- The U.S. military confirmed that there was a big explosion outside the Kabul airport and tens of thousands of people were evacuated.
- A Taliban official said at least 13 people were killed.
- Officials learned that the suicide bombers threatened to attack the airport.
A Taliban official said that a suspected suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport on Thursday killed at least 13 people, including children, after the United States and its allies urged Afghans to leave the area due to threats from the Islamic State.
The official said many Taliban guards were injured, Reuters reported.
A US official said that the country’s service personnel were among the wounded, adding that he cited a preliminary report and warned that it might change. He said there were casualties, but he doesn’t know how many people or nationalities there are.
An eyewitness who asked not to be named told AFP: “When people heard the explosion, they were completely panicked. The Taliban then started firing into the air to disperse the crowd at the door.”
An Agence France-Presse reporter said: “I saw a man rushing over with an injured baby in his hand.”
Earlier, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said: “We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul Airport. The casualties are not yet known. We will provide more details when possible.”
Unconfirmed reports claim that the explosion occurred at the main monastery gate of the airport, where thousands of people have gathered in the past 12 days, hoping to evacuate after the Taliban seize power.
Other reports said it was near the Baron Hotel near the gate, and Western countries had used it for some evacuation.
U.S. and allied officials said their intelligence indicated that suicide bombers associated with the Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch threatened to attack the airport before Washington’s August 31 deadline to complete the evacuation. .
Earlier Thursday in Kabul time, Western countries warned their citizens to leave the area around the airport immediately to avoid the threat of terrorism, as thousands of people tried to reach the declining number of evacuation flights.
The U.S. State Department stated: “Those who are at the monastery gate, east gate, or north gate should now leave immediately.”
British Armed Forces Minister James Shipper said on Thursday that the terrorist threat to the airport was “imminent.”
Heappey said:
The reports of the past week have become more and more credible. It poses an imminent and serious threat to life.
Most of the member states of the US-led coalition said on Thursday that they have ended or are about to end their evacuation flights from Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Since the start of international airlift on August 14, the total number of people evacuated from US-controlled hubs reached 95,700 on Thursday, including Afghans and foreign nationals.
President Biden said on Tuesday that the United States will stick to the deadline for withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan by August 31 to end the two-year war in Afghanistan led by the United States.
A spokesperson for the Taliban occupied Kabul on August 15 to stop the lightning operation against government forces, and said on Tuesday that the evacuation must end on August 31.
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