Suicide bombers detonated at least two bombs at Kabul airport’s crowded gates on Thursday, causing a bloodbath among civilians, killing four US marines, and effectively shutting down the Western airlift of Afghans desperate to flee.
Although there was no official death toll, video images uploaded by Afghan journalists showed dozens of bodies of people killed in a densely packed crowd outside the airport. According to media reports, at least 40 people died.
A watery ditch near the airport fence was filled with bloodied corpses, some of which were fished out and laid in heaps on the canal side while wailing civilians looked for loved ones. According to the Pentagon, “a number” of American service members were killed. According to sources, at least four marines were killed and three were injured.
Several Western countries declared that the airlift of civilians was effectively over, with the US having sealed the airport’s gates, leaving no way out for tens of thousands of Afghans who had worked for the West for two decades.
According to a Taliban official, at least 13 people, including children, were killed and 52 were injured in the attack, though it was clear from video footage that those figures were far from complete. An Italian charity-run surgical hospital said it was treating more than 60 injured people on its own.
The explosions occurred amid the crowds that had gathered outside the airport for days in the hope of escaping in an airlift that the US says will end by Tuesday, following the Taliban’s swift capture of the country.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosions, but US officials blamed the Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate, ISIS-Khorosan, which has emerged as an enemy of both the West and the Taliban.
A witness identified as Jamshed stated that he went to the airport in the hopes of obtaining a visa for the United States.
“In the middle of the crowd, there was a very strong and powerful suicide attack.” “Many people, including Americans, were killed,” he said.
‘COMPLEX ATTACK’
Zubair, a 24-year-old civil engineer who had been trying for nearly a week to get into the airport with a cousin who had papers allowing him to travel to the United States, said he was 50 metres from the first of two suicide bombers who detonated explosives at the gate.
Men, women, and children screamed. “I witnessed many injured people – men, women, and children – being loaded into private vehicles and driven to hospitals,” he said. There was gunfire after the explosions.
“We can confirm that the explosion at the Abbey Gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of US and civilian casualties,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said on Twitter. We can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, which is located near Abbey Gate.”
Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban official, said there were two explosions in a crowded area controlled by US forces. “We strongly condemn this heinous incident and will go to any length to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
