Excerpts from CNN: "A grave and specific ISIS terror threat is hanging over the frantic endgame of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan with time fast running out to rescue up to 1,500 Americans and the fate of fleeing Afghans looking darker by the hour.
President Joe Biden is so far sticking to his Tuesday deadline for the final exit from a 20-year war in Afghanistan . . . But in an alarming sign of the deteriorating security environment, US diplomats in Kabul early Thursday local time suddenly warned American citizens to "immediately" leave several gates into the airport, citing security threats.
The warning came hours after a US defense official had told CNN that officials were alarmed by a "very specific threat stream" about the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan, which planned to attack crowds outside the airfield.
US troops were already in a deeply vulnerable position on the airport, the last piece of Afghanistan they now control . . .
But the added threat from ISIS-K makes the situation even worse. ISIS-K's ranks are believed to have been swelled by escapees from Afghan prisons and potentially a number of hardened fighters from Syria.
"It's hard to overstate the complexity and the danger of this effort," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday. "We're operating in a hostile environment in a city and country now controlled by the Taliban with the very real possibility of an ISIS attack."
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Thank you, Captain Obvious.
