By Renju Jose and Colin Packham
CANBERRA (Reuters) -Australia has stopped evacuation flights from Afghanistan after Islamic State suicide bombers killed scores of civilians and at least 13 U.S. military personnel in attacks outside the airport in Kabul, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.
Morrison said Australia’s military personnel had been evacuated from Kabul just hours before the attacks, and with security so precarious it was no longer safe to continue evacuations.
“Our plan now moves into its post evacuation stage and that involves ensuring the process of returning, through our official humanitarian program,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
While some governments, like Australia, have halted evacuation flights, a Western security official at the airport said evacuation operations had been accelerated after the overnight attacks. The official said flights were taking off regularly from the airport, where thousands of Afghans have gathered, desperate to flee the country since the Taliban take over.
Morrison acknowledged some Australian visa holders remain in Afghanistan, though he said Canberra did not know exact numbers.
While the United States and some allies were continuing with evacuation flights, Morrison warned it was unlikely that Australians and visa holders would be given seats.
Morrison said Australia has evacuated 4,100 citizens and Afghans with visas in the last nine days. Nearly 800 people are already in, or on the way to Australia.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne urged Australian citizens and visa holders to stay clear of the airport amid fears of further attacks.
Australian said authorities are trying to find if any Australian citizens or residents were killed in the attack.
Australia was part of a NATO-led international force that battled the Taliban and trained Afghan security forces in the years after they were ousted in 2001. More than 39,000 Australian troops served in Afghanistan and 41 were killed.
(Reporting by Renju Jose and Colin Packham in Canberra; Editing by David Gregorio & Simon Cameron-Moore)
