Twin explosions ripped through the area surrounding Kabul’s Hamid Karzai Airport Thursday morning, killing multiple American troops and Afghan civilians, and disrupting the weeks-long, last-ditch evacuation effort underway nearby.
At least ten U.S. servicemen were killed in the bombings, Fox News reported. At least three of the slain American troops were Marines, according to the Wall Street Journal reported. At least 60 Afghans were also reportedly killed in the blasts.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby subsequently confirmed that “a number” of U.S. troops were killed in the bombings, but did not specify a number.
Statement on this morning's attack at #HKIA: pic.twitter.com/Qb1DIAJQJU
— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) August 26, 2021
A suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device Thursday morning just outside the airport’s Abbey Gate, where thousands of Afghans had massed to await evacuation. The bomber is affiliated with ISIS, Politico reported.
A second blast occurred shortly thereafter outside the Barron Hotel, a popular waiting point for Afghans and Americans seeking access to the airport in recent days.
The exact number of casualties from both blasts remains unclear but according to hospital workers who spoke to the New York Times, the figures may be as high as 40 dead and 120 wounded.
Evacuations were continuing at the airport despite the attacks, according to the Times, though it is unclear whether would-be evacuees were being allowed through the surrounding gates.
The Taliban condemned the attacks in a Thursday morning statement but suggested that the U.S. should have prevented them, saying they occurred in “an area where the U.S. is responsible.”
Photos from the scene show Afghans transporting bloody bodies in wheel barrows.
The explosions came hours after the British military warned that an attack on the airport was “imminent” and the State Department issued an alert warning Americans not to travel to the airport due to the threats.
“The credibility of the reporting has reached the stage where we believe there is a very imminent, a highly lethal attack, possibly within Kabul,” James Heappey, the U.K.’s armed forces minister, said early Thursday.
A number of U.S. allies subsequently announced that they were halting evacuation flights out of Kabul due to security concerns.
Thousands of Afghan allies and European citizens remain in Kabul, looking for a way out. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday that some 1,500 Americans remain in Afghanistan but said that less than 1,000 of them were “actively seeking” to leave.
Source: National Review
