Volunteers and medical staff bring an injured man on a stretcher to a hospital for treatment after two powerful explosions, which killed at least six people, outside the airport in Kabul on August 26, 2021. (WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP)
Two explosions outside Kabul’s international airport caused at least 13 deaths and dozens of wounded, including some Americans, less than a week before US forces are due to depart.
“Our initial reports say 13 Afghans killed and 52 others were wounded, and the casualties could increase,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said by phone.
“A number of US & civilian casualties” were caused by one blast outside the Abbey Gate used by people seeking to flee Afghanistan, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
The Taliban blamed the US, which is directing a military-led evacuation from Kabul, for drawing large crowds to the airport perimeter
Kirby called the blast outside the Abbey Gate a “complex attack,” without providing details. It came after US and NATO officials warned their citizens to avoid heading toward the airport. A US official said flights departing Kabul have been temporarily halted.
The Taliban blamed the US, which is directing a military-led evacuation from Kabul, for drawing large crowds to the airport perimeter. Mujahed said an investigation into who was behind the attack is continuing, though many analysts said an offshoot of Islamic State — an enemy of both the Taliban and the US– could be to blame.
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“We strongly condemn this lethal attack which happened at an area of Kabul airport which is under the control of Americans,” Mujahed said. “They are responsible for the security of the area.”
The blast occurred around the time President Joe Biden was scheduled to meet with his national security team about the situation in Afghanistan. He has since been briefed in the White House Situation Room, according to an official. A late-morning meeting with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is now postponed, the White House said, and a planned virtual meeting with governors to discuss taking in Afghanistan refugees has been called off.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is being kept updated on developments at Kabul’s airport and will host a meeting of the government’s emergency committee, later this afternoon, his office said in a statement. German Chancellor Angela Merkel canceled a planned trip to Israel over the situation in Afghanistan, her spokesman said.
“The explosion happened within a large crowd at the Abbey gate where people are being screened and processed by the Americans,” Mustafa Shah, an Afghan who was near the blast and took a wounded friend to the hospital, said in a phone call. Shah said he saw body parts on the ground and “10-15 people” who appeared to be dead.
Afghans and others trying to flee Kabul have packed around the airport trying to get onto one of the many military flights leaving the country.
After the explosion, European military officials sent a message to citizens in the country saying, “Get away from the airport. Very, very, very dangerous situation. Go now!” according to Dina Haynes, a lawyer who got a client into the Kabul airport compound a few minutes before the explosion.
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While it wasn’t immediately clear who caused the explosion, earlier in the day, American and NATO allies had warned their citizens against traveling to the airport because of the credible and imminent risk of attacks. Biden specifically cited Islamic State — Khorasan, a terrorist group, as a potential threat, this week.
“They’re real and significant challenges that we also have to take into consideration the longer we stay, starting with the acute and growing risk of an attack by a terrorist group known as ISIS-K, an ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan, which is a sworn enemy of the Taliban as well,” Biden said Tuesday. “Every day we’re on the ground is another day we know that ISIS-K is seeking to target the airport and attack both US and allied forces and innocent civilians.”
Biden this week reiterated his plan to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by Aug 31, though he called on the Pentagon and State Department to come up with contingency plans in case they are needed.
A Western diplomat in Kabul earlier said areas outside the airport gates were "incredibly crowded" again despite the warnings of a potential attack.
In an alert issued on Wednesday evening, the US embassy in Kabul advised US citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and said those already at the gates should leave immediately, citing unspecified "security threats".
This August 23, 2021, satellite image courtesy of MAXAR, shows the area around the Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. Two explosions struck near the Abbey Gate of Kabul airport on August 26, 2021, causing multiple casualties in what the US military labelled a "complex attack" that took place as countries raced to complete evacuations from Afghanistan. (HANDOUT / SATELLITE IMAGE ©2021 MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES / AFP)
In a similar advisory, Britain told people in the airport area to move away and its armed forces minister, James Heappey, said intelligence of a possible suicide bomb attack by Islamic State militants had become "much firmer".
"I can't stress the desperation of the situation enough. The threat is credible, it is imminent, it is lethal. We wouldn't be saying this if we weren't genuinely concerned about offering Islamic State a target that is just unimaginable," Heappey told BBC radio.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said the country ended its Red Kite evacuation operations after US sources informed the government of an imminent suicide bomb attack around the airport.
De Croo said a little over 1,400 people were evacuated by Belgium from Kabul, with the last flight arriving at Islamabad Wednesday night.
The warnings came against a chaotic backdrop in the capital, Kabul, and its airport, where a massive airlift of foreign nationals and their families as well as some Afghans has been underway since the Taliban captured the city on Aug 15.
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About 101,000 people have been evacuated by the U.S. and allies. Secretary of State Antony Blinken estimated Wednesday that about 1,500 Americans were still in Afghanistan, along with other foreigners.
Blinken said at a news conference in Washington there was no deadline for the effort to help people who want to leave, both Americans and others, and that it would continue for "as long as it takes".
The US military said it would shift its focus to evacuating its own troops in the final two days before the Aug 31 withdrawal deadline.
The Taliban have said foreign troops must be out by the end of the month. They have encouraged Afghans to stay, while saying those with permission to leave will still be allowed to do so once commercial flights resume after the foreign troops go.
With inputs from Reuters