "short durations" over the past 24 hours, Gen. Hank
Taylor, deputy director of the Joint Staff for Regional Operations, told reporters during the
Pentagon briefing with Kirby. 
"There's been short durations throughout the last 24 hours where gates have been closed to allow
the proper people to come in and out of those gates," Taylor said.

Inside the scramble to help Americans and Afghans escape Afghanistan

The President asserted on Friday that there's no indication American citizens have been
prevented from getting through to the airport but acknowledged the risks involved with the
evacuation mission, saying it "is dangerous, involves risks to Armed Forces, and has been
conducted under difficult circumstances." 
Biden stressed that he could not promise what the final outcome will be, or "that it will be
without risk of loss." But he added that "as Commander in Chief, I can assure you that I will
mobilize every resource necessary." 
Speaking to reporters Saturday, Kirby did not rule out taking other measures to get Americans to
Kabul airport, including having US military troops go into the city and retrieve them, if
necessary. On Friday, the Pentagon revealed it had used three CH-47 Chinook helicopters to
retrieve 169 Americans who had gathered at a hotel about 200 meters from an airport gate, wary
of the risks involved in trying to walk through the throngs outside amid reports of violence and
Taliban beatings. 
"We're going to continue to explore options to assist Americans as needed," Kirby said. "We will
do that here at the Pentagon. If there's a need to do something different than what we're already
doing to facilitate them getting into the airport ... we'll certainly consider those options."
 'Fighting against both time and space'
But Kirby acknowledged the challenge the military is facing as it works towards an August 31
deadline to leave the country. Biden has indicated the US may have to stay beyond that date if all
Americans have not been evacuated yet. 
"I think we've been very honest about the fact that we know that we're fighting against both time
and space," Kirby said. "That's really what, that's the race that we're in right now, and we're
trying to do this as quickly and as safely as possible." 
The pace of the evacuation effort slowed after a bottleneck developed Friday as space at the Al
Udeid Air Base in Qatar, one of the leading destinations for flights, neared capacity, forcing the
US to scramble for other locations.
Only 6 C-17s have left Kabul international airport in the past 24 hours, carrying some 1,600
people, a defense official told CNN, a dramatic reduction in the pace of evacuations as a result of
Friday's 8-hour delay in flights. 
That figure was a stark drop from the 6,000 people who flew out of Kabul in the previous 24-
hour period on 16 C-17 flights and a C-130, according to figures Taylor gave reporters during a
Pentagon briefing on Friday.

The Taliban face bleak economic times ahead, former Afghan central banker predicts
On Saturday, Taylor told reporters that on military aircraft and charter planes combined,
approximately 3,800 people were evacuated in the past 24 hours.
Since the end of July, 22,000 people have been evacuated, with 17,000 of them flown out over in
the week since August 14, Taylor said. Out of the 17,000 evacuated since August 14, 2,500 are
US citizens, Taylor said.
C-17 military planes are now "moving between Qatar and Germany," Taylor said, and in the past
24 hours, three flights from Kabul landed at Dulles International Airport near Washington, DC.
Some Afghans will be transitioned to Fort Bliss for further processing, Taylor added.
On Friday, US officials announced a dramatic expansion in the number of countries that will
help transit Americans or temporarily host Afghans, including Germany where the first
evacuation flight of about 350 people arrived at Ramstein Air Base. 
CNN's Jennifer Hansler, Kevin Liptak and Betsy Klein contributed to this report 

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