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U.S. bases to house up to 50,000 Afghans

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The U.S. military is destroying equipment at the Kabul airport and more than doubling its temporary housing capacity on bases in the United States to extract as many people from Afghanistan as possible before Tuesdays withdrawal deadline.

The military will be able to accommodate up to 50,000 Afghans at seven bases and facilities in the United States, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, who announced that Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, and Fort Pickett and Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia had been added to the four installations already part of the operation.

The airlift, which as of Friday morning had carried upward of 110,000 people out of Kabul, is entering its last four days amid intense urgency, with Hamid Karzai International Airport reeling from a terrorist attack Thursday that killed13 U.S. service members and at least 170 others – the vast majority of them Afghans.

As of midday Friday,about 14,000 Afghan evacueeshad arrived in the United States via Dulles International Airport, according to Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat. According to Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of U.S. Northern Command, 6,578 Afghans had arrived at the four military installations – Fort Lee in Virginia, Fort Bliss in Texas, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey and Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.

At least 25 countries have signed on to temporarily host or serve as way stations for the tens of thousands of other Afghans who have departed Kabul.

Once evacuees arrive in the United States, “we’re prepared to house them and feed them as long as it takes to get them through the process,” VanHerck told reporters Friday, noting that many of the arriving Afghans “have family already here in the United States, or they’ll be relocated to places with Afghan populations.”

Although the Pentagon has not yet released the names of the U.S. service members killed in Thursday’s blast, several have been identified by their families and elected officials. Marine Lance Cpls. David Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas, Rylee McCollum, 20, of Bondurant, Wyo., Kareem Nikoui, 20, of Norco, Calif., and Jared Schmitz, 20, of Wentzville, Mo.; Marine Cpls. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Southern California, and Daegan William-Tyeler Page, 23, of Omaha; Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, of Utah; and Navy Hospital Corpsman Max Soviak, of Berlin Heights, Ohio, were among the victims of an attack that U.S. officials initially described as a twin suicide bombing but on Friday said was a single blast just outside the airport’s Abbey Gate.

The Islamic State’s Afghanistan arm, known as ISIS-K, claimed responsibility for the attack, which was a sobering reminder of the grave threats hanging over the frantic evacuation operation – and the likelihood, according to Pentagon officials, that more attacks will be attempted before the effort has been completed.

On Friday, U.S. forces carried out a drone strike on an Islamic State planner in eastern Afghanistan, a Pentagon spokesman said. “The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar province of Afghanistan,” said Navy Capt. Bill Urban. “Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties.”

Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Friday that about 5,000 U.S. service members remain in Kabul but that there would be no more updates about their drawdown until all have left, in an effort to keep would-be attackers from exploiting potential vulnerabilities.

He described “specific,credible threats” to the U.S. presence in Kabul and warned that in the days remaining, the military would have to “balance” the demands of closing its operations at the airport with the mandate to get more civilians out of the country. To make more room on the planes for evacuees, the military is destroying equipment where possible instead of flying it out of Afghanistan, Kirby added.

“Lives are still the priority: The lives of our troops and, of course, the lives of evacuees, and continuing to get out as many as possible,” Kirby said. “We want to prioritize passenger seats as much as possible.”

Thursday’s carnage at the airport worsened what already was a bleak situation for many Afghans fearful of returning to life under Taliban rule, who now also must worry about terrorist groups like the Islamic State further destabilizing their country.

Asked how many Islamic State members had been released into Afghanistan when Taliban fighters seized control of prisons and freed inmates as part of their defeat of the U.S.-backed Afghan government, Kirby could not say.

“I don’t know the exact number. Clearly it’s in the thousands, when you consider both prisons, because both of them were taken over by the Taliban and emptied,” he said.

The risk of more attacks has led officials to warn Americans to stay away from the airport gates until they are instructed to approach. Buses filled with would-be evacuees, including some carrying orphans, have been turned away from the airport gates in recent days.

Yet people kept coming in the hope of escaping.

Still, the pace of evacuations is clearly slowing. Between 3 a.m. Eastern time Thursday and 3 a.m. Friday, 12,500 people – including about 300 American citizens – were flown out on a mix of U.S. military, charter and other aircraft. In addition, 4,200 people were evacuated between 3 a.m. and 3 p.m. Friday. Earlier this week, the daily totals peaked at over 21,000.

