US troops killed in Kabul attacks
Bombers, gunmen also kill 60 Afghans, injure more than 140
KABUL, Afghanistan — Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover. The attacks killed 13 U.S. troops and at least 60 Afghans,
U.S. and Afghan officials said.
The U.S. general overseeing the evacuation said the attacks would not stop the United States from evacuating Americans and others, and flights out were continuing.
Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said there was a large amount of security at the airport, and alternate routes were being used to get evacuees in.
The blasts came hours after Western officials warned of a major attack, urging people to leave the airport. But that advice went largely unheeded by Afghans desperate to escape the country in the last few days of an American-led evacuation before the U.S. officially ends its 20-year presence Tuesday.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the killings on its Amaq news channel. The IS affiliate in Afghanistan is far more radical than the Taliban, who recently took control of the country in a lightning blitz. The Taliban condemned the blasts.
In an emotional speech from the White House, President Joe Biden said the attacks would not drive the U.S. out of Afghanistan earlier than scheduled and warned of consequences for those responsible.
and endangering the lives of her children and received a five-year sentence with all but one year suspended.
Months after being arrested in the arson case, Hall filed for custody of the children and was granted it when their father didn’t respond to the court proceedings, records show. There is no indication in the court records about any actions Child Protective Services may have taken to protect the children.
But Thomas asserts that the children were taken from him and his wife’s care.
“My babies might still be alive today if they hadn’t taken them,” Thomas said.
Thomas did not specify the agency. A spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Human Services, which includes
Child Protective Services, said Wednesday that confidentiality laws prevent her from confirming the agency’s involvement in the case.
Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said previously that investigators are working with Maryland Child Protective Services as part of the police investigation, which includes the interaction between the Child Protective Services and the family after Hall set the fire.
Hall often posted about her children on social media. “My two little best friends. They perfect to me. A bond that can never be broken,” she wrote on Facebook in April.
But there had been lingering signs of trouble since the fire and the ensuing criminal case in 2018. Hall posted about her struggles on Facebook.
“In the beginning of the 2020 pandemic I found myself going back into depression,” she wrote. “I was not able to work because my family needed me at home. Every month I had supervised probation office visits. I suffer from myofacial pain syndrome. PTSD always taps me on the shoulder and triggers my anxiety.”
In court Thursday, Hall’s public defender asked the judge to order a competency hearing and requested that Hall be held in a hospital instead of jail, saying it would give her greater access to psychological care and medications.
“She is unable at this time to assist in her own defense,” Deborah Levi, Hall’s public defender, said at the hearing.
The judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation but said it must take place in a correctional facility, where Hall will remain for two weeks until the bail review hearing.
According to charging documents in the children’s deaths, police said Hall was last seen with them Aug. 19 outside of the apartment building, in the 500 block of Coventry Road. Neighbors said they heard screaming from inside the apartment on the night of Aug. 19 into Aug. 20.
Hall’s mother told police she spoke to Hall Aug. 23. She said Hall told her she was in the hospital and the children’s father was taking care of them.
The father told police that he had not seen the children. But he had seen Hall, walking in the area of North Avenue and Bloomingdale Road, “screaming and cursing at no one” and that she “appeared to be under the influence.”
After the children’s bodies were discovered, police tracked Hall down, determining she was in an Uber and possibly heading to the area of Philadelphia Road and Rossville Boulevard in Baltimore County. Members of the Regional Auto Theft Task Force located her and took her into custody.