At least 15 people were killed and another 60 injured in two explosions outside the Kabul airport, where thousands of Afghan citizens were crowded trying to leave the country on international evacuation flights before the August 31 deadline. The United States and the United Kingdom had warned that there was a “high terrorist threat” at the site.
According to local Afghan media citing hospital sources, “at least 15 people” died in the two attacks and more than 60 were injured. “About 60 patients injured in the attack at the airport have reached our medical center,” the Italian NGO Emergency, which has a hospital in Kabul, reported on Twitter.
The main spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihulla Mujahid, also assured that more than 50 people were injured and taken to the nearest hospitals.
The first of the explosions It took place at 6:24 p.m. Kabul, (1:58 p.m. GMT) near one of the gates of Kabul airport, according to the Afghan news network Ariana News.
Local media released images of the place in which several lifeless bodies can be seen, as well as the injured being transferred to hospitals, after which they assure that at least the first was an explosion of great power.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed that there are americans among the victims in a “complex attack” of two explosions.
According to the spokesman, one of the explosions occurred near the Baron Hotel in the Afghan capital, near the Abbey gate of the airfield, where the other detonation occurred.
This would be the first attack to take place in the Afghan capital since the Taliban took control of the country on August 15.
At the moment The authorship or characteristics of the attack are unknown, although suspicions surround the Isis-K group (an Afghan split from the Islamic State).
“I strongly condemn the terrorist attack at the Kabul airport that killed and injured a large number of civilians. My thoughts and my prayers are with the victims and their families at this difficult time,” lamented the president of the Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah.
This event occurs while Thousands of Afghans were on the outskirts of Kabul airport in an attempt to flee of the country on international evacuation flights.
On Wednesday the US Embassy in Afghanistan issued a notice warning Americans not to approach the Kabul airport due to “security threats” outside the accesses to those facilities.
The priority is to evacuate
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that Allied forces were to continue evacuating as many people as possible from Kabul. “I strongly condemn this horrific terrorist attack. Our priority remains to evacuate as many people to safety as quickly as possible,” Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter after the two blasts.
The attacks come days before the August 31 deadline for US troops to leave the airport and the allies to complete their evacuation efforts.
Belgium and the Netherlands have already concluded their rescue operations and other countries will follow suit in the hours and days to come, despite the risk of people in distress being left behind.
The warning for a bombing at the Kabul airport
In the last hours, The United States, the United Kingdom and Australia had warned of a “high terrorist threat” at the airport. Although the place is under US control, the surroundings are patrolled by Taliban troops.
“Do not go to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport,” the British Foreign Ministry wrote on its website on Wednesday night.
“There is a high and permanent threat of terrorist attack “, He stressed, while thousands of Afghans are still crowded around the airport to try to flee the country that fell into the hands of the Taliban.
“If you are in the airport area, leave it in a safe place and wait for other instructions,” added the British diplomacy. “If you can leave Afghanistan by other safe means, do so immediately.”
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