According to Army Maj. Gen. William Taylor, as of Friday morning, 5,400 people were waiting inside the airport perimeter for flights out of the country – slightly more than half of the approximately 10,000 people that the Kabul airport has been hosting in recent days.

“We have the ability to include evacuees on U.S. military airlift . . . until the very end,” Taylor said. “ISIS will not deter us from accomplishing this mission.”

In Europe, it is possible that Afghans could spend 10 to 14 days distributed among eight facilities, which have a combined capacity to host about 25,000 people, according to Gen. Tod D. Wolters, the supreme allied commander of NATO forces. Wolters told reporters this week that the average processing time for Afghans coming through Europe so far had been far shorter.

VanHerck, the head of U.S. Northern Command, told reporters Friday that it would take an estimated five to seven days to process and screen Afghan arrivals, whom he said account for about 40% of the people the military has brought into the United States since the evacuation began. The balance, he said, are U.S. citizens, green-card holders and others with designated status to be in the country.

He stressed that those arriving in the United States have already passed a security screening elsewhere and that the bulk of the processing they face while at U.S.-based military installations is medical in nature, or to get their paperwork for special immigrant and other status in order.

So far, most of the evacuees have come through Dulles International Airport, about 25 miles outside the District of Columbia, in Virginia. Some waited aboard the planes for up to 12 hours to be processed and cleared for entry.

The split between male and female Afghan evacuees is about 50-50, VanHerck said, noting that approximately 15% of arrivals are coming with children. One base had taken in 513 children, he said, about 30% of its evacuee population.

While on base, VanHerck said, evacuees are offered three “culturally appropriate,” halal meals daily, as well as access to a 24-hour “grab and go” food that also has culturally sensitive options. Local community and aid organizations have been donating large amounts of clothing and other supplies.

While schooling facilities are not readily available, VanHerck said, people have donated books, educational equipment and sporting goods. At Fort Bliss, he added, soldiers have set up makeshift soccer fields to keep the children active and occupied.

Published : August 28, 2021

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Amazon Web Services disables ISIS propaganda website it had hosted since April

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Amazon late Friday disabled a website used by a propaganda arm of the Islamic State that celebrated the suicide bombing that killed at least 170 people in Kabul on Thursday after The Washington Post reported the extremists relied on the companys technology to promote extremism.

Nida-e-Haqq, an Islamic State media group that distributes Islamist content in the Urdu language, had been using the company’s dominant cloud-computing division, Amazon Web Services, to host its content, despite company policies against working with terror groups.

Some of that content included messages about the Islamic State-Khorasan offshoot that claimed responsibility for the lethal attack, said Rita Katz, executive director of SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online extremism and discovered the link with Amazon Web Services. Urdu is widely spoken in neighboring Pakistan and occasionally in Afghanistan itself.

The Nida-e-Haqq app on Thursday carried what it claimed was an image of the bomber wrapped in a suicide vest ahead of a blast whose victims included 13 U.S. service members, further marring the American pullout from the nation after nearly 20 years of war.

” (F) ollowing an investigation, we have disabled a website that was linked to this app as it was in violation of the AWS Acceptable Use Policy,” Amazon spokesman Casey McGee said in an emailed statement send late Friday after The Post reported on SITE’s findings.

That policy bars customers from, among other practices, using the cloud-computing service “to threaten, incite, promote, or actively encourage violence, terrorism, or other serious harm.”

The source code for the app, Katz said, shows it draws words and images from a website for the Islamic State propaganda arm. That website, whose content is password protected and could not be directly reviewed by The Washington Post, has been hosted by Amazon Web Services since April, according to online domain records.

“It’s just mind-blowing that even after all these years, ISIS could still find a way to exploit a hosting company like Amazon,” Katz said. “Of course, we should presume that ISIS will always be searching for ways to bypass security protocols, but this app isn’t even trying to stay low-key. It is blatantly filled with official ISIS claims, media and logos of ISIS’ media arms, clear as day. This app was clearly created to keep ISIS’ message and content alive and distributed online. . . . It is clear that the stakes of keeping such content offline is no less major than in past years.”

Amazon, like most American technology companies, has policies prohibiting Islamist terror groups from using its services. (Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Amazon took a stand in January against Parler, a social media site popular with supporters of former president Donald Trump, severing ties over the site’s failure to adequately monitor hate speech and calls for violence related to the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol. The move knocked Parler offline for weeks and sharpened political debate over the power of tech companies to determine what appears online.

But enforcement of the policy appears to have failed in the case of Nida-e-Haqq.

