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US forces have been alerted of more ISIS attacks after at least one Islamic State suicide bomber killed 170 people including 13 US soldiers outside Kabul airport on Friday. Afghan journalists shot a video on the same which shows bodies were strewn around a canal on the edge of the airport.
A Taliban official said the total death toll rose to more than 72 members, including 28 Taliban. The US military described the attacks as ”complex” and said 13 of its service members were killed. The American casualties in the attack were believed to be the most US troops killed in Afghanistan in a single incident since 30 personnel died when a helicopter was shot down in 2011. Islamic State (ISIS) is enemies with both the Islamist Taliban as well as the West.
One of the ISIS suicide bombers targeted “translators and collaborators with the American army”. People heard two bomb blasts and a gunshot and it is yet to be known if suicide bombers detonated both blasts or if one was a planted bomb.
General Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, said US commanders have been alerted for more attacks by ISIS such as rockets or car-bombs targeting the airport. “We’re doing everything we can to be prepared,” he said.
By Aug 31, the US forces are looking to complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan, a deadline set by President Joe Biden. Biden said he had ordered the Pentagon to plan how to strike ISIS-K. “We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said from the White House.
According to British Defence, the attacks may increase as US troops’ deadline of leaving gets closer. A US Central Command spokesperson said 18 soldiers wounded in the attack were “in the process of being geometrically evacuated from Afghanistan on specially equipped C-17s with embarked surgical units”.
McKenzie said that the US will continue with evacuations despite the threat of further attacks. In fact, the evacuation flights have increased the pace on Friday and American passport holders have been allowed to enter the airport compound, according to a Western security official. They have evacuated nearly 100,000 people in the last 12 days.
Tags Afghanistan Airport Kabul
