BLOODBATH AT KABUL AIRPORT
■ 12 U.S. TROOPS AMONG AT LEAST 60 KILLED BY BOMBS ■ PM: FLIGHTS TO CONTINUE DESPITE ‘BARBARIC’ ATTACK
DOZENS of people, including US troops, have been killed and scores wounded in two bomb blasts targeting the evacuation effort in Afghanistan.
The militant group Islamic State Khorasan (Isis-K) was blamed for the explosions just outside Kabul’s heavily fortified airport.
Afghan health officials said at least 60 people had died, including children and Taliban guards, as well as 12 US troops. No British casualties were reported among at least 140 wounded.
Prime minister Boris Johnson, who chaired an emergency Cobra meeting, insisted the UK’s evacuation would continue despite the ‘barbaric’ attack that came hours after officials warned one could be imminent.
US military commander Gen Kenneth F McKenzie said a suicide bomb – detonated near the airport’s south-east Abbey gate – was followed by a gun attack and another blast close to the neighbouring Baron Hotel.
Video showed bodies on a road and
in a sewage canal. One witness, Ahmad, said he heard an explosion as he was walking to evening prayer.
He said: ‘First was the explosion, and then firing started, I mean heavy gunfire. But even far away people were running.’
The attack came amid the final days of the frantic evacuation of foreign nationals and their Afghans helpers from the airport, as allied forces prepare to leave by Tuesday.
Gen McKenzie said ‘our focus is on other extremely active threats against the airfield’ but physical security screening by soldiers was needed as the missions continues. The US ‘will go after’ those responsible, the general added.
The Taliban, who have agreed to let departures continue until Tuesday, are enemies of rival extremists Isis-K.
Mr Johnson said the attack showed the security challenges they will face after seizing back power from the elected government.
‘There were always going to be vulnerabilities to terrorism and opportunistic terrorist attacks, we condemn them,’ he added.
‘I think they are despicable, but I am afraid they are something we had to prepare for.’
But the PM insisted: ‘It isn’t going to interrupt our progress. We are going to get on with this evacuation.’
The attacks drew widespread condemnation, including from the Taliban and western nations.
Senior Taliban official Abdul Qahar Balkhi told Turkish TV: ‘As soon as the airport situation is figured out and the foreign forces leave, we will not have such attacks anymore.’
German leader Angela Merkel also said her country’s efforts would also continue. She said: ‘The terrorists were targeting people waiting outside the airport gates, hoping to leave.
‘This is an absolutely despicable attack in a very tense situation.’
Meanwhile, British transport secretary Grant Shapps issued a notice advising airlines to avoid Afghan airspace under 25,000ft.