One reason may be that Amazon hasn’t often proactively policed the content of customers – many of which run widely used commercial websites such as Airbnb, Yelp and Netflix. Rather, its Trust & Safety team, which has fewer than 100 workers, acts only on complaints received.

Despite the size of that team, Amazon is the dominant provider of cloud infrastructure services, which let customers rent data storage and processing capabilities over the Web instead of running their own data centers. AWS, which competes against Microsoft and Google, held 41% of the global market in 2020, according to the market research firm Gartner.

Published : August 28, 2021

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With Hurricane Ida in mind, Saints cancel preseason game and will practice in Dallas

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With Hurricane Ida bearing down on Louisiana, the New Orleans Saints canceled their preseason game scheduled for Saturday and made plans to relocate temporarily to the Dallas area, where they will conduct practices.

The Saints made the announcement Friday that they and the NFL would call off the game against the Arizona Cardinals, which was to be played at the Caesars Superdome, at the request of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat.

“Due to the intensification of the hurricane throughout the day and after the most recent tropical update, the team’s leadership has made the decision in the best interests of all personnel that may have been directly and indirectly affected by the storm,” the Saints said in a written statement. “The announcement comes after constant communications with City of New Orleans officials, the National Weather Service, Homeland Security, Gov. Edwards and leading state officials and the National Football League. The team encourages all residents of the region to take precautionary measures to remain safe throughout the impending hurricane.”

The Saints plan to travel late Saturday afternoon to Dallas, a person familiar with the situation confirmed. They could practice at AT&T Stadium, the Arlington, Tex. home of the Dallas Cowboys. Some logistical issues will have to be worked out, with the Cowboys scheduled to play a preseason game at home Sunday afternoon against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Earlier Friday, the starting time of the Saints-Cardinals game had been moved up seven hours, from 7 p.m. to noon CT. But by late that afternoon, the cancellation was announced.

The Cardinals said they already had left for New Orleans when the game was canceled while the team was in midflight. Their plane turned around and returned to Phoenix.

“[W]e are all home now,” Cardinals reporter Darren Urban wrote on the Cardinals’ website. “Safe. And that’s what you think of in the end, the people of New Orleans, preparing for another hurricane two days away from the 16-year anniversary of infamous Hurricane Katrina. The game didn’t matter. The people do, and I hope they are safe too.”

The Saints said they would be in contact with their season-ticket holders regarding refunds or credits to their accounts for Saturday’s canceled game.

Published : August 28, 2021

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Nationals make the most of whats left behind in win over stumbling Mets

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NEW YORK – Were the fans inside Citi Field angry because the Washington Nationals had one hit after the third inning Friday night and still beat their team, the flatlining New York Mets? Or was it because those same Mets couldnt erase a tiny, one-run deficit against Paolo Espino, Andrés Machado, Sam Clay, Kyle McGowin or Kyle Finnegan, the zone-pounding members of Washingtons left-behind bullpen?

Probably, it was the brutal combination of the two. The Mets put one runner on base against the Nationals’ bullpen, on Jeff McNeil’s two-out single in the eighth, and managed nothing else. The Nationals’ 2-1 win was sealed by Espino’s best start in five weeks, by stingy performances from Machado, Clay and McGowin, then by Finnegan’s sixth save.

The offense chipped in what was needed – which, again, really wasn’t much. And that’s how the Nationals sank the Mets, bumping their lopsided record to 55-72.

This was supposed to be the Mets’ oasis. After leading the division in early August, they went into free fall, dropping 11 of their past 13 against the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. They entered the weekend in third place at 61-66, trailing the Atlanta Braves by 7½ games in the National League East. The series before that stretch, though, was a sweep of the Nationals here. And their next 13 games are all with the Nationals and Miami Marlins, two teams that sold at the deadline and are decidedly not contending.

A chance to crawl back into it? Sure. But that will require actually taking the matchups that look advantageous on paper.

That’s where the spoilers – or in this case, the Nationals – come in. That’s when they stir a rally in the third, beginning with Espino’s single off Mets starter Rich Hill. That’s when they plate two runs, on Juan Soto’s groundout and a single for Josh Bell, to create some separation, rustling an already frustrated crowd. And that’s when Espino and the bullpen take it from there.

Espino entered with a solid season line against the Mets, if only in small doses: three appearances, two starts, seven innings and one earned run allowed. But in his three most recent full outings, facing the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers, he yielded at least three runs and five hits. Against the Phillies, in one of his worst appearances of the year, Espino was tagged with six runs on eight hits in just five innings.

