'Highly lethal' terror threat that could strike 'within hours' forces State Dept to CLOSE Kabul airport to US citizens with up to 1.5k still stranded: 345 seater plane leaves empty because evacuees can't get past Taliban
- US, UK and Australia told citizens Thursday to evacuate Kabul Airport over fears of a deadly car bomb blast
- Warning given amid fears ISIS-K was plotting multiple car bomb attack using recently-freed prisoners
- British armed forces minister James Heappejhhghyghy this morning warned of an 'imminent' and 'severe' threat
- Heappey said he had been 'given lines' of what to say if the attack happened while he was on air
- As many as 1,500 Americans are looking to actively escape from Afghanistan, State Department announced
- Blinken blamed US citizens for 'ignoring' public evacuation notices and not registering with the government
- Among those still stranded in Afghanistan are 24 students and parents from a California school district
- US evacuated 19,000 people from Kabul, across 48 different flights, over the last 24 hours, White House says A 'highly lethal' terror threat that could strike Kabul airport 'within hours' has forced the State Department to close the runway - leaving up to 1,500 Americans stranded with just five days until the withdrawal deadline.
The United States, Britain and Australia told their citizens in the early hours of Thursday to evacuate the area over fears of a deadly car bomb blast.
American officials said that any of its citizens near three gates in particular should go, while Britain and Australia said that all their citizens anywhere near the airport should leave.
The warning was given amid fears extremist group ISIS-K was plotting multiple car bomb attack using recently-freed prisoners, as around 1,500 Americans remain stranded, including 23 schoolchildren from California.
British armed forces minister James Heappey this morning warned there is 'very credible reporting' of an 'imminent' and 'severe' threat to the airport.
The former British Army Major told LBC radio he had been given 'lines today for what might happen if the attack happened while I was doing this media round.'
Heappey added: 'I don't think everybody should be surprised by this, Daesh, or Islamic State, are guilty of all sorts of evil.
'But the opportunism of wanting to target a major international humanitarian mission is just utterly deplorable but sadly true to form for an organisation as barbarous as Daesh.'
The State Department tweeted last night: 'Due to threats outside the Kabul airport, US citizens should avoid traveling to the airport and avoid airport gates unless you receive instructions to do so.
'Those at the Abbey Gate, East Gate, or North Gate now should leave immediately.'
The order to leave the gates was issued at 3:30am local time in Kabul on Thursday morning.
It came as a 345-seat evacuation flight organized by a Washington DC-based philanthropist left Kabul Airport almost empty because its intended passengers could not get past the Taliban.
One of three planes chartered by George Abi-Habib, with capacity for 345 people, flew to Uganda on Tuesday almost empty, after U.S. troops blocked access for passengers, Abi-Habib said
Crowds of people wait outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday as the evacuation mission continues
Taliban fighters - one armed with a US standard issue M4 assault rifle - stand guard outside Kabul airport on Wednesday
USAF personnel help Afghan refugees to board a C-17 military transport jet at Kabul airport on Tuesday
A US Marine holds a child at Kabul airport this week. Evacuations were called off early Thursday over an 'imminent' car bomb threat to the airport
USAF personnel assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron load Afghan refugees at Kabul airport on TuesdayThe jet - laid on by George Abi-Habib, co-founder of development firm Sayara International, had just 50 of passengers in its cabin, amid fears terrorists are now plotting a car bomb attack against Kabul's Hamid Karzai Airport.
One of the passengers had to crawl through a sewage pipe just to make it into the airport, he told The Wall Street Journal.
'We can't expect everyone to crawl through a sewer pipe to safety,' Abi-Habib said.
Another of Abi-Habib's 240-seat charter flights heading to Ukraine left with 70 seats empty after U.S. soldiers wouldn't let passengers through to board the aircraft.
'It's total chaos,' said Warren Binford, a law professor at the University of Colorado who has been working on evacuation efforts.
'What's happening is that we're seeing a massive underground railroad operation where, instead of running for decades, it's literally running for a matter of hours, or days.'
CNN reported Thursday that they believe ISIS-K, which is a sworn enemy of the Taliban, wants to create mayhem at the airport and has intelligence streams suggesting it is capable and planning to carry out multiple attacks.
Analysts told on Wednesday night that the intelligence likely came from intercepted calls, amid fears recently-freed prisoners could mount the attacks.
Concerns increased after more than 100 prison inmates loyal to the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan escaped from two prisons near Kabul as the Taliban advanced on the Afghan capital.
Taliban fighters stormed the jails at Bagram and Pul-e-Charkhi, both to the east of Kabul, shortly before the capital city fell.
CNN reported that hundreds of ISIS-K fighters are believed to have been freed.
Fears are mounting that the Islamic State affiliate in the region, ISIS-K, could try and launch an attack on the crowds masses outside the airport.
A BBC reporter said there were reports of a potential car bomb attack.
