ISIS-K Terror Attacks in Kabul Kill 60 Afghans, 13 US troops

AP with TJV News —

UPDATE

ISIS-K has officially taken responsibility for the deadly series of suicide bombings that took place at the Kabul airport earlier today. In addition to the bombings that claimed the lives of 13 US Marines and left 15 seriously wounded, the blast killed 60 Afghanis and left hundreds wounded.

ISIS utilized two suicide bombers and gunmen to wreak havoc at the Kabul airport where American citizens lined up for flights taking them home. They were joined by frightened Afghanis who were desperate to leave their country after the Taliban takeover.

Reports indicate that intelligence sources had verifiable information that an attack of this sort could likely happen. Americans and others were warned to stay clear of the airport but the fear and desperation of the Taliban takeover caused them to dismiss warnings of danger.

General Frank McKenzie, head of the US Central Command, said, “We are working very hard right now to determine attribution, to determine who is associated with this cowardly attack. And we are prepared to take action against them.” He added, “twenty-four seven, we are looking for them.”

President Biden is scheduled to address the nation

UPDATE

Fox News now reports that at least 12 US Marines and soldiers have been killed in the suicide bombing outside of Kabul airport on Thursday. According to the report, dozens of service members were wounded in the explosion as well. It was also reported that 60 Afghans were killed in the explosions that rocked the Hamid Karzai airport. Local Afghan media are now reporting a third explosion moments ago in Kabul.

Those were the first U.S. military combat fatalities in Afghanistan since February 2020, when the Trump administration and the Taliban signed in Doha, Qatar, an agreement on withdrawing American troops.

The WSJ reported that at the time of the attack, approaches to the airport’s gates were packed by thousands of Afghans who feared persecution by the Taliban because they had assisted U.S.-led coalition efforts in the country over the past two decades. While no group claimed immediate responsibility, Western governments warned earlier Thursday of an imminent attack by Islamic State’s regional affiliate.

The Taliban, who seized Kabul on Aug. 15, are a sworn enemy of Islamic State, and shot dead one of the group’s top leaders in Afghanistan hours after taking over the Kabul prison where he was held, as was reported by the WSJ.

The Daily Beast reported that The Taliban, which will soon control the security of the Kabul airport after the U.S. ends its mission on Aug. 31, has strongly condemned the suicide bombing attack. “The Islamic Emirate strongly condemns the bombing of civilians at Kabul airport, which took place in an area where security is in the hands of U.S. forces,” Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted on the official Taliban Twitter account, referring to the name change from Afghanistan to the Islamic Emirate since the fall of Kabul on Aug. 15. “The Islamic Emirate is paying close attention to the security and protection of its people, and evil circles will be strictly stopped.”

U.S. forces had warned citizens and others away from the gates after intelligence suggested that the extremist group ISIS-K, or the Islamic State of Khorasan, were planning attacks on civilians. ISIS-K is a radical affiliate group to ISIS and separate from the Taliban, an enemy with whom they often spar. ISIS-K was a target of U.S. airstrikes in July and claimed responsibility for six deadly attacks in Kabul in 2016, 18 in 2017, and 24 in 2018. The group, which preys on Taliban defectors, believes the Taliban’s view of Islam is “too soft.”

The Pentagon now confirms that multiple US service members were killed in the attack outside Kabul airport. Fox News reports 4 Marines dead and 3 injured. The NYT reports that in total, there are at least 40 people dead and 130 wounded, with the majority of those in critical condition. The White House hurriedly put off President Joe Biden’s first in-person meeting with Israel’s new prime minister Thursday and canceled a video conference with governors on incoming Afghan refugees after more than a dozen people were killed in explosions outside the airport in the Afghan capital, where throngs of people are scrambling to get to planes and evacuate, according to an AP report.

Biden was to host Naftali Bennett, Israel’s new prime minister, who is on his first visit to the U.S. since taking office. Biden also had planned to meet virtually with a bipartisan group of governors who have said they want to help resettle Afghan refugees fleeing their now Taliban-ruled country.