It appeared as if, after thriving in April, May and June, Espino may have been overexposed. A 34-year-old journeyman, a guy who had five major league starts before this year, Espino pairs a looping curve with a high-80s fastball. When he’s going well, he’s all deception and pinpoint command. He has thrown more sliders this year to work off his curve. But his arsenal still leaves a razor-thin margin for error, shown in those bumpy nights across July and August. Then he used the Mets to get back on track.

Two of their three hits against Espino were loud. One of the three was costly. In the first, Francisco Lindor whacked a two-out triple to the right-center gap. Espino stranded him there by striking out Javier Báez on an outside slider, a pitch that darted away from the plate. But Báez beat Espino in the fourth, stalking a first-pitch fastball and sending it over the right-center field wall and into the Nationals’ bullpen.

Other than that, Espino was sharp and efficient. He struck out four batters with his slider, two with his curve and one on a fastball, good for a season high of seven. He was through four innings on 52 pitches and five on 68. But Manager Dave Martinez stayed conservative, keeping Espino from seeing the top of New York’s lineup a third time. Espino also has never recorded more than 16 outs in the majors. So the bullpen phone rang.

By that point, Washington’s offense had stopped. It didn’t register a hit in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth. From the third to the ninth, when they took their last at-bats, 15 of the Nationals’ 23 batters struck out. But Machado, Clay, McGowin and Finnegan inherited that slim, unmoving lead and clung to it.

Machado quietly retired Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso and Lindor in order. Clay, a lefty, struck out two in a one-two-three seventh, pounding three change-ups – his third-most-used pitch – to the right-handed J.D. Davis. McGowin then threw seven consecutive in-zone sliders to Dominic Smith, eventually striking him out looking. He stranded McNeil, who poked a two-out single, by getting Nimmo to fly out in foul territory.

That left Finnegan, Washington’s de facto closer, to wrestle with Alonso, Lindor and Báez in the ninth. And after 11 pitches, once Luis García turned a double play at second, the angry boos returned.

Published : August 28, 2021

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The 13 U.S. service members killed in the Kabul airport attack: What we know so far

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The U.S. toll from Thursdays terrorist attack in Afghanistan came into sharper focus Friday, as the identities of 13 U.S. service members who were killed began to surface.

Asuicide bomber detonated explosives at a Kabul airport gate where U.S. troops were searching evacuees rushing to depart the country. At least 18 other troops were wounded in the bombing that killed at least 170 people. The attack was the single deadliest enemy strike against U.S. forces in Afghanistan since August 2011, when militants shot down a Chinook helicopter, killing 30 U. S. troops on board.

The Pentagon has yet to release the names of American service members killed. In a Friday briefing, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did not say when the remains of the service members will arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the first transit place for U.S. service members killed overseas.

But names began to emerge in news reports, as family members confirmed the identities of the dead. Many of the slain service members were in their infancy in 2001, the year the Sept. 11 terror attacks triggered the U.S. war in Afghanistan, bookending their lives as the American effort comes to a close.

– – –

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20, Jackson, Wyo.

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20, of Wentzville, Mo.

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas.

Navy Hospital Corpsman Max Soviak, of Berlin Heights, Ohio

Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Riverside County, Calif.

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20, of Norco, Calif.

Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, 31, of Utah

Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan William-Tyeler Page, 23, of Omaha

– – –

Kareem Nikoui

20, of Norco, Calif. – Steve Nikoui first saw the Marines nearing his home on his cellphone screen linked to his door bell camera, and he knew what their arrival meant, he told the Daily Beast. His son Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui had been in Kabul, and he closely monitored the news and any visitors who came to his home in Norco, Calif., he told the outlet, mindful that military protocol is to send notification officers to deliver grim news.

The Marines arrived Thursday night, choked up and emotional, he said. He wanted to absorb the news before anyone else in the family – so he could bear the responsibility of telling them himself.

“I’m still in shock. I haven’t been able to grasp everything that’s going on,” he told the outlet. “He was born the same year it started, and ended his life with the end of this war.”

Paul Arreola, a close friend of the Nikouis, said in a brief interview with The Washington Post that Nikoui’s death devastated the family, but faith has helped them persevere. “He was an incredible individual with a great heart,” Arreola said, adding that the family was about to depart for Dover.

