No fewer than 60 Afghans, 12 United States military service personnel have been killed and 15 injured in the bomb attack at the Kabul airport while many were wounded, a US official said.
“At this time, we know that 12 US service members have been killed in the attack and 15 more service members have been injured,” Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie Jr, commander of the US Central Command, said on Thursday.
“Let me be clear, while we’re saddened by the loss of life, both US and Afghan, we’re continuing to execute the mission,” McKenzie told a media conference at the Pentagon.
“Our mission is to evacuate US citizens or third-country nationals, especially immigrant visa holders, US embassy staff and Afghans at risk,” McKenzie.
Two US officials told The Associated Press that of the 12 killed, 11 were Marines and one a Navy medic.
At present, the US has 5,800 troops at the airport in Kabul working to evacuate thousands of US citizens, Afghans and others.
The apparent suicide vest attack occurred at the Abbey Gate to the airport where US forces were screening Afghan civilians for admission to the airport, McKenzie said.
McKenzie said “ISIS gunmen” also had opened fire on the crowds and US forces after the bomb detonated.
The US military casualties are the first American deaths from hostile action since February 2020 when two Army special forces soldiers were killed in an green-on-blue insider attack by an Afghan soldier.
Eleven US service members were killed in 2020 and 24 in 2019 bringing the total of US military fatalities in Afghanistan to 2,218 since the US invaded after the September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks, according to the Defense Department.
More than 71,000 Afghan civilians and 66,000 Afghan military and police forces have been killed in the war, according to Brown University and the Brookings Institution, which have tracked the data.
Two bombs were detonated by apparent suicide bombers near the Abbey Gate to the airport where Afghans were lining up to enter the US-secured airport. The second bomb was close to the Baron Hotel where many British citizens had been awaiting evacuation.
“The impact of these blasts has been huge,” said Rossella Miccio, president of Emergency, a non-governmental medical aid group.
Emergency workers had received about 60 wounded Afghan civilians with multiple injuries of shattered limbs, fractured bones and projectile wounds and six dead, Miccio told Al Jazeera.
Responsibility for the bombings initially was being attributed to an ISIS (ISIL) group affiliate in Afghanistan, known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K), which grew out of disaffected Taliban members who hold harder-line views, an unnamed US official told The Associated Press.
“If we can find who is associated with this we will go after them,” McKenzie said.
“We are working very hard right now to find who’s associated with this.”
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on a website, according to AFP news service and in an Arabic language telegram channel reviewed by Al Jazeera identified the bomber by name.
Others cautioned against drawing conclusions about the source of the attacks.
“While it is too early to draw any conclusions about those responsible, ISIS-K had a clear motivation to disrupt our efforts to evacuate many tens of thousands of people,” Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said in a statement earlier in the day.
There had been multiple official warnings from the US and UK of a potential bomb attack on crowds trying to get into the airport.
The White House said 13,400 people were evacuated in the 24 hours that ended early Thursday morning on, US East Coast time, a substantial drop from the 19,000 airlifted by all means the day before.
President Joe Biden, who has come under criticism in the US Congress for the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan as US troops withdrew, was being briefed by his national security team at the White House on Thursday.
“As we carry out this departure, we have made it clear to the Taliban: If they attack our personnel or disrupt our operation, the US presence will be swift and the response will be swift and forceful. We will defend our people with devastating force if necessary,” Biden said on August 16 at the White House.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has expressed his condolences for the American servicemen killed in a suicide attack outside the Kabul airport.
“On behalf of the people of Israel, I share our deep sadness over the loss of American lives in Kabul,” he tweets. “Israel stands with the United States in these difficult times, just as America has always stood with us.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of the United States.”
Bennett is currently in Washington and was scheduled to meet with US President Joe Biden today, but the meeting was delayed until tomorrow, due to the attack. (ALJAZEERA)