But deadly developments in the Afghan capital of Kabul forced the White House to tear up the president’s schedule, as he monitored the airport situation that was prompted by the Tuesday deadline he set for removing American citizens and troops from Afghanistan, as was reported by the AP

Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover. At least 13 people were killed and 15 wounded, Russian officials said.

4 Marines according to WSJ were killed and a number of other American military were wounded, a U.S. official said. It was not clear if those deaths were included in the Russian toll.

One of the bombers struck people standing knee-deep in a wastewater canal under the sweltering sun, throwing bodies into the fetid water. Those who moments earlier had hoped to get on flights out could be seen carrying the wounded to ambulances in a daze, their own clothes darkened with blood.

An Afghan interpreter who witnessed the Kabul airport blast tells his story to CBSN: “I saw a baby girl and I looked at her and I picked her up…I took her to the hospital, but she died on my hands. What’s going on right now is heartbreaking. This whole country is falling apart” pic.twitter.com/EC1XMIYm6m

— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 26, 2021

Video: Aftermath of attack close to Kabul airport. US Pentagon confirms at least two blasts. Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid told TOLOnews at least 52 people are wounded. #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/pBztAtS7oB

— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) August 26, 2021

A U.S. official said the complex attack was believed to have been carried out by the Islamic State group. The IS affiliate in Afghanistan is far more radical than the Taliban, who recently took control of the country in a lightning blitz and condemned the attack.

In Pictures: People injured in explosion near Kabul airport pic.twitter.com/WQ8sdjvODG

— 1TVNewsAF (@1TVNewsAF) August 26, 2021

Western officials had warned of a major attack, urging people to leave the airport, but that advice went largely unheeded by Afghans desperate to escape the country in the last few days of an American-led evacuation before the U.S. officially ends its 20-year presence on Aug. 31.

At least 13 people died and 15 were wounded, according to Russia’s Foreign Ministry, which gave the first official casualty count. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby also confirmed the blasts and said there were casualties, including among members of the military, but gave no figure. He said one explosion was near an airport entrance and another was a short distance away by a hotel.

Several Republicans have called for President Biden to step down from office.

pic.twitter.com/1fk5nHBBRK

— Rep. Roger Williams (@RepRWilliams) August 26, 2021

One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing military operations, said several Marines were killed. It wasn’t clear if other U.S. military troops were among the dead. American officials have said that information is still coming in and they are trying to determine exact numbers of casualties.

Even as the area was hit, evacuation flights continued to take off from Kabul airport.

Adam Khan was waiting nearby when he saw the first explosion outside what’s known as the Abbey gate. He said several people appeared to have been killed or wounded, including some who were maimed.

The second blast was at or near Baron Hotel, where many people, including Afghans, Britons and Americans, were told to gather in recent days before heading to the airport for evacuation.

A former Royal Marine who runs an animal shelter in Afghanistan says he and his staff were caught up in the aftermath of the blast near the airport.

“All of a sudden we heard gunshots and our vehicle was targeted, had our driver not turned around he would have been shot in the head by a man with an AK-47,” Paul “Pen” Farthing told Britain’s Press Association news agency.

Farthing is trying to get staff of his Nowzad charity out of Afghanistan, along with the group’s rescued animals.

He is among thousands trying to flee. Over the last week, the airport has been the scene of some of the most searing images of the chaotic end of America’s longest war and the Taliban’s takeover, as flight after flight took off carrying those who fear a return to the militants’ brutal rule. When the Taliban were last in power, they confined women largely to their home and widely imposed draconian restrictions.

Already, some countries have ended their evacuations and begun to withdraw their soldiers and diplomats, signaling the beginning of the end of one of history’s largest airlifts. The Taliban have insisted foreign troops must be out by America’s self-imposed deadline of Aug. 31 — and the evacuations must end then, too.

In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden spent much of the morning in the secure White House Situation Room where he was briefed on the explosions and conferred with his national security team and commanders on the ground in Kabul.