Joe Biden on Tuesday warned that ISIS-K were believed to be attempting to target departing jets, as he explained why it was unlikely that U.S. forces will remain in the area beyond August 31.
Up to 1,500 Americans are still trapped in Afghanistan and the U.S. is still relying on the Taliban to allow safe passage to Kabul airport with just six days before the deadline, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a press conference on Wednesday.
Blinken gave his first briefing on the airlift operation and the bid to get all citizens and Afghan allies out amid reports the CIA has joined U.S. troops in helicopter rescue missions outside the airport perimeter.
Thousands of people are still trying to leave Afghanistan as U.S. troops start leaving and evacuation flights begin to wrap up, but are being stopped and beaten by insurgents on their way.
Among those left are 23 school children from California Cajon Valley Union School District and 16 parents who visited the war zone on a summer trip to see extended family and haven't been able to leave.
Erik Prince, founder of controversial private military firm Blackwater, was selling seats on a plane out of Afghanistan for $6,500.
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, on Wednesday could barely contain her disgust at what she described as profiteering from 'pain and agony'. She said Prince did not have a soul.
Blinken blamed Americans still on the ground for not leaving fast enough after first being warned earlier this year to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible, but said there would be 'no deadline' in helping those who still want to leave.
A State Department warning telling US citizens to avoid airport gates due to 'threats outside' (left) and George Abi-Habib (right), of development firm Saraya, has chartered three planes to get people out of Afghanistan - but the passengers have not been able to board, and the planes flew empty
Propaganda from ISIS-K shows their militants lining up. The group is known to have sleeper cells in Kabul, and is known to be enthusiastic about terrorist 'spectaculars'He spoke as a CIA officer told DailyMail.com that American civilians and Afghan allies have just 72 hours before evacuations end and Biden cracked a joke about the evacuation crisis at a cybersecurity summit.
NBC reporter Peter Alexander asked the president what he would do if there were Americans trapped in Afghanistan after August 31.
The microphone was cut before Biden could reply, but he cracked a smile and said: 'You'll be the first person I call.'
Blinken said the U.S. has been in 'direct contact' with roughly 500 confirmed U.S. citizens and 'provided specific instructions for how to get to the airport safely.'
The State Department said there are roughly 1,000 other people whose status is still being established.
'We're aggressively reaching out to them multiple times a day,' he said of those 1,000 people, adding they're looking 'to determine whether they still want to leave and to get them the most up-to-date information and instructions for them on how to do so.'
'Some may no longer be in the country. Some may have claimed to be Americans but turn out not to be. Some may choose to stay,' Blinken said
'We'll continue to try and identify the status and plans of these people in the coming days.'
A short time later a journalist covering Afghanistan wrote on Twitter that the Taliban blocked all roads leading to Kabul airport.
Only Afghans 'accompanied by foreigners' are reportedly allowed through.
'Taliban refused to let a friend, a dual Afghan-Australian citizen, from entering airport today,' Frud Bezhan wrote.
Blinken announced Wednesday that up to 1,500 Americans - 500 who are verified US citizens - are still stuck in AfghanistanAbout 4,500 U.S. citizens and immediate family members have been evacuated over the last 10 days.
As many as 6,000 Americans who wanted to leave Afghanistan were in the country when the Taliban took Kabul last week.
Biden posted a statement to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon vowing to help people still stuck there but did not provide further explanation.
'We're going to do everything that we can to provide safe evacuation for Americans, our Afghan allies, partners, and Afghans who might be targeted because of their association with the United States,' the president wrote.
The CIA has joined the U.S. military in evacuation efforts, launching clandestine operations to rescue Americans in and outside of Kabul, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The military's operations have been more limited in comparison, focusing on US citizen trapped within the Afghan capital.
CIA operations include air and ground missions and use U.S. military helicopters under the agency's control.At least two dozen Americans students and parents are among those still stuck in Kabul. After taking a summer trip to visit grandparents and other extended family, 24 students and 16 parents from the Cajon Valley Union School District are trying to get to the airport with less than a week before the US leaves the country, the LA Times reported.
Cajon Valley Superintendent David Miyashiro said that officials who work with the school district's FACE program as interpreters and liaisons were contacted by a family concerned its student would lose a seat in the classroom last week when classes began, a local CBS affiliate reports.
The concern was echoed by several other families who missed their scheduled flights home for the first day of school on August 17.
The district said they arrived on special U.S. military visas, and states the trip was not school-sanctioned. Officials at the district just outside of San Diego said the students are safe but that it's not certain when they could return home.
A family of five from the same school district is back in the U.S. after escaping from Afghanistan, 10 News reports.
Psaki said today she has 'no additional information' on the stranded students when asked and appeared confused at the report.
'I'm happy to take their information if there's something more detailed,' she said.
