While the evacuations from Afghanistan are still under time pressure, two explosions shake the capital Kabul. A harrowing scene takes place in front of the airport. Many people die, including US soldiers. The situation remains tense.
Several people were killed in two bomb attacks in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and numerous others were injured. The US Department of Defense said twelve American soldiers were also killed and fifteen others injured. At least two suicide bombers blew themselves up. After the detonations, a number of fighters from the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) opened fire on civilians and soldiers, said US General Kenneth McKenzie in a video link with journalists in the Pentagon. The IS has meanwhile claimed the devastating attack for itself. US President Joe Biden threatened retaliation against the terrorists late in the evening.
“We’ll hunt you down and make you pay for it,” Biden said in the White House. “We will not forgive. We will not forget.” The US military will conduct operations against the terrorist militia responsible for the attack, he announced. In addition, the evacuations should continue, the United States did not let the terrorists stop them. “We’ll find them and we’ll get them out of there,” Biden said, referring to US citizens who are still in Afghanistan. The US soldiers praised Biden as “heroes. They were involved in a” dangerous, selfless mission “to” save the lives of others “.
Earlier in the day, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) spoke of one or more suicide bombers and condemned the bloody act as “absolutely vile”. Meanwhile, the German Air Force flew all Bundeswehr soldiers, diplomats and remaining police officers from the crisis state, as Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) said after the last machine had started.
The exact number of victims of the attack remained open at first. According to several sources, Afghan officials said 60 fatalities and 143 injured in the evening; the Taliban recently put the death toll at 20. Numerous dead were seen on videos; it was therefore feared that the number of victims would be significantly higher than previously feared. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby spoke of a “complex attack” on Twitter. Merkel said terrorists were targeting people who were waiting in front of the airport gates. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) said: “We currently have no information about German victims.”
Taliban Political Bureau spokesman Suhail Shahin said that the cruel incident was strongly condemned and that everything would be done to bring those guilty to justice. He confirmed that two explosions occurred. According to initial information, one took place at one of the airport gates, and another at a nearby hotel.
The local TV station Tolo-News published pictures on Twitter showing how injured people are being transported in wheelbarrows. An eyewitness told the TV station that the explosion was very powerful. The well-connected Afghan journalist Bilal Sarwari wrote that a suicide bomber blew himself up in a large crowd. At least one other attacker then opened fire. Sarwari cited several eyewitnesses in the area.
Western states warned of the risk of an attack
The security situation around the airport had recently worsened again significantly. The Bundeswehr had already reported on Tuesday that there were an increasing number of potential suicide bombers from the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) in Kabul. US President Joe Biden had made a similar statement. A local branch of IS tries to attack the airport practically every day, he said. The terrorist militia is also a “declared enemy” of the Taliban. Among other things, Biden justified his adherence to the plan to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan by August 31 with this terror threat.
Since the Taliban came to power, thousands of people have tried to flee abroad for fear of repression. For more than a week, they have been gathering around various entrances to the airport to get on an evacuation flight. The conditions around the airport were dramatic. The rush increased again, as an eyewitness reported to the German press agency. People stand at a gate “as close to one another as bricks in a wall”, and they are not moving a meter ahead.
After the explosion, US soldiers used tear gas at another airport gate to disperse people, said a Kabul resident who was at the gate. He estimated that at the time there were 2,000 to 4,000 people waiting for an evacuation flight abroad. Several women and girls were injured by the tear gas. Bundeswehr Inspector General Eberhard Zorn said on Thursday that the Bundeswehr had flown 5,200 people from 45 nations since the start of the mission on August 16. Among them are 4200 Afghans and 505 German citizens.
Remaining Germans should be taken out
Kramp-Karrenbauer and Merkel emphasized that the federal government will continue to try to enable people in need of protection to leave the country. “We end the airlift today,” said Merkel. “We are working flat out to negotiate conditions with the Taliban about how further departures will be possible.”
In view of the chaotic situation and tense security situation in Afghanistan, UN Secretary General António Guterres invited the veto powers to a crisis meeting. According to diplomatic circles, the ambassadors of the USA, China, Russia, Great Britain and France will meet with the UN chief on Monday in New York to discuss the situation.
Belgium, Denmark, Poland and Canada, among others, have now stopped their evacuations, as has Germany, while France was planning to do so on Friday. The US military again flew more than 13,000 people within 24 hours. According to the White House, the US and its partners have flown more than 95,000 people. More than 14,500 evacuees landed at the US air force base in Ramstein, Palatinate, by Thursday.
Chancellor Angela Merkel canceled her trip to Israel planned for Saturday to Monday because of the dramatic developments in Afghanistan. The decision was made in consultation with the Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet, said government spokesman Steffen Seibert.
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