Japan is considering withdrawing its Self-Defense Forces from their mission to evacuate people including its nationals from war-torn Afghanistan on Wednesday at the earliest, citing security reasons, amid heightened tensions following the recent seizure of power by the Taliban, government sources said Monday.
Japan has assessed it is difficult to ensure operations at the airport in the Afghan capital of Kabul would be safe after the Tuesday deadline of the U.S. troops' pullout from Afghanistan, the sources said. Such a move would come after Japan had evacuated one national and transported 14 Afghans out of the country.
Security in Kabul remains volatile following last week's deadly explosions near the airport that killed more than 100 people. Media have reported that a U.S. anti-missile defense system intercepted as many as five rockets that were fired at the airport early Monday.
SDF aircraft -- a C-2 transporter and two C-130 planes -- have remained on standby in Islamabad in neighboring Pakistan to discern developments in Kabul, where foreign governments have been rushing to evacuate their citizens.
The sources said up to about 500 people including local staff of the Japanese Embassy and Japan International Cooperation Agency as well as their families remain in the country.
While assessing security on the ground, the government has been looking into possible alternative methods to evacuate them such as by using commercial airlines, according to the sources.
Hiromi Yasui, a Kyodo News staff member who lives in Kabul and also runs a business there, was evacuated aboard an SDF aircraft on Friday.
Prior to that, there had been attempts to evacuate but they failed to bring out any evacuee as people were reportedly unable to reach the airport on their own due to strict Taliban checkpoints.
Government officials have said a very few number of Japanese remain in Afghanistan as they did not wish to leave.
The evacuation of 14 Afghans was the first SDF airlift of foreign nationals to another country as part of a mission to evacuate Japanese citizens.
Related coverage:
Afghan man calls for Japan gov't help to leave Kabul with family
Japan airlifts 14 Afghans from Kabul to Islamabad at U.S. request
Japan evacuates one citizen left behind in Afghanistan