News of Nikoui’s death rippled through the community east of Los Angeles. It’s not far from Camp Pendleton, where Nikoui was stationed, his father said. Nikoui would bring a squad’s worth of Marines home with him on occasion, where they would sit down for a home-cooked meal, his father told the Daily Beast.

Nikoui’s father lashed out at military officials and President Joe Biden over the disastrous attack. The Pentagon has produced few answers about how the attack occurred, saying there are clear failures. But officials have also said the job of searching Afghan evacuees exposed them to tremendous risk.

“I’m really disappointed in the way that the president has handled this, even more so the way the military has handled it. The commanders on the ground should have recognized this threat and addressed it,” Nikoui told Reuters.

The city of Norco will add Nikoui’s name to a memorial plaza that recognizes local service members killed in action, the city said on Twitter.

– Alex Horton

– – –

Rylee McCollum

20, of Jackson, Wyo. –

The Marine got married in February, on Valentine’s Day, before being sent overseas on his first deployment in April. The newlyweds were expecting their first child.

Then, two weeks ago, 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum was transferred to Afghanistan to help with the evacuation mission, McCollum’s sister, Roice McCollum, said in an interview.

Roice McCollum said her family and McCollum’s wife, Jiennah, who lives in San Diego, have been devastated, but “we knew he was where he wanted to be: serving his country. And that brings a little bit of peace and comfort.”

Rylee McCollum, just a baby on 9/11, grew up in Jackson, Wyo., and wanted to join the armed forces since he was as young as 2, his sister said.

“He signed up the day he turned 18,” Roice McCollum said. “That was his plan his whole life.”

He attended Jackson Hole High School and Summit Innovations School in Jackson, and before joining the Marines he was a decorated wrestler.

His longtime coach Ben Arlotta described him as “cast-iron tough,” an athlete who once managed to drop 30 pounds in five months before a state wrestling tournament – unparalleled willpower McCollum showed his whole life.

“He was always much bigger in character and in spirit than he was physically,” Arlotta said. “He was always much, much bigger. I mean, quite frankly, I think he was much bigger than all of us.”

McCollum met his wife after moving to San Diego for boot camp after high school. With just weeks left in his first tour of duty, his family expected that he would be home just in time to meet his new son or daughter – the newlyweds wanted the baby’s gender to be a surprise.

– Meagan Flynn

– – –

Jared Schmitz

20, of Wentzville, Mo. – Mark Schmitz, Jared’s father, confirmed his death in a brief phone call with The Washington Post. He said his son had been a Marine since 2019.

Earlier Friday he told St. Louis radio station KMOX that his son, who was on his first deployment, had always wanted to serve his country in the military.

“His life meant so much more. I’m so incredibly devastated that I won’t be able to see the man that he was very quickly growing into becoming,” Schmitz told the radio station.

Mark Schmitz told the station that he was informed of his son’s death after a middle-of-the-night knock on the door.

“The Marines came by last night at two-forty in the morning to give us the horrific news,” Schmitz told KMOX.

Schmitz said his son was tireless in his preparation as a Marine.

“This was something he always wanted to do, and I’ve never seen a young man train as hard as he did to be the best soldier he could be,” said Mark Schmitz.

– Shawn Boburg and Ellen McCarthy

– – –

David Espinoza

20, of Rio Bravo, Texas – On Wednesday, Elizabeth Holguin received a call from her son, who was stationed in Kabul. Before hanging up, he said “I love you,” she told The Post. That was the last time they ever spoke.

Inspired by the prospect of helping others, Espinoza had always dreamed of being a Marine, his mother said. He enlisted after graduating from high school.

“It was his calling and he died a hero,” Holguin said.

Holguin remembered him as a quiet, soft-spoken young man who enjoyed spending time with family and friends. Now, her heart has “a David-sized hole nobody can fill,” she said.

Espinoza graduated in 2019 from Lyndon B. Johnson High School in Laredo, Tex. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said he “embodied the values, the grit and the dedication” of the country’s service members.

Espinoza hailed from Rio Bravo, a small, predominantly-Hispanic enclave some 10 miles away from Laredo, where his mother, stepfather and three younger siblings still live. The news of Espinoza’s death, the congressman said, was unexpected and “hit close to home.”

“When people talk about the border, they have a tendency of forgetting the good, patriotic people that believe in our country,” he said. “David is certainly one of those examples of what we have here at the border: a young man that went across the world trying to get Americans and allies of the U.S. to safety.”

Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff to honor the killed U.S. service members, including Espinoza.

“These heroes should never be forgotten,” Abbott wrote on Twitter.

– María Luisa Paúl

– – –

Hunter Lopez

22, of Riverside County, Calif. – Lopez, a corporal in the Marine Corps, was part of a family with strong roots in law enforcement in Southern California. His mother is a deputy sheriff and his father is a sheriff’s captain in Riverside County, according to a statement issued by the Riverside Sheriffs’ Association confirming his death.

Lopez had plans to join them as a sheriff’s deputy after his deployment.

“Hunter was the victim of vicious evil and was killed because he wore a United States Marine uniform with love and pride,” the association said. “Our entire community feels the anguish, and we mourn the death of Hunter, who answered the call to serve, defend and protect our nation.”

“Like his parents who serve our community, being a Marine to Hunter wasn’t a job; it was a calling,” the association said.

– Shawn Boburg

– – –

Max Soviak

Of Berlin Heights, Ohio – A native of northern Ohio, Soviak planned to make a career in the Navy, his family said in a statement.

“Max was a wonderful son who loved his family, his community, and was proud to serve in the U.S. Navy. He was excited about the opportunities the Navy would offer him,” they said. “We are incredibly proud of his service to our country.

He was a 2017 graduate of Edison High School, which a released a statement mourning his loss.

“Max was a good student who was active in sports and other activities throughout his school career. He was well respected and liked by everyone who knew him. Max was full of life in everything he did,” the statement said.

Those athletic endeavors included a state-champion wrestling team, his parents told The Post, and consecutive semifinal trips with the football team.

His last words to his mother over video chat, Kip and Rachel Soviak told The Post in a statement, were of comfort.

” ‘Don’t worry, mom, my guys got me; they won’t let anything happen to me,’ ” his parents recounted. “… Today she realized that they all just went together.”

His sister Marilyn Soviak posted a tribute on Instagram, saying her younger brother was in Afghanistan serving as a medic. He was the lone sailor killed in the attack.

“My beautiful, intelligent, beat-to-the-sound of his own drum, annoying, charming baby brother was killed yesterday helping to save lives,” she wrote. “My heart is in pieces and I don’t think they’ll ever fit back right again.”

He is survived by Kip and Rachel Soviak and 12 of their other children. His parents offered comfort to the other families directly affected by Thursday’s attack.

“We would like to offer our condolences to the families that also lost a loved one yesterday,” the Soviaks told The Post on Friday, “and wish a speedy recovery to those that were injured.”

– Ellen McCarthy

– – –

Taylor Hoover

31, of Utah – Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, on Twitter identified Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover as one of the service members killed. Hoover’s family confirmed the news in a brief phone call.

“We’ll be forever grateful for his sacrifice & legacy. He spent his last moments serving our state and nation, and we’ll never forget his unwavering devotion,” Moore tweeted.

The marine graduated high school in 2008, according to his Facebook profile. His family will remember him as a true hero, his father Darin Hoover said.

“He’s a true hero. And did what he loved doing, serving the United States,” he said.

– Dalvin Brown

– – –

Daegan William-Tyeler Page

23, of Omaha, Neb. – A “diehard” Chicago Blackhawks fan and animal lover, Page was looking forward to returning home after his time serving in the Marine Corps, based out of Pendleton, Cal., his family said in a statement.

“To his younger siblings, he was their favorite jungle gym and to his friends, he was a genuinely happy guy that you could always count on,” they said. “After finishing his enlistment, Daegan planned to come home and go to a local trade school, possibly to become a lineman.”

Page was raised in Omaha, where he was a member of the Boy Scouts. He joined the Marine Corps in 2019 after he graduated from Millard South High School, according to the statement.

“Daegan will always be remembered for his tough outer shell and giant heart,” his family said.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said he was “heartbroken” to learn of Page’s death.

“Corporal Page is an American hero who gave the last full measure of devotion,” said Bacon in a statement. “He served his country honorably, and his service will never be in vain.”

– María Luisa Paúl

Published : August 28, 2021

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U.S. conducts airstrike against ISIS member in wake of Afghanistan bombing

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“U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner,” U.S. Central Command Spokesman Bill Urban said in a statement, referring to the terror group affiliated to ISIS that claimed responsibility for Thursdays bombing at Kabuls Hamid Karzai International Airport.

