On Thursday, 12 US service members were killed and 15 others were injured in an attack near the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, foreshadowing a fatal turn in the US attempts to evacuate Americans and Afghan partners ahead of President Biden’s August 31 withdrawal deadline.
According to the Pentagon, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive that ripped through a throng gathering at an entry to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, where hundreds of civilians have congregated every day since the city fell to the Taliban, hoping to board flights out of the country.
According to the Pentagon, another explosion occurred near a neighboring hotel. Dozens of Afghan civilians were also said to be killed or injured.
Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, acknowledged the US death toll and stated that those responsible were “considered to have been ISIS combatants.”
Officials in the United States, including the president, have warned of a continuous threat presented by ISIS’s offshoot in Afghanistan, known as ISIS Khorasan, or ISIS-K.
The strike was one of the bloodiest single days for US soldiers in Afghanistan in the 20 years since the allied invasion.
Biden is scheduled to speak to the country about the assaults from the White House on Thursday at 5 p.m. ET.
McKenzie stated that US soldiers are “prepared to take action” against the attackers.
“Twenty-seven, we’re looking for them,” he explained.
McKenzie went on to say that he expects the assaults to continue and that the threat of further attacks remains high.
A Taliban spokesperson denounced the “heinous crime” and stated that the group “would take every means to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
As the United States races to evacuate American citizens and Afghans who assisted American soldiers throughout the war, as well as those under threat from the Taliban, Mr. Biden has cautioned that the risk to American and coalition personnel on the ground is rising by the day.
There was a terror threat at Kabul’s airport on Wednesday evening, which prompted a warning from the United States and Britain to their people.
The U.S. Embassy in the capital issued a warning to U.S. citizens to stay away from the airport and to “leave immediately.”
