Two explosions occurred Thursday in front of the airport in Kabul (Afghanistan), killing 13 to 20 people and injuring about 60 others.
US servicemen are among the victims, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. According to the US Department of Defense, there is talk of a “complex attack” that took place in the area of the airport.
One of the explosions occurred near Abbey Gate, according to military sources. It is one of the three points of access to the airport where thousands of Afghans are thronging who hope to be evacuated to escape the Taliban regime.
“It was a huge explosion, in the middle of the crowd which was waiting in front of one of the doors of the airport”, where people enter who are being evacuated by Westerners, declared a witness of the scene, Milad.
“When people heard the explosion, it was panic. The Taliban then fired in the air to disperse the people who were waiting in front of the door, ”said another witness, who notably saw“ a man running with an injured baby in his arms ”.
France will still evacuate “several hundred Afghans”
Denouncing a “terrorist attack”, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed that the priority “remains to evacuate as many people as possible”.
France announced in the wake of the repatriation to Paris of its ambassador in Afghanistan, David Martinon, for security reasons. It had so far been at Kabul airport, where Western forces have been overseeing the evacuations of thousands of foreigners and Afghans since the Taliban took power suddenly on August 15.
Stressing that the situation remained “very risky” at the airport, President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would still evacuate “several hundred Afghans”.
In Washington, US President Joe Biden is being kept informed of post-blast developments, according to the White House.
Since the day before, the Americans and other Western countries had warned of the serious threat of “terrorist attack” in the zone of the airport, with the approach of the deadline envisaged for the withdrawal of the American forces from Afghanistan , August 31, synonymous with the departure of Western forces and the end of ongoing evacuations.