Death toll rises after suicide hit
AT least 95 Afghans were killed in Thursday’s suicide bombings outside Kabul international airport, officials said.
Afghan and US officials had earlier said the bombings killed least 60 Afghans and 13 US troops, in the deadliest day for US forces in Afghanistan since August 2011.
The US has said further attempted attacks are expected ahead of the Tuesday deadline for foreign troops to leave, ending America’s longest war.
Kabul residents said several flights took off on Friday morning, while the anxious crowd outside the airport was as large as ever.
In one location, dozens of Taliban members with heavy weapons about 500 metres from the airport were preventing anyone from venturing forward.
Earlier, in an emotional speech in Washington DC, US president Joe Biden blamed the incident on the affiliate of the so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan (Isis-K), a far more radical force than the Taliban militants who seized power less than two weeks ago.
Mr Biden said: “We will rescue the Americans; we will get our Afghan allies out, and our mission will go on.”
But despite intense pressure to extend Tuesday’s deadline, he has cited the threat of terrorist attacks as a reason to keep to his plan.
The Taliban, back in control of Afghanistan two decades after they were ousted in a US-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks, insists on the deadline.
In February 2020, the Trump administration struck an agreement with the Taliban that called for it to halt attacks on Americans in exchange for the removal of all US troops and contractors by May 2021.
Mr Biden announced in April he would have them out by September.
While the US on Thursday said more than 100,000 people have been safely evacuated from Kabul, as many as 1,000 Americans and tens of thousands more Afghans are struggling to leave.
The White House said on Friday morning that 8,500 evacuees had been flown out of Kabul aboard US military aircraft in the previous 24 hours, as well as about 4,000 people on coalition flights. That was slightly less than the combined total for the day before the attacks.
The coalition’s evacuation flights are scaling back, and the US is scheduled to finish its evacuation operation by Tuesday.