Airport bombing came after America kept gate open for British allies
THE suicide bombing that killed 13 US troops and 170 civilians at Kabul airport last week happened after America decided to keep a gate open so British allies could evacuate, according to leaked Pentagon documents.
US defence chiefs knew an attack on the airport could be imminent and closed two other gates, but kept Abbey Gate open longer because the UK wanted to move its personnel to the airport from the Baron Hotel a few hundred yards away.
Last night, Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the defence select committee, said there appeared to be a “current of blame” that he called “unhelpful”.
He said: “It does not add up. If the US was anticipating a mass casualty event why did they still continue processing themselves?
“There is an underlying current of blame which is unhelpful. It’s a distraction from the main effort of what is happening on the ground.”
He added: “If the scale of this attack was known beforehand, all gates should have been closed as a matter of protocol and they weren’t. Which suggests either detailed intelligence was missing or huge risks were chosen to be taken anyway.”
According to the classified documents, Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, warned in a meeting 24 hours before the attack, about a potentially imminent “mass casualty event”.
He said: “I don’t believe people get the incredible amount of risk on the ground.”
At a subsequent meeting on Wednesday afternoon in Washington, the middle of the night in Kabul, a commander on the ground said he planned to close Abbey Gate by Thursday afternoon Kabul time.
But the commander said he was going to have to keep the gate open to allow British evacuees to get into the airport, after the UK decided to accelerate its drawdown from the Baron Hotel.
A senior military intelligence official told the meeting it would be “helpful” to close the gate, Politico reported.
US troops were still processing people at Abbey Gate at around 6pm Kabul time on Thursday when the suicide bomber struck. The British evacuees had not arrived at the gate by then, Politico reported.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “We have worked closely with the US to ensure the safe evacuation of thousands of people. We send our deepest condolences to the families of the American victims of the senseless attacks in Kabul and continue to offer our full support to our closest ally.”
John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, would not comment on claims based on the “unlawful disclosure of classified information”.
As the US withdrawal entered its final hours, Mr Kirby said the terrorist threat at the airport remained “real and specific”, adding: “We’re in a particularly dangerous time right now.” But he said there was “still time” for any remaining Americans to get out. He refused to say when the final plane would leave. The US has evacuated 114,000 people, including 5,400 Americans, since Aug 14. About 1,200 were evacuated from Kabul over the 24 hours to Monday.
Jen Psaki, the White House spokeswoman, said the Biden administration was still trying to determine how many Americans were left and wanting to leave by the Aug 31 deadline. She believed the number was “small”.
Ms Psaki said some of the remaining Americans had not fully decided whether to leave.
Islamic State fired five rockets at Kabul airport yesterday. They were believed to have been fired from a modified car with homemade rocket tubes in the back. Some of the rockets landed on nearby apartment buildings, one was destroyed by US missile defence systems, and the other hit the airport causing damage but no injuries.
‘It’s a distraction from the main effort of what is happening’
‘I don’t believe people get the incredible amount of risk on the ground’