EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / Medical and hospital staff bring an injured man on a stretcher for treatment after two blasts, which killed at least five and wounded a dozen, outside the airport in Kabul on August 26, 2021. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
At least 72 civilians have been killed in the two explosions outside Kabul airport, a hospital source and a Taliban official in the Afghan capital say.
At least 13 US soldiers were also killed in Thursday’s blasts, the worst single-day loss for American troops in Afghanistan since the August 2011 attack on a Chinook helicopter that killed 30 service members.
The US troops helping to evacuate Afghans desperate to flee Taliban rule are bracing for more attacks.
Thursday’s attack was claimed by ISIL (ISIS) offshoot in Afghanistan, The Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K), which said its suicide bombers singled out “translators and collaborators with the American army”.
US President Joe Biden pledged to retaliate against the attack in Kabul, confirming that the bombings were carried out by ISIS-K. “We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests in our people with every measure at my command,” he said
Taliban draft in thousands of fighters from provinces: AJ correspondent
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Kabul, said “the Taliban have drafted in thousands of other fighters from the provinces to try and increase the security around the airport, but there is an increasing sense of fear and trepidation in the city”.
“These attacks are a grave indication of the kind of security challenges that the Taliban will be facing in the months ahead,” he said. “We can only imagine more road blocks around the airport we are going to see today and even greater tension.”
Evacuation flights resume in Kabul after deadly bombings
Evacuation flights from Afghanistan have resumed with new urgency a day after two suicide bombings targeted the thousands of desperate people fleeing the Taliban takeover.
The US says further attempted attacks are expected ahead of the Tuesday deadline for foreign troops to leave, ending America’s longest war.
Kabul residents said several flights took off Friday morning.
Deadliest days for US troops in Afghanistan
At least 13 United States soldiers are among the 85 people killed in the explosions at Kabul airport, claimed by ISIL (ISIS) affiliate, the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP or ISIS-K).
It was the worst single-day loss for American troops in Afghanistan since the August 2011 attack on a Chinook helicopter that killed 30 service members.
First group of Afghan refugees arrives in Albania
The Albanian government says that a first group of Afghans evacuated from Afghanistan have arrived in the Albanian capital Tirana.
A civilian airplane of the Egyptian Almasria Universal Airlines was seen landing at the Tirana international airport with men and women, children and elderly people leaving it. Albanian Foreign Minister Olta Xhacka and US Ambassador to Tirana Yuri Kim were present at the airport.
The Afghans were first taken to military tents, where they had a rapid virus test, other medical and psychological assistance and registration before being moved to hotels. The government has said the Afghans may stay at least a year while proceeding with applications for special visas for final settlement in the US.
72 civilians among 85 killed in Kabul airport carnage
A health official and a Taliban official say the toll of Afghans killed has risen to 72, including 28 Taliban members.
The US military said 13 of its service members have been killed
Taliban says 28 of its members killed in airport blasts
At least 28 members of the Taliban are among the people killed in explosions overnight outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, a Taliban official told Reuters news agency.
“We have lost more people than the Americans,” said the official, who declined to be identified. He said there was no reason to extend the August 31 deadline for foreign forces to leave the country.
Australia says troops pulled out before Kabul blasts
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Friday his country has already completed its evacuation operations in Afghanistan.
The country pulled out its troops out Kabul just before the bombings on Thursday, after receiving “very clear intelligence” of an impending attack.
“We were able to ensure the departure of the remaining Australian personnel over the course of last night, not that long before the terrible events that unfolded last night took place,” Morrison said at a news conference.
He also said that American and British forces had helped Australia over nine days to evacuate some 4,100 people, including 3,200 Australians and Afghan citizens with Australian visas.
Norway halts Kabul evacuation
Norway’s Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide has announced that her country can no longer assist in evacuating remaining citizens from Afghanistan’s capital.
“The doors at the airport are now closed and it is no longer possible to get people in,” Soereide said in an interview with TV2.
Norway had earlier agreed to provide airlift support for Afghan evacuees from the Gulf region to follow-on points in Europe, according to a US State Department statement.
Afghan staff documents left at UK embassy in Kabul: Report
Staff of the United Kingdom’s embassy in Kabul, who hurriedly evacuated following the Taliban takeover on August 15, have left documents with the contact details of Afghans working for them, as well as other identifying information such as job applications of Afghans, according to an exclusive report by The Times newspaper in the UK.
According to the report, the documents were left scattered on the ground at the British embassy compound in Kabul that has been seized by the Taliban.
“Phone calls to the numbers on the documents revealed that some Afghan employees and their families remained stranded on the wrong side of the airport perimeter wall days after their details were left in the dirt in the haste of the embassy’s evacuation on August 15,” the report said.
US says over 100,000 evacuated since August 14
The US has announced that more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan have been evacuated since August 14, the eve of the Taliban’s return to power.
“Since August 14, the US has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 100,100 people,” the White House said in a statement issued on Thursday hours after a twin blast killed dozens of Afghans and at least 13 US troops, at one of the entrances at Kabul airport.
The Taliban has given the US until August 31 to withdraw its troops and evacuate its citizens as well as Afghans with documents to leave.
US military’s toll in Kabul bombing rises to 13: Pentagon
The US Defense Department has announced that the number of US troops killed in the blasts at Kabul airport rose by one to 13 and the number of injured was 18.
“A thirteenth US service member has died from his wounds suffered as a result of the attack on Abbey Gate,” Central Command Spokesman Captain Bill Urban said in a statement.
(Al Jazeera)
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