Overnight, warnings emerged from Western capitals about a threat from IS, which has seen its ranks boosted by the Taliban’s freeing of prisoners during its advance through Afghanistan.

Shortly before the attack, the acting U.S. ambassador to Kabul, Ross Wilson, said the security threat at the Kabul airport overnight was “clearly regarded as credible, as imminent, as compelling.” But in an interview with ABC News, he would not give details.

Late Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy warned citizens at three airport gates to leave immediately due to an unspecified security threat. Australia, Britain and New Zealand also advised their citizens Thursday not to go to the airport.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied that any attack was imminent at the airport, where the group’s fighters have deployed and occasionally used heavy-handed tactics to control the crowds. After the attack, he appeared to shirk blame, noting the airport is controlled by U.S. troops.

Before the blast, the Taliban sprayed a water cannon at those gathered at one airport gate to try to drive the crowd away, as someone launched tear gas canisters elsewhere.

Nadia Sadat, a 27-year-old Afghan, carried her 2-year-old daughter with her outside the airport. She and her husband, who had worked with coalition forces, missed a call from a number they believed was the State Department and were trying to get into the airport without any luck. Her husband had pressed ahead in the crowd to try to get them inside.

“We have to find a way to evacuate because our lives are in danger,” Sadat said. “My husband received several threatening messages from unknown sources. We have no chance except escaping.”

Aman Karimi, 50, escorted his daughter and her family to the airport, fearful the Taliban would target her because of her husband’s work with NATO.

“The Taliban have already begun seeking those who have worked with NATO,” he said. “They are looking for them house-by-house at night.”

The Sunni extremists of IS, with links to the group’s more well-known affiliate in Syria and Iraq, have carried out a series of brutal attacks, mainly targeting Afghanistan’s Shiite Muslim minority, including a 2020 assault on a maternity hospital in Kabul in which they killed women and infants.

The Taliban have fought against Islamic State militants in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have wrested back control nearly 20 years after they were ousted in a U.S.-led invasion. The Americans went in following the 9/11 attacks, which al-Qaida orchestrated while being sheltered by the group.

Amid the warnings and the pending American withdrawal, Canada ended its evacuations, and European nations halted or prepared to stop their own operations.

“The reality on the ground is the perimeter of the airport is closed. The Taliban have tightened the noose. It’s very, very difficult for anybody to get through at this point,” Canadian General Wayne Eyre, the country’s acting Chief of Defense Staff, said ahead of the attack.

Lt. Col. Georges Eiden, Luxembourg’s army representative in neighboring Pakistan, said that Friday would mark the official end for U.S. allies. But two Biden administration officials denied that was the case.

A third official said that the U.S. worked with its allies to coordinate each country’s departure, and some nations asked for more time and were granted it.

“Most depart later in the week,” he said, while adding that some were stopping operations Thursday. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the information publicly.

Danish Defense Minister Trine Bramsen bluntly warned earlier: “It is no longer safe to fly in or out of Kabul.”

Denmark’s last flight has already departed, and Poland and Belgium have also announced the end of their evacuations. The Dutch government said it had been told by the U.S. to leave Thursday.

But Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said some planes would continue to fly.

“Evacuation operations in Kabul will not be wrapping up in 36 hours. We will continue to evacuate as many people as we can until the end of the mission,” he said in a tweet.

The Taliban have said they’ll allow Afghans to leave via commercial flights after the deadline next week, but it remains unclear which airlines would return to an airport controlled by the militants. Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said talks were underway between his country and the Taliban about allowing Turkish civilian experts to help run the facility.

___

Baldor reported from Washington and Krauss from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London; Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Sylvie Corbet in Paris; Jan M. Olsen from Copenhagen, Denmark; Tameem Akhgar and Andrew Wilks in Istanbul; James LaPorta in Boca Raton, Florida; Mike Corder at The Hague, Netherlands; Philip Crowther in Islamabad; Colleen Barry in Milan; and Aamer Madhani and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.