Dublin: French President Emmanuel Macron said “the situation has seriously deteriorated” near the Kabul airport after “several explosions happened in the last hours.”
Speaking in a news conference during a visit to Dublin, Ireland, Macron said “we are facing an extremely tense situation that makes us coordinate obviously with our American allies and call for the utmost caution in a context we don’t control.”
He added France will seek to protect and evacuate French nationals, people from allied countries, and Afghans “as long as the conditions will be met” at the airport.
Macron said he did not have more details about the circumstances of the explosions.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has said there were two suicide bombings outside Kabul airport that killed at least 13 people on Thursday and wounded another 15. U.S. officials meanwhile have said that American personnel was wounded in the blast, without elaborating.
Earlier, in a statement, the Russian ambassador in Afghanistan said that 360 Russian citizens have been flown home from Kabul.
Read: Russia evacuates over 500 people from Afghanistan
Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov said in televised remarks Thursday that all those Russians who wanted to leave Afghanistan were taken home the previous day aboard four Russian Defense Ministry planes. He said that along with 360 Russians, the planes also evacuated 38 nationals of other ex-Soviet nations.
Zhirnov said that the embassy was now trying to help a few Russians who were unable to leave for logistical reasons. He noted that about 100 Russians who remain in Afghanistan haven’t expressed a desire to leave.
The Russian Foreign Ministry says the flights were organized with the assistance of the Taliban and the United States, which controls Afghanistan’s airspace. The ambassador said that Russian diplomats in Kabul are also working to help about 400 Afghan students who have enrolled in Russian universities travel to Russia for studies.
He said the embassy maintains close contact with the Taliban.
Read: US official: IS group believed to be behind Kabul attack
(AP)
