Dozens of civilians, 12 US troops killed in Kabul airport attack

Medical and hospital staff bring an injured man on a stretcher for treatment after the blasts. PHOTO: AFP
Wounded women arrive at a hospital for treatment after two blasts outside the airport in Kabul. PHOTO: AFP
Medical and hospital staff carry an injured man out of a car for treatment after two blasts outside the airport in Kabul. PHOTO: AFP
Medical and hospital staff bring an injured man on a stretcher for treatment after two powerful explosions outside the airport in Kabul. PHOTO: AFP
A victim of the suicide attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport is brought to a hospital in Kabul for treatment. PHOTO: NYTIMES
Volunteers and medical staff unload bodies from a pickup truck outside a hospital after two powerful explosions outside the airport in Kabul. PHOTO: AFP
Volunteers and medical staff bring an injured man for treatment after two powerful explosions outside the airport in Kabul. PHOTO: AFP

KABUL (REUTERS) - Islamic State struck the crowded gates of Kabul airport in a suicide bomb attack on Thursday (Aug 26), killing scores of civilians and 12 US troops, and throwing into mayhem the airlift of tens of thousands of Afghans desperate to flee.

Kabul health officials were quoted as saying 60 civilians were killed. Video shot by Afghan journalists showed dozens of bodies strewn around a canal on the edge of the airport. At least two blasts rocked the area, witnesses said.

It was believed to be the most US troops killed in Afghanistan in a single incident since 30 US personnel died when a helicopter was shot down in August 2011.

"We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay," US President Joe Biden said of the perpetrators during televised comments from the White House.

"We will not be deterred by terrorists ... We will continue the mission," Biden said.

Islamic State, which has emerged in Afghanistan as enemies both of the West and the Taleban, claimed responsibility in a statement in which it said one of its suicide bombers targeted "translators and collaborators with the American army". US officials also blamed the group.

Corpses lay in the canal by the airport fence, video from the scene showed, some being fished out and laid in heaps while wailing civilians searched for loved ones.

"For a moment I thought my eardrums were blasted and I lost my sense of hearing. I saw bodies and body parts flying in the air like a tornado blowing plastic bags. I saw bodies, body parts elders and injured men, women and children scattered," said one Afghan who had been trying to reach the airport.

"That little water flowing in the sewage canal had turned into blood."

The US deaths were the first in action in Afghanistan in 18 months, a fact likely to be cited by critics who accuse Biden of recklessly abandoning a stable and hard-won status quo by ordering an abrupt pullout.

General Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, said the United States would press on with evacuations, noting that there were still around 1,000 US citizens in Afghanistan. But several Western countries said the mass airlift of civilians was coming to an end, likely to leave no way out for tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the West through two decades of war.

Violence by Islamic State is a challenge for the Taleban, who have promised Afghans they will bring peace to the country they swiftly conquered. A Taleban spokesman described the attack as the work of "evil circles" who would be suppressed once foreign troops leave.

Western countries fear that the Taleban, who once sheltered Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda, will allow Afghanistan to turn again into a haven for militants. The Taleban say they will not let the country be used by terrorists.

Threat to airport

Zubair, a 24 year-old civil engineer, who had been trying for a nearly week to get inside the airport with a cousin who had papers authorising him to travel to the United States, said he was 50 metres from a suicide bomber who detonated explosives at the gate.

"Men, women and children were screaming. I saw many injured people - men, women and children - being loaded into private vehicles and taken toward the hospitals," he said, adding that after the explosions there was gunfire.

Wounded women arrive at a hospital for treatment after two blasts outside the airport in Kabul. PHOTO: AFP
Medical and hospital staff carry an injured man out of a car for treatment after two blasts outside the airport in Kabul. PHOTO: AFP

Washington and its allies had been urging civilians to stay away from the airport, citing the threat from Islamic State.

In the past 12 days, Western countries have evacuated nearly 100,000 people. But they acknowledge that thousands will be left behind following Biden's order to pull out all troops by Aug 31.

The last few days of the airlift will mostly be used to withdraw the remaining troops. Canada and some European countries have already announced the end of their airlifts.

Biden ordered all troops out of Afghanistan by the end of the month to comply with a withdrawal agreement with the Taleban negotiated by his predecessor Donald Trump. Biden spurned calls this week from European allies for more time.

Victims of a suicide attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport are brought to a hospital in Kabul for treatment. PHOTO: NYTIMES
Volunteers and medical staff bring an injured man for treatment after two powerful explosions outside the airport in Kabul. PHOTO: AFP
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The collapse of the Western-backed government in Afghanistan caught US officials by surprise and risks reversing gains, especially in the rights of women and girls, millions of whom have been going to school and work, once forbidden under the Taleban.

Biden has defended the decision to leave, saying US forces could not stay indefinitely. But his critics say the US force, which once numbered more than 100,000, had been reduced in recent years to just a few thousand troops, no longer involved in fighting on the ground and mainly confined to an air base. It was a fraction of the size of US military contingents that have stayed in places such as Korea for decades.

Fighters claiming allegiance to Islamic State began appearing in eastern Afghanistan at the end of 2014 and have established a reputation for extreme brutality. They have claimed responsibility for suicide attacks on civilians, government targets and ethnic and sectarian minorities.

Smoke billows from the airport area after a blast outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Afghans struggle to reach foreign forces to show their credentials to flee the country outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, on Aug 26 2021. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Since the day before the Taleban swept into Kabul, the United States and its allies have mounted one of the biggest air evacuations in history, bringing out about 95,700 people, including 13,400 on Wednesday, the White House said on Thursday.

The Taleban have encouraged Afghans to stay, while saying those with permission to leave will still be allowed to do so once foreign troops depart and commercial flights resume.

The Taleban's 1996-2001 rule was marked by public executions and the curtailment of basic freedoms. The group was overthrown two decades ago by US-led forces for hosting the Al-Qaeda militants who masterminded the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

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