‘Gunfire at the airport’: US officials evacuate embassy as Taliban enters Kabul
by Joel Gehrke
U.S. and European officials are racing to evacuate Kabul as the Taliban’s entry into the city complicates an already-abrupt drawdown of the Western diplomatic presence in Afghanistan.
As U.S. personnel are being moved from the embassy to the airport to ensure their operations maintain security and safety, a Western official at the scene informed the Washington Examiner of “gunfire at the airport.”
The development spurred a security alert from U.S. Embassy officials, “instructing U.S. citizens to shelter in place.” Most of the U.S. Embassy staff in Kabul have been evacuated to the airport, where U.S. troops ordered into the city by President Joe Biden are working to secure their departure and that of European allies.
“Embassy’s staff was relocated to the airport,” a European official told the Washington Examiner. “It’s now up to the military to carry out the operation.”
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This is a developing story and will be updated.
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