U.S., U.K. OFFICIALS WARNED OF DEADLY ATTACK ON AIRPORT

The first warnings were issued Wednesday evening, but the people kept coming. In the initial alert, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul advised citizens to avoid travelling to the airport and said those already at the gates should leave immediately, citing unspecified “security threats.” In a similar advisory, Britain told people to move away from the airport area. Its armed forces minister, James Heappey, said intelligence about a possible suicide bomb attack had become “much firmer.” “I can’t stress the desperation of the situation enough. The threat is credible, it is imminent, it is lethal. We wouldn’t be saying this if we weren’t genuinely concerned about offering Islamic State a target that is just unimaginable,” Heappey told BBC radio. Ahmedullah Rafiqzai, a civil aviation official at the airport, said people continued to crowd around the gates despite the warnings, desperate to leave. “People don’t want to move, it’s their determination to leave this country that they are not scared to even die,” he said.