Crowds Return to Kabul Airport After Bombings

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VOA News
August 27, 2021

Crowds of people desperate to leave Afghanistan returned to Kabul’s airport Friday as evacuation flights out of the country resumed, a day after horrendous bombings just outside the airport killed over 100 people.

At least 90 Afghans died in the attack, according to the Afghan news agency Pajhwok.  Including the 13 American servicemen, more than 100 people were killed.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks in a report on its news agency’s Telegram channel, hours after suicide bombers struck two locations along the perimeter of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, near the Abbey Gate and outside a nearby hotel. A gun battle occurred after the bombings, said U.S. General Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, during a Pentagon news briefing.

A regional offshoot of Islamic State known as ISIS-Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, has been blamed for the attacks.

U.S. President Joe Biden is vowing vengeance on those responsible.

“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive,” Biden said in a nationally broadcast address. “We will hunt you down and make you pay.”

Biden said he had ordered commanders to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities, saying, “We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose and the moment of our choosing.”

It was the deadliest day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan in a decade. That also made Thursday the most somber day of Biden’s seven-month-old presidency, prompting the last-minute postponement of Biden’s meeting with the visiting Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. During the gloomy afternoon, thunder echoed around the White House as a rainstorm enveloped Washington.

More than 100,000 people have left Afghanistan on evacuation flights, Biden said Thursday, vowing the evacuations would continue until the August 31 deadline to withdraw all troops.

“We will get Americans out who want to get out,” the president said.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

Saleh: Taliban have links with ISIS

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Massoud, Taliban Agree to Not Fight Until Next Round of Talks

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Tolo News: A member of the Taliban delegation, meanwhile, said that the Taliban wanted to discuss the issue of Panjshir, but Massoud’s supporters wanted to discuss the structure of the future government. Thus the negotiations had no tangible outcome, he said. Click here to read more (external link).

Republicans want answers on whether Ghani embezzled $169 million

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Ghani

Ariana: Committee have called for exiled president Ashraf Ghani to face criminal charges if he indeed fled the country with duffel bags full of money. Reports last week emerged that Ghani fled Kabul for the UAE just hours before the Taliban take over and took with him $169 million in cash. Click here to read more (external link).

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Biden Vows To Retaliate For Deadly Attack On Kabul Airport, Evacuations To Continue

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Joe Biden

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 26, 2021

U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to retaliate against the Islamic State group after suicide bombings outside Kabul’s airport killed at least 12 U.S. troops and dozens of Afghans, with many more wounded, just days before an August 31 deadline for foreign troops to leave Afghanistan.

“To those who carried out this attack… we will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down, and make you pay,” Biden said in televised comments from the White House on August 26.

Biden said U.S. forces would target Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), the extremist group’s Afghanistan affiliate which claimed credit for the attack, at a time and place of its choosing. ISIS-K is a rival of the Taliban.

The United States has been coordinating evacuations with the Taliban since the insurgency captured Kabul earlier this month.

The terrorist attack will not deter the United States from its mission to evacuate thousands of American citizens, allies, and at-risk Afghans from Afghanistan, Biden said.

“We will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuation,” Biden said, adding that more than 100,000 people had been taken out of the country in the past 12 days.

Biden reaffirmed an August 31 deadline for U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan, saying there was enough time in the next several days to wrap up evacuations. About 1,000 U.S. citizens are estimated to still be in the country.

He described the U.S. military members who died as “heroes who’ve been in a dangerous, selfless mission to save the lives of others.”

“They are part of an airlift and evacuation effort, unlike any seen in history,” Biden said.

The administration has been widely blamed for a chaotic evacuation after the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government and the Taliban’s takeover of the country. But the president has repeatedly defended the decision to pull troops out of Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war.

The U.S. death toll from the attacks made it the deadliest single incident for American forces in Afghanistan in a decade and one of the deadliest of the entire 20-year war. The attacks killed at least 60 Afghans.

Earlier, General Kenneth McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, said the 12 service members were killed and 15 others were wounded after two suicide bombs struck near the Abbey Gate at Kabul’s airport, where crowds of Afghans have gathered in recent days hoping to get on a flight out of the country. Gunmen also opened fire on civilians and military forces.

There also was an attack at or near the Baron Hotel near that gate.

