The Pentagon warned on Monday of "real" and "specific" threats of new attacks at Kabul airport just hours ahead of a US deadline to complete its frenzied withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has been marred by Islamic State violence, including a volley of rocket fire.
President Joe Biden has set a deadline of Tuesday to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan, drawing to a close his nation's longest war, which began in late 2001 in retaliation for the September 11 attacks.
The return to power a fortnight ago of the Taliban movement, which was toppled in 2001 in that US-led invasion, triggered a massive exodus of terrified people fearing a new version of their hardline Islamist rule.
Those flights, which have taken more than 122,000 people out of Kabul airport, will officially end on Tuesday when the last of the thousands of American troops pull out.
US forces are now focused chiefly on flying themselves and American diplomats out safely, and the UN Security Council was set to meet to discuss a resolution on the way forward.
The regional Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) group, rivals of the Taliban, pose the biggest threat to the withdrawal, after carrying out a suicide bombing outside the airport last week that claimed more than 100 lives, including those of 13 US troops.
On Monday, they claimed to have fired six rockets at the airport. A Taliban official said the attack was intercepted by the airport's missile defence systems.
Even as the US troop presence in Afghanistan drew to an end, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters that it was "a particularly dangerous time right now".
"The threat stream is still real, it's still active, and in many cases it's still specific," he said on Monday.
The Taliban have already started taking over areas vacated by US forces.
Afghan people sit as they wait to leave the Kabul airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021. Photo: AFPUN Council adopts Afghanistan resolution
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Monday requiring the Taliban to honour their commitment to let people freely leave Afghanistan, but the measure did not cite a "safe zone" mentioned by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The resolution - drafted by the United States, Britain and France, and seen by AFP - was passed with 13 votes in favour and no objections. China and Russia abstained.
The resolution says the council expects the Taliban to allow a "safe, secure, and orderly departure from Afghanistan of Afghans and all foreign nationals".
It refers to an August 27 statement by the Taliban in which the hardline Islamists said Afghans would be able to travel abroad, and leave Afghanistan any time they want to, including by any border crossing, both air and ground.
The Security Council "expects that the Taliban will adhere to these and all other commitments," the resolution says.
Macron had raised hopes of more concrete proposals in comments published in the weekly Journal du Dimanche over the weekend.
He said Paris and London would present a draft resolution which "aims to define, under UN control, a 'safe zone' in Kabul, that will allow humanitarian operations to continue," Macron said.
"I am very hopeful that it will be successful. I don't see who could be against making humanitarian projects secure," he said.
But the UN resolution on the table is far less ambitious. It is not clear whether another resolution proposing a "safe zone" will be circulated later on.
"This resolution is not an operational aspect. It's much more on principles, key political messages and warnings," a UN diplomat told reporters.
Experts said the text was watered down to ensure China and Russia would not use their vetoes to block it, including softening some of the language related to the Taliban.
"This is a pretty thin text," said Richard Gowan, UN expert at the International Crisis Group.
"Macron was guilty of overselling the idea of a safe zone at Kabul airport this weekend, or at least not communicating very clearly," he told AFP.
Tuesday's deadline
"The resolution does at least send a political signal to the Taliban about the need to keep the airport open and help the UN deliver aid."
The text calls for the Taliban to allow for "full, safe, and unhindered access" for the United Nations and other agencies to provide humanitarian assistance.
It also "reaffirms the importance" of upholding human rights, including of children, women and minorities and encourages all parties to seek an inclusive, negotiated political settlement with the "full, equal and meaningful representation of women."
The text also calls for Afghanistan to "not be used to threaten or attack any country or to shelter or train terrorists, or to plan or to finance terrorist acts."
The resolution comes as international efforts to airlift foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghans out of the country come to an end after the Taliban swept back into power on August 15, with the United States withdrawing from the country after 20 years.
France ended its evacuation efforts on Friday and Britain followed suit on Saturday.
US troops have been scrambling in dangerous and chaotic conditions to complete a massive evacuation operation from the Kabul airport by a Tuesday deadline.