Australia Ends Flights From Afghanistan, PM Morrison Says It Is Not Safe To Continue The Evacuation

Illustration of a helicopter transporting a support vehicle for the Australian military mission in Afghanistan. (Wikimedia Commons/Chief Petty Officer Bill Mesta)

JAKARTA - Australia has suspended evacuation flights from Afghanistan after an Islamic State suicide bomber killed dozens of civilians and at least 13 US military personnel in an attack outside an airport in Kabul, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday.

PM Morrison said Australian military personnel had been evacuated from Kabul just hours before the attack and with security so precarious that it was no longer safe to continue the evacuation.

"Our plans are now moving into the post-evacuation phase and that involves ensuring the repatriation process, through our official humanitarian program", Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

While some governments, such as Australia, have halted evacuation flights, a Western security official at Kabul airport said evacuation operations had accelerated following the attack on Kabul airport overnight.

The official said flights take off regularly from the airport, where thousands of Afghans have gathered, desperate to flee the country since the Taliban took over.

PM Morrison acknowledged some Australian visa holders remained in Afghanistan, though he said Canberra did not know the exact number.

While the United States and some allies resumed evacuation flights, PM Morrison warned it was unlikely that Australians and visa holders would be granted seats.

"Australia has evacuated 4.100 Afghan citizens and citizens on visas in the last nine days. Nearly 800 people are already in, or en route to Australia", he said.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Marise Payne urged Australian citizens and visa holders to stay away from airports amid fears of further attacks. In connection with the bomb attack that occurred, authorities are trying to find out whether any Australian citizens or residents were killed in the attack.

To note, Australia is part of the NATO-led international force (ISAF) fighting the Taliban, training Afghan security forces in the years after they toppled the Taliban in 2001. More than 39.000 Australian troops served in Afghanistan with 41 people killed during the assignment.