On August 24, 2021, the evacuation flight in Kabul, Afghanistan continued, and people who wanted to flee the country were waiting near Hamid Karzai International Airport. (Photo: Haroon� Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
- After a fatal explosion at the airport, Kabul panicked.
- People described chaotic and bloody scenes.
- The Pentagon said there was an explosion at the monastery gate of Kabul Airport and at least one explosion at the nearby Baron Hotel.
The deadly explosion at Kabul Airport on Thursday caused a “complete panic” among Afghans who gathered outside hoping to flee the safety of the country’s new Taliban rulers.
Images posted on social media showed that injured men wearing blood-stained clothes were transported away from the scene in a wheelbarrow, while a boy was holding the arm of a man with a head injury.
“Corps, flesh and people were thrown into a nearby canal,” Millard told AFP at the scene of the first explosion.
“When people heard the explosion, they were completely panicked. The Taliban then started firing into the air to disperse the crowd at the door,” another witness said.
I saw a man rushing over with a wounded baby in his hand.
In the chaos, he said he gave up the documents he hoped would help him board the plane with his wife and three children.
“I never want to go to (the airport) anymore. The death of the United States, its evacuation and visa.”
Western intelligence agencies warned of an imminent attack on Thursday, and US President Joe Biden invoked the terrorist threat from the regional chapter of the Islamic State Jihad.
Only five days have passed since the deadline set by the United States to end air freight.
According to the Kabul Emergency Hospital, the two devices detonated when the sun began to set, killing at least six people and injuring many others.
Men, women and children fled the scene one after another, and smoke billowed into the sky.
The Pentagon said there was an explosion at the monastery gate of Kabul Airport and at least one explosion at the nearby Baron Hotel.
Soon after, an Agence France-Presse photographer saw several corpses arriving at a hospital in Kabul, and more than a dozen people were injured.
When the wounded was carried into the clinic on a stretcher, the woman with blood on her face and clothes was crying.
Another witness, 26-year-old Akram Lubega, who works for a catering company, said he heard the explosion but did not know what happened.
“Of course, we are all scared,” said the Ugandan national.
“Everyone is nervous, and the army is deploying positions around the airport.”
