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Kabul airport bombing attack | What we know so far

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Two back-to-back explosions were reported outside the crowded Kabul airport on Thursday evening, another went off later in the night.

Here are the key developments.

1. The Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the twin blasts outside Kabul airport.
2. The group has also released a picture of a suicide bomber that struck the crowded gates of Kabul airport, effectively shutting down the Western airlift of Afghans desperate to flee.

3. The suicide bombers attacked scores of people gathered on Thursday outside Kabul airport hoping to flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

4. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the blast has killed more than 100 people, including at least 13 US service members and 90 Afghans.

5. The US President Joe Biden has vowed to hunt down those responsible for the attack that reportedly dozens, including 13 US troops.

6. The blasts highlighted more urgency to the frantic US-led campaign to airlift people out of Afghanistan.

7. The airport blasts came as the August 31 deadline looms for the United States to withdraw its troops.

8. The US and other Western countries have already evacuated nearly 100,000 people.

9. The attack led to the worst single-day death toll for the US military in Afghanistan since 2011.

10. Biden said the US soldiers who died in the airport blasts were heroes, and vowed to catch those behind the attack. “We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” he said.

11. The US President stressed that the evacuation effort would proceed and end on schedule at the end of the month.

12. Biden also felt responsible for the death of the US service members killed on Thursday. “I bear responsibility fundamentally for all that’s happened of late,” he said.

13. The attack marked a deadly escalation of the drama unfolding at the airport.

14. The airport is the only part of the country under foreign control following the Taliban’s return to power on August 15.

15. A huge crowds have massed in the hope of being evacuated.

16. The United States expects more Islamic State attacks in Kabul and is prepared to retaliate, McKenzie told a news conference.

17. In the early hours of Friday, a huge blast was heard in Kabul. This, according to Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, was a controlled explosion by US troops destroying equipment at the airport.

18. Biden had earlier cited an “acute” terrorist threat from the regional chapter of the jihadist group.

19. The Taliban, a rival of the Islamic State, has condemned the blasts, and said they happened in an area under US military control.

20. Graphic video shared on social media showed bodies lying semi-submerged in a canal adjacent to the airport, where thousands have gathered since the Taliban takeover of August 15 hoping for a flight out.

21. The US government and its allies had raised the alarm earlier in the day with a series of advisories warning their citizens to avoid the airport.

22. Images posted on social media showed men ferrying wounded people to safety in wheelbarrows.

23. In another picture, a boy was seen clutching the arm of a man whose clothes were soaked in blood.

24. More than 95,000 Afghans and foreigners have fled Afghanistan via the US-led airlift since the hardline Taliban movement took control of the country.

25. Biden has not budged on the August 31 deadline — even as some foreign nations warned they would be forced to leave at-risk Afghans behind.

26. While IS and the Taliban are both hardline Sunni Islamist militants, they are rivals and oppose each other.

27. The Taliban have promised a softer brand of rule from their first stint in power, which ended in 2001 when the United States invaded because they gave sanctuary to Al-Qaeda.

28. Many Afghans fear a repeat of the Taliban’s brutal interpretation of Islamic law, as well as violent retribution for working with foreign militaries, Western missions or the previous US-backed government.

29. There are particular concerns for women, who were largely banned from education and employment and could only leave the house with a male chaperone during the group’s 1996-2001 rule.

30. The United States expects more Islamic State attacks in Kabul and is prepared to retaliate, said General Kenneth McKenzie, head of the US Central Command.


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