The U.S. has ramped up their airlifts and have evacuated 19,000 people in the last 24 hours and have already started pulling out military forces with just six days until the deadline, which Biden has promised to stick to.
Desperate Afghan men, women and children have swarmed the airport in a bid to get out amid fears of an attack from the Islamic State offshoot ISIS-K and 10,000 evacuees are inside the gates waiting to get out.
Hundreds of people gather near an airport evacuation control checkpoint. American civilians and Afghan allies have just 72 hours before evacuations end, a CIA officer told DailyMail.com
Fears of a stampede toward the airport are concerning officials as the withdrawal winds down and people grow more desperate to flee
American troops and the CIA have been conducting rescue missions to get people stranded outside of the airport to safety'It is hard to overstate the complexity and danger of this effort. We are operating in an hostile environment, in a city and country now controlled by the Taliban, with a very real possibility of an ISIS-K attack,' Blinken said Wednesday.
Asked to take responsibility for the chaos, he responded: 'I take responsibility. I know the president has said he takes responsibility.'
'There will be plenty of time to look back at the last six or seven months, to look back at the last 20 years and to see what we might have done differently,' as well as sooner or more effectively,' he said.
Blinken said right now his 'entire focus is on the mission at hand.'
It was also revealed that a military operation recovered 'less than 20 people' by helicopter from Kabul under cover of darkness and brought them safely to the airport for evacuation. It comes in addition to two other operations outside the airport walls confirmed by the Pentagon, including a mission to bring 169 Americans 'over the wall' that Biden announced Monday.
'So last night, during the period of darkness, there was an operation to be able to go out and safely evacuate evacuees back into Kabul. They're at [Hamid Karzai International Airport], and they're safely there preparing to be evacuated,' Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor said at a Pentagon briefing Wednesday.
In a White House briefing the same day Psaki said the administration suspected many of the 1,000 prospective Americans who may be looking to leave are dual-citizens or 'people who may not be ready to leave for a variety of reasons.'
'For many of these Afghans, this is their home. And yes they are dual-citizens, yes it is absolutely our responsibility to make sure we are reaching out to them multiple times. We are providing opportunity, we are finding ways to get them to the airport to evacuate them, but it is also their personal decision on whether they want to depart,' she said.
During the briefing Psaki was asked how the Biden administration will determine whether every American who wants to leave will get to do so by the deadline.
The press secretary clarified that some of those Americans could 'have not yet decided to depart by August 31.'
'We know that is a potential, so therefore we're looking at a range of options for how we can allow them to depart and enable them to depart after that date and time,' she said.
Taliban try to test ride a $6million US-made Blackhawk helicopter and another is seen over Kabul with insurgents taking US equipment and weapons
CNN captured footage of a US Black Hawk military helicopter flying over Kabul during the chaotic evacuation in Afghanistan last week.
Alarming video has also emerged of the Taliban trying to fly a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in Kandahar amid fears the insurgents will get a handle on and start using weapons and equipment American forces have left behind.
The US-made helicopter costs $6 million and was used by the Navy SEAL team 6 during the operation to kill Osama Bin Laden.
It has been a constant fixture in stealth US military operations since 1978 in a range of battlefields from Somalia to Syria and Helmand Province.
The Army's frontline military helicopter is used for air assault, designed to carry 11 troops and is capable of moving a 105-millimeter howitzer and 30 rounds of ammunition.
CNN captured a US Black Hawk military helicopter flying over Kabul during the chaotic evacuation in Afghanistan last week
It is not clear who was piloting the helicopter over Kabul, but the pictures surfaced last week when the Taliban had already started taking military equipment and helicopters.
The insurgents are believed to have billions in dollars worth of US weapons and also have hundreds of Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters in their possession.
On Thursday alarming footage emerged showing what appears to be a Taliban test of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.
The one-minute clip uploaded to Twitter shows a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, described as having been captured from Afghan security forces, moving along the tarmac at a seemingly otherwise deserted location.
Alarming footage has emerged showing what appears to be a Taliban test of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter
Two men watch the chopper complete a loop of the area, where two cars are also visible in shot.
'Taliban testing a captured Afghan UH-60,' the post accompanying the video read. At no point did the helicopter leave the ground.
It is not clear if the UH-60 is the same that was seized by the Taliban on August 14 when images and footage of members of the group operating the $6million piece of equipment were shared on social media.
A series of videos also showed insurgents flying captured Russian choppers around the city of Kandahar.
It came as evidence emerged that the Taliban had also seized American-made Black Hawk helicopters, made famous in the 2001 Ridley Scott blockbuster Black Hawk Down.
The Afghan government pilots who fly the operational Russian helicopters were turned over to the Taliban, while the US helicopters were likely grounded by a lack of spare parts from the United States.
The White House has spent billions of dollars on supplying the Afghan military with the necessary weapons and equipment to wipe out the Taliban, but following the collapse of local armed forces, their investment is now effectively being used by the insurgents themselves.
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