Kabul airport attack kills 60 Afghans, 12 US troops

KABUL (AP) :

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 at least 60 Afghans and 12 US troops, Afghan and US officials said.

The US general overseeing the evacuation vowed that the United States would “go after” the perpetrators of the bombings and warned that more such attacks are expected.

“We are working very hard right now to determine attribution, to determine who is associated with this cowardly attack. And we’re prepared to take action against them,” General Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, told Pentagon reporters in a briefing. “Twenty-four-seven. We are looking for them.”

Shortly after McKenzie spoke, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the killings on its Amaq news channel. McKenzie said the attacks would not stop the US from evacuating Americans and others, and flights out were continuing. He said there was a large amount of security at the airport, and alternative routes were being used to get evacuees in. In addition to the many Afghans, the State Department estimated that there were as many as 1,000 Americans in Afghanistan who may want help getting out.

US officials said 11 Marines and one Navy medic were among those who died. McKenzie said another 15 service members were wounded. Officials warned that the toll could grow. More than 140 Afghans were wounded, an Afghan official said.

One of the bombers struck people standing knee-deep in a wastewater canal under the sweltering sun, throwing bodies into the fetid water. Those who moments earlier had hoped to get on flights out could be seen carrying the wounded to ambulances in a daze, their own clothes darkened with blood.

IS affiliate

The IS affiliate in Afghanistan is far more radical than the Taliban, who recently took control of the country in a lightning blitz and condemned the attack.

Western officials had 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 US officially ends its 20-year presence on August 31.

Emergency, an Italian charity that operates hospitals in Afghanistan, said it had received at least 60 patients wounded in the airport attack in addition to 10 who were dead when they arrived.

“Surgeons will be working into the night,” said Marco Puntin, the charity’s manager in Afghanistan. The wounded overflowed the triage zone into the physiotherapy area and more beds were being added, he said.

The Afghan official who confirmed the overall Afghan toll spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief media.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said one explosion was near an airport entrance and another was a short distance away by a hotel. McKenzie said that clearly, some failure at the airport allowed a suicide bomber to get so close to the gate.

He said the Taliban has been screening people outside the gates though there was no indication that the Taliban deliberately allowed Thursday’s attacks to happen. He said the US has asked Taliban commanders to tighten security around the airport’s perimeter.