US embassy in Afghanistan urges Americans to leave immediately

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The U.S. embassy in Afghanistan urged Americans to leave the country “immediately” due to “security conditions and reduced staffing.”
• The warning was issued after the Taliban ambushed and killed the director of Afghanistan’s government media center on Friday in Kabul.
• In April, the State Department ordered federal employees from the embassy to leave the country due to the increase in violence.

The U.S. embassy in Kabul told Americans in Afghanistan to leave the country immediately in response to an increase in violence, and to not “rely on U.S. government flights” in the process. 

“The U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens to leave Afghanistan immediately using available commercial flight options.  Given the security conditions and reduced staffing, the Embassy’s ability to assist U.S. citizens in Afghanistan is extremely limited even within Kabul,” the embassy said on its government website Saturday. 

The warning comes after the Taliban ambushed and killed the director of Afghanistan’s government media center on Friday in Kabul, with a Taliban spokesman saying the official was “punished to [sic] his deeds.”

 The terrorist group on Friday also captured its first provincial capital, Zaranj, located in the southern Nimroz province. 

“These Taliban actions to forcibly impose its rule are unacceptable and contradict its claim to support a negotiated settlement in the Doha peace process. They demonstrate wanton disregard for the welfare and rights of civilians and will worsen this country’s humanitarian crisis,” the embassy said in another statement Saturday. 

Special representative of the U.N. secretary-general for Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons, further warned that without intervention, the country could fall “into a situation of catastrophe so serious that it would have few, if any, parallels in this century.”

The country remains on a level 4 “Do Not Travel” warning, with the embassy citing, “crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, armed conflict, and COVID-19.”

The State Department in April had ordered federal employees from the embassy to leave the country if they were able to do their work elsewhere in response to the increase in violence. The announcement came the same month President Biden set a September deadline to remove 2,500 remaining U.S. troops from the country.

Source: MSN