Bombings and firefights near a British base next to Kabul airport have killed 13 US troops and at least 60 Afghans – including women and children seeking evacuation from the Taliban regime.
The attacks, which were claimed by Isis, happened as British forces were preparing to leave the Baron Hotel on the approach road to the airport, where desperate Afghans were trying to escape on the final airlifts.
Video footage from the scene showed a watery ditch by the perimeter fence filled with blood-soaked bodies and relatives searching for loved ones.
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Among the missing was Lufthar Hussein Wardak, who reached the American checkpoint hoping to get on a rescue flight.
“He called me to say that he had got through the Taliban checkpoint, and was going to the Americans,” said his sister, Meena. “He was very excited, we didn’t hear from him again and we thought his phone battery had died in the long wait.
“Then a friend of his said he was in the explosion and now we are trying all the hospitals.”
It was America’s deadliest day in Afghanistan for a decade, with Republicans saying the President Joe Biden had “blood on his hands.”
He later pledged to take revenge on the perpetrators, saying: “We will hunt you down and make you pay.”
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The carnage followed repeated warnings that local Isis affiliate, Isis-Khorasan, was planning an attack on the airport as families rushed to beat Biden’s Tuesday deadline for the total withdrawal of 6,000 international forces.
Isis claimed responsibility on Thursday night through its Telegram channel and celebrated the fact that the Taliban were among the victims.
Boris Johnson pledged to continue evacuation efforts despite the “barbaric” attack, adding that the “overwhelming majority” of those eligible had been rescued by the RAF.
The blasts took place at the Abbey Gate entrance to the airport, guarded by American forces, and at a path along a sewage canal near the entrance to the Baron 300 yards away, where people had lined up to have their applications to go abroad processed
There were also repeated bursts of shooting. The coordinated attack effectively hemmed in the crowd and troops in a narrow corridor of road, leaving no way out.
Eleven US marines and a navy medic were killed, but there were no reports of British casualties.
A number of witnesses said that, after the first bombing, the Taliban started firing in the air in an attempt to disperse the crowd. This led to confusion and further panic from the crowd.
Some, including the injured, jumped into the sewage canal.
What happened raises immediate questions about the relationship between the Taliban and other Islamist groups such as Isis and al-Qaeda present in Afghanistan.
Under the Doha Agreement, which paved the way for the western withdrawal, the Islamist group are supposed to prevent Islamist terrorist attacks.
There has been regular liaison between US and UK forces and the Taliban both at high and local level.
William Burns, the CIA director, held confidential talks with Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar earlier this week over the evacuation and security issues.
There had been a number of security alerts in the past days, a man carrying an explosive device in a bag was reported to have passed through British lines towards a US checkpoint. Despite a detailed description of the suspect, and an intense search, he was not found.
British troops from 16 Air Assault Brigade and special forces have been manning part of the area where the bombings took place. They, and troops from a number of other western states, were being replaced by Americans in the closing days of the drawdown.
Photo Credit: Getty
