US presses on with Afghanistan evacuations despite fears of more attacks

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The United States pressed on into the final days of the chaotic airlift from Afghanistan amid tighter security and warnings of more possible attacks Friday, a day after a devastating suicide bombing at the Kabul airport killed well over 100 Afghans and 13 American service members.

The US said more bloodshed could come ahead of President Joe Biden's fast-approaching deadline Tuesday to end the evacuations and withdraw American forces.

The next few days “will be our most dangerous period to date,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Thursday's bombing — blamed on Afghanistan's offshoot of the Islamic State group, a lethal enemy of both the Taliban and the West — made for one of the deadliest days in the two-decade Afghan war.

Two officials said the number of Afghans killed rose to 169, one of the country's highest death tolls in a terror attack.

The US said it was the most lethal day for American forces in Afghanistan since 2011.

The officials who gave the Afghan death toll were not authorised to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The number of dead was subject to change as authorities examined the dismembered remains.

The Pentagon also said Friday that there was just one suicide bomber — at the airport gate — not two, as US officials initially said.

As the call to prayer echoed Friday through Kabul along with the roar of departing planes, the anxious crowds thronging the airport in hope of escaping Taliban rule appeared as large as ever despite the bombing.

Afghans, American citizens and other foreigners were all acutely aware the window is closing to board a flight.

The attack led Jamshad to head there in the morning with his wife and three small children, clutching an invitation to a Western country he didn't want to identify.

“After the explosion I decided I would try because I am afraid now there will be more attacks, and I think now I have to leave,” said Jamshad, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

The names of the Afghan victims began emerging and included a news agency founder along with a number of impoverished Afghans who had gone to the airport in hopes of realising a better life.

British officials said two of the country's citizens and the child of another Briton also were among those killed when the bomb exploded in the crowd.

The Taliban have wrested back control of Afghanistan two decades after they were ousted in a US-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks.

Their return to power has terrified many Afghans, who have rushed to flee the country ahead of the American withdrawal.

More than 100,000 people have been safely evacuated through the Kabul airport, according to the US, but thousands more are struggling to leave in one of history's biggest airlifts.

The White House said Friday morning that 8,500 evacuees had been flown out aboard U.S. military aircraft in the previous 24 hours, along with about 4,000 people on coalition flights.

That was about the same total as the day before the bombing.

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