Afghanistan: What's happening at Kabul airport?

Refugees have been evacuated from Afghanistan and taken to countries including the US

The UK and US have promised to finish their evacuation mission in Afghanistan despite an explosion outside Kabul airport on Thursday.

Many people have been trying to leave the country on flights after an extreme religious and political group called the Taliban took control on 15 August.

A number of people died as a result of the blast on Thursday and many others were wounded.

It's believed the attack could affect efforts to help people leave Afghanistan ahead of the 31 August, which is the deadline for US troops to evacuate the country.

The UK's Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter said the UK's evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan will end on Saturday.

So far, more than 100,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan.

Boris Johnson met with members of the military working on the UK operation in Afghanistan earlier this week

After Thursday's attacks in the Afghan capital, Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a crisis meeting with senior officials and said the evacuation effort will "keep going up until the last moment".

The prime minister said that the UK had entered the final stages of its Afghanistan evacuation, and it was announced on Friday morning that no more people would be called forward to the airport to leave.

Mr Johnson added that the attacks demonstrate the "importance of continuing that work in as fast and as efficient manner as possible in the hours that remain to us".

US President Joe Biden also said the evacuation mission to get people out of Afghanistan would be completed before the 31 August deadline.

What happened at Kabul airport?

Huge crowds had been gathering near the airport as people try to get flights out of the country.

The attack happened outside the Abbey Gate where American and British forces have been stationed to help people wanting to leave.

150 people were injured in the attacks and more than 90 people were killed, including 13 US military personnel and members of the Taliban.

The Islamic State Khorasan, a terrorist group who are enemies of the Taliban, have claimed responsibility for the attacks.

President Biden said the Americans killed in the attacks were "heroes" who were "engaged in a dangerous, selfless mission to save the lives of others". He also promised to hunt down those responsible.

Smoke could be seen billowing across the city immediately after the explosions

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he spoke to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to "express our sorrow that US troops lost their lives in Kabul today and that more have been injured".

"I also want to extend my condolences to the families of all those Afghans killed or injured. It is tragic that as they sought safety they have suffered at the hands of terrorists," he said.

The explosions happened after some countries, including the UK, were worried that the airport wasn't a safe place to be any more.

Australia, the US and the UK sent warnings to their citizens hours before the explosions, asking them to leave the airport and wait to be contacted in other places. The attack will now make it much more difficult for people trying to leave Afghanistan.

Why were so many people at Kabul airport?

Many people want to leave Afghanistan as they don't feel safe with the Taliban in charge. They've been trying to get flights out before 31 August - that's the date when soldiers from the US are planning to exit the country.

If these soldiers are not there defending and running the airport, it will make flying people out of the country a lot more difficult.

Despite warnings that the airport could be an unsafe place to be, many people chose to stay in the area still hoping to get a space on a plane so they could leave.

The PM said that the "overwhelming majority" of eligible people have now been evacuated from Afghanistan by the UK.

Mr Johnson added that the UK's immediate priority was to "finish off this process of evacuation", but then things would move into a "second phase" where "those who want to leave Afghanistan after this phase one, if you like, are allowed to do that by the Taliban."

What's being done to help?

More than 1,000 UK troops have been helping to evacuate people from Afghanistan

There are currently 5,800 US troops on the ground at Kabul airport with a further 1,000 UK troops also there.

To date, 104,000 civilians have been transferred from Afghanistan, including 66,000 from the US and 37,000 from other countries.

About 5,000 people are waiting at the airport and many more are still trying to get through checkpoints.

Evacuation efforts had accelerated, with planes taking off from Kabul regularly as the US and UK continued to try to get people to safety.

But Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the UK has entered the final stages of its Afghanistan evacuation and no more people will be called to the airport to leave.

"It is with deep regret that not everyone has been able to be evacuated during this process," he said.

Boris Johnson said on Thursday that the UK had evacuated more than 13,000 people from Afghanistan.

He added that countries such as the UK and US will now "engage with the Taliban to try to get a political process going that gives a more inclusive future, an inclusive and representative government for Afghanistan".