US joins UK and Australia in warning against travel to Kabul airport; 1,500 Americans remain in country with less than a week left until deadline; allies begin winding up evacuations
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In case you missed this earlier – as the UK warned that people should avoid travelling to the airport, the defence secretary said that Afghans who want to flee to Britain may be better off “trying to get to the border” than awaiting RAF evacuation.
Ben Wallace, in a briefing to MPs, also signalled there were few places left on British rescue flights, which have evacuated more than 11,000 people from Kabul since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan less than two weeks ago.
Related: Fleeing Afghans should try to get to border, says UK defence secretary
In a signal that Australia’s evacuation operation may also wind down in the near future, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday that the government had to deal with “the terrible, brutal and awful reality of the situation on the ground”.
Without speculating on the end date for the mission, Morrison said he had not sought to “overstate expectations” about what the ADF evacuation flights could achieve.