The United States has launched a drone attack against a planner for the Islamic State (ISIS), the U.S. Central Command said Friday, less than 48 hours after a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, killed 13 U.S. service members and some 170 Afghans.

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“U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner,” U.S. Central Command Spokesman Bill Urban said in a statement, referring to the terror group affiliated to ISIS that claimed responsibility for Thursday’s bombing at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.

“The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties,” the statement said.

U.S. officials have warned of heightened terror threats to U.S. troops in the aftermath of what was one of the deadliest attacks in the 20-year U.S.-led invasion in Afghanistan.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told a news conference Friday that “specific credible threats” are believed to exist, “and we want to make sure we’re prepared for those” threats.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki echoed the concern over those security threats, saying in a press briefing that American officials believe “another terror attack in Kabul is likely.”

Photo taken on Aug. 27, 2021 shows the explosion site near the Kabul airport in Afghanistan.

Also on Friday, Major General Hank Taylor, deputy director of the Joint Staff For Regional Operations, clarified to reporters that the blast at the Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport involving a sole suicide bomber was the only attack that happened Thursday, correcting earlier reports that a second attack was launched at the adjacent Baron Hotel.

“I can confirm for you that we do not believe that there was a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel; that it was one suicide bomber,” Taylor said. It was not clear the individual killed in the U.S. airstrike was specifically involved in Thursday’s bombing.

The U.S. reprisal came after President Joe Biden promised to strike those responsible for the suicide bombing.  

People injured in the Kabul airport attacks receive medical treatment at a local hospital in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Aug. 27, 2021.

Published : August 28, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40005396

Failure in foiling Kabul deadly attack exposes another U.S. mistake, says analyst

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“The United States and Western countries were aware of an imminent attack on Kabul airport even before that bloody day. They were alerted and they repeatedly issued signals to their citizens to avoid entering Kabul airport Thursday. However, they failed to foil the deadly attack,” said the analyst.

At least 169 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. soldiers were killed following a deadly attack outside the Kabul airport in Afghan capital on Thursday evening.

“The United States and Western countries were aware of an imminent attack on Kabul airport even before that bloody day. They were alerted and they repeatedly issued signals to their citizens to avoid entering Kabul airport Thursday. However, they failed to foil the deadly attack,” well-known Afghan journalist Mohammad Shaker Zarbi told Xinhua on Friday.

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At least two massive suicide bomb explosions occured at the Kabul airport while several gunmen opened fire at soldiers and civilians during the attack on Thursday.

“It was a big mistake. When everybody had known that a terrorist attack was looming, why U.S. and coalition military and intelligence officials failed to properly respond to the attack? At least they could use any means to disperse the big crowds,” Zarbi, chief editor of state-run Anis Daily, said.

On early Friday, all the gates of Kabul airport remained closed and the crowds outside the airport had been cleared, according to locals.

“The big crowds outside the airport were cleared after big explosions. People were sleeping outside the airport on the ground over the past two weeks after Aug. 15 when Taliban took over Kabul and evacuation flight began,” Sayyed Mohammad, a vendor near the airport told Xinhua.

“When everybody knows that an attack is happening, it is not difficult to control the situation. They must do their best at least to minimize the casualties,” Zarbi said.

Nearly 6,000 U.S. troops have been deployed at the Kabul airport to secure the airlifting operation since the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul on Aug. 15. Over 90,000 people had been evacuated since then.

An ambulance is seen at the explosion site near the Kabul airport in Afghanistan, Aug. 27, 2021.

The IS or so-called ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a statement from the group’s Amaq News Agency cited in multiple reports.

When asked whether the attack was indicative of resurgence of IS and that the group may become a big threat, Zarbi said, “The Taliban are now facing another season in war on the Islamic State or Daesh, although the supreme leader of IS was killed, which heavily deterred the outfit’s fighters anywhere to regroup.”

“Like before, the Taliban can resist and defeat the IS, because Taliban foot soldiers were enjoying a single military leadership. Even if the IS receives support from any foreign countries, the Taliban will defeat it,” he said.

“The IS framework was broken, shattered and dispersed a couple of years ago and I do not think the group could have strong fighting influence enough to fight the Taliban, but it may remain as a short-term guerrilla fighting or carrying out suicide and terrorist attacks,” he said.

Meanwhile, Abdul Satar Saadat, former legal advisor to President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and ex-chairman of the Afghan Electoral Complains Commission, opined that the IS group could be a big threat to Afghanistan and countries in the region.