McKenzie said U.S. forces were coordinating security with the Taliban and planned to continue evacuations despite the threat of further attacks.

Several Western allies have already finished their airlift operations ahead of the U.S. withdrawal on August 31, including Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.

ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement that one of its suicide bombers had targeted “translators and collaborators with the American army.”

The United States and its allies on August 25 had urged civilians to stay away from the airport because of intelligence suggesting ISIS-K was planning an attack.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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The Taliban wants to ‘forget what happened in the past,’ a leader tells The Times

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Zabihullah Mujahid

NYT: Although he sought to convey a much more tolerant image of the Taliban, Mr. Mujahid did confirm one report: Music will not be allowed in public. “Music is forbidden in Islam,” he said, “but we’re hoping that we can persuade people not do such things, instead of pressuring them.” Click here to read more (external link).

Turkey Resists Calls to Host Afghan Refugees

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With the Taliban in control of Afghanistan, the European Union is looking to Turkey to bear the brunt of an expected exodus of Afghan refugees heading to Europe. But Turkey is resisting the call.  Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.

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Pentagon: Explosion Outside Kabul Airport Result of ‘Complex Attack’

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VOA News
August 26, 2021

The Pentagon says an explosion Thursday at the Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport was “the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of U.S. and civilian injuries.”

“We can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Twitter.

Thousands of people have flocked to the airport in recent days trying to leave the country following the Taliban takeover Afghanistan.

A senior Taliban source confirmed to VOA that a suicide bomber blew himself up in an area outside the airport where large number of people, including women were present. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Intelligence sources told VOA there was a second explosion near the Baron Hotel, about 200 meters from an airport gate.  There were no further details.

Western governments had warned earlier Thursday of the threat of a terror attack at the airport and said those gathered in the area seeking evacuation from the country should move to a safe location.

“Because of security threats outside the gates of Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so,” the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said in a statement. “U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate, or North Gate now should leave immediately.”

Several of those wounded Thursday arrived at Kabul’s Emergency Hospital, run by an international NGO that treats victims of war and landmines. Afghan news channels tweeted pictures of civilians transporting their wounded in wheelbarrows.

British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey told BBC radio, “There is now a very, very credible reporting of an imminent attack.”

Australia’s Foreign Affairs and Trade Department also cited an “ongoing and very high threat of terrorist attack,” while Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said his government ended its evacuation operations after hearing from the United States and other sources about a possible attack.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Wednesday that the United States sees a potential threat from the Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan.

“It’s hard to overstate the complexity and the danger of this effort,” Blinken said at the State Department. “We’re operating in a hostile environment in a city and country now controlled by the Taliban, with the very real possibility of an ISIS-K attack. We’re taking every precaution, but this is very high-risk.”

The United States is pledging to continue efforts to extricate Americans, U.S. permanent residents, allies and other vulnerable Afghans, even if it means going past the end-of-the-month deadline for American forces to leave Afghanistan.

There is “no deadline in getting out Americans and Afghans who want to leave past August 31,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

“They will not be forgotten,” Blinken emphasized as he responded to reporters’ questions. “And as I said, we will use every diplomatic, economic assistance tool at our disposal to pressure the Taliban to let people leave the country.”

The White House said Thursday that since August 14, the United States has evacuated or helped evacuate about 95,700 people on U.S. military and coalition flights.

Throughout Wednesday at the State Department, the Pentagon and the White House, officials continued to rebut criticism about chaos at the gates of Kabul’s airport.

“We’re on track to have the largest U.S. airlift in history. And I think that speaks for itself,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters.

As many as 1,500 American civilians remain in Afghanistan. There were about 6,000 Americans in Afghanistan on August 14, according to Blinken, when Taliban insurgents took military control of the country and evacuations began. But since then, he said, at least 4,500 Americans have been airlifted out of the country, including 500 in the past day.

About 10,000 people hoping to escape the country are currently crammed in the airport in Kabul, according to U.S. officials who say a total of 90 U.S. military and international flights flew from Kabul in the past day.

It “will not be an American responsibility” to control security at the airport after August 31, according to Pentagon spokesperson Kirby.

VOA’s Steve Herman, Ayaz Gul, Ayesha Tanzeem and Carla Babb contributed to this report.  Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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