Status: 08/26/2021 6:36 p.m.
The evacuations of the German armed forces in Kabul have apparently ended – the last flights have left the city, according to media reports. According to the Bundeswehr, more than 5,000 people have been flown out since the start of the mission.
According to media reports, the Bundeswehr started the last planned evacuation flights from Afghanistan. According to the dpa news agency, the three planes took off from Kabul airport with the destination Tashkent in Uzbekistan. The Reuters agency also reported that the evacuations in the Afghan capital have been completed.
The airport was shaken today by at least two explosions in the vicinity of the site, several people were killed. According to the Bundeswehr, no German soldiers were injured.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said that one or more suicide attacks were assumed and spoke of “depressing” news. “This is an absolutely vile attack,” she said. Merkel also declared that the people who could no longer be brought to safety with the airlift will not be forgotten. “We will continue to try to get you to leave the country.”
Press conference by Chancellor Angela Merkel on the attacks in Kabul
tagesschau24 6:00 p.m., August 26, 2021
5200 people flown out
Three aircraft of the mission are expected back in Germany on Friday. Bundeswehr Inspector General Eberhard Zorn said that the Bundeswehr had flown out 5200 people from 45 nations since the start of the mission on August 16. Among them are 4200 Afghans and 505 German citizens.
Two helicopters that had been transported to Kabul for the evacuation operations have already been brought back to Tashkent in Uzbekistan. The Bundeswehr hub for evacuation is located there.
Warnings of terrorist attacks
Recently there had been more and more warnings of terrorist attacks at the airport in Kabul. The Bundeswehr had already reported on Tuesday that an increasing number of potential suicide bombers from the terrorist organization Islamic State were in Kabul.
US President Joe Biden had made a similar statement. A local branch of IS tries to attack the airport practically every day, he said. The terrorist militia is also a “declared enemy” of the Taliban. Among other things, Biden justified his adherence to the plan to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan by August 31 with this terror threat.