“The last terror attack on airport would alert regional countries that there could be a serious threat to their national security,” he tweeted Friday.

People run away from the explosion site near the Kabul airport in Afghanistan, Aug. 26, 2021.

The Taliban were focusing in Afghanistan but the ISIS-K has transnational purposes; so there is an urgent need to cooperate and recognize the legitimacy of new government to be formed soon, Saadat said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also expressed his grave concern. “The incident underscores the volatility of Afghanistan, but also strengthens our resolve as we continue to deliver urgent assistance to the Afghan people,” he tweeted hours after the attack.

The Taliban spokesman and acting Minister of Information and Culture Zabihullah Mujahid, and Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of High Council for National Reconciliation, also strongly condemned Thursday’s attack.

People injured in the Kabul airport attacks receive medical treatment at a local hospital in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Aug. 27, 2021.

Published : August 28, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40005383

Vietnam to deploy troops in province to contain surge in Covid cases

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Southeast Asia saw a decline in new Covid-19 cases and deaths on Friday, after three successive days of increases, collated data showed.

Asean countries reported 87,340 new cases, less than Thursday’s 91,362, while 1,845 patients died, lower than the previous day’s 2,188.

The number of Covid-19 cases in the region crossed 9.74 million and the death toll rose to 216,709.

Vietnam’s government said on Thursday it would deploy troops in the industrial Binh Duong province, a major manufacturing hub of the country, to help contain an expected 50,000 additional coronavirus infections over the next two weeks. Binh Duong is a neighbouring province of the virus epicentre, Ho Chi Minh City, and has so far recorded 81,000 cases, a third of which were detected in the past week. Provincial authorities are preparing for a worst-case scenario within which cases could exceed 150,000. Some 2,000 troops will be sent to the province to support the fight against the virus along with 50 mobile medical stations and 15 ambulances.

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Meanwhile, Cambodia’s government said that it had administered at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccines to 10.07 million people, or 63 per cent of its 16-million population. Of them, 8.13 million had got two doses.

Cambodia began its vaccination drive in February, aiming to inoculate 12 million people, or 75 per cent of the total population, by the end of this year in order to build herd immunity. Most of the vaccines used in the country’s immunisation programme are China’s Sinovac and Sinopharm.

Published : August 28, 2021

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40005382

China donates anti-pandemic supplies to Myanmar border regions

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Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a ceremony Friday in Tengchong, southwest Chinas Yunnan Province, to donate COVID-19 prevention medical supplies to Myanmar border regions, including Kachin and Shan states.

After the ceremony, the first batch of anti-pandemic materials for Kachin State, worth more than 1.55 million yuan (about 239,781 U.S. dollars), arrived in Myanmar via Houqiao Port in Tengchong.

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The supplies include protective and surgical masks, disposable protective suits, hand sanitizer gel, thermal scanners, and portable oxygen generators.

Thaw Tar Aung, consul general of Myanmar in Kunming, accepted the donations and thanked China for its support for the Myanmar government’s fight against COVID-19. The consul general said it reflected the traditional friendship between the two countries and made the concept of a China-Myanmar community with a shared future more popular.

According to the foreign affairs office of Yunnan Province, the governments of the border regions of China and Myanmar have cooperated and supported each other in fighting the pandemic, including establishing a joint prevention and control mechanism to curb the cross-border spread of the virus. 

Published : August 28, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40005381

Kabul airport gates closed, crowds cleared after deadly attack

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All the gates of Kabul airport were closed early Friday following a deadly attack a day earlier, and the crowds outside the airport have cleared, according to witnesses.

At least 90 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members were killed in twin assaults in Kabul on Thursday.

The first explosion struck a gate of the Kabul airport, while the second occured in a nearby military base used by coalition forces in the past.
 

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The blasts, reportedly caused by suicide bombers, were believed to be the work of an affiliate to the Islamic State.

The Taliban, which took control of Kabul on Aug. 15, condemned the bombing outside the Kabul airport.

U.S. President Joe Biden vowed retaliation in the wake of the incidents.

Biden said he had ordered U.S. military commanders to “strike ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities,” stopping short of elaborating on the specifics.

The assaults occurred after Western nations warned of a terrorist attack at the airport as thousands of people gathered waiting for evacuation flights to leave the country.

As the Aug. 31 deadline looms for U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan, the U.S. has been scrambling to evacuate Americans and its Afghan partners from the country.

Published : August 28, 2021