Biden vows retribution after 13 U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan bombing
The Islamic State attack at the Kabul airport, which included two suicide bombings, killed 13 U.S. troops and wounded 18.
“We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said in the White House speech, calling those military members who died “heroes who’ve been engaged in a dangerous, selfless mission to save the lives of others.”
Biden said military leaders were standing by their Aug. 31 deadline to exit Afghanistan, though he left open the possibility that more troops may be sent there.
American officials are bracing for the possibility of future attacks, including possible car bombs or rockets being fired at the airport, as the evacuation continues. Marine Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, chief of U.S. Central Command, said at a news briefing Thursday that the risk of an attack from Islamic State persists alongside other threats.
After an explosion at the airport’s Abbey Gate, where Americans were searching potential Afghan evacuees, gunmen opened fire, McKenzie said. Another blast later occurred at a hotel outside the airport. He attributed the attack to the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility, and indicated that U.S. military action in response is possible.
The toll of dead and wounded remained uncertain late Thursday. One person with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said 40 were killed and 120 injured. Other reports put the tally far higher. It’s unclear whether those figures included the 12 U.S. service members.
10 Marines among U.S. service members killed in attacks
Ten Marines were among the U.S. service members killed in the attacks at Kabul airport, Marine Corps spokesperson Maj. Jim Stenger said in a statement Thursday. Several more were wounded.
The identities of the Marines killed in line of duty will not be released until 24 hours after all their next-of-kin are notified, the Marine Corps said on its official Twitter account.
Thirteen U.S. troops — including two soldiers and a Navy corpsman — and dozens of Afghan civilians were killed in twin explosions at an airport gate and a nearby hotel Thursday.
Gen. David Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps, praised the service of those killed as the United States moves toward completing its evacuation mission.
“These fallen heroes answered the call to go into harm’s way to do the honorable work of helping others. We are proud of their service and deeply saddened by their loss,” he said in a statement. “As we mourn, we also keep those who are still over there protecting Americans and our Afghan partners at the forefront of our thoughts.”
“Our Marines will continue the mission, carrying on our Corps’ legacy of always standing ready to meet the challenges of every extraordinary task our Nation requires of her Marines,” he added.
“This is a solemn day for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps team,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said in a statement released earlier Thursday.
He said that the “warriors” who died in the bombings “gave their lives to save thousands of men, women and children, Americans and Afghans alike.”
“Their courage and selflessness represent the highest ideals of America,” he added.
Even before the Thursday deaths of American troops, “at no point” did President Biden consider keeping U.S. forces in the country after the Aug. 31 deadline, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a briefing.
“The President relies on the advice of his military commanders, and they continue to believe that it is essential to get out by the 31st. That is their advice,” Psaki said.
Orphans and other potential evacuees were turned away morning of attack
Buses carrying hundreds of potential evacuees, including orphans, were turned away by the U.S. military early Thursday at the Kabul airport, hours before an attack that killed civilians and U.S. troops, according to four officials familiar with the situation.
Rep. Michael Waltz (R.-Fla.) said in an interview on Thursday afternoon that he was among the lawmakers who tried to assist a privately organized group, which he said included Christians fleeing the Taliban. He said that some of the people in the group were allowed to stay, but many others, including at least some of the orphans, were turned back.
“They were literally celebrating getting inside” when they were ejected, Waltz said.
Waltz said he also had tried to assist American citizens get through the gate overnight, and that they, too, were denied.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, declined to comment.
Other officials verified Waltz’s account about the buses, including a senior Democratic congressional aide, a senior U.S. official and a second GOP aide. Those officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, described the effort as an attempt that had been coordinated with U.S. personnel inside the airport and several congressional offices.
The senior Democratic aide said that the potential evacuees had met in at least one other location and then spent hours meandering through Taliban checkpoints overnight in the buses. They arrived at the airport around dawn, with some buses allowed in, and then were “kicked out of the airport.”
More than a dozen groups formed in the past week to gather Afghan allies and push them into the airport. Their efforts included commandeering buses and contacting Qataris on the ground who could help navigate Taliban checkpoints.
The groups, which include former State Department officials, U.S. lawmakers, former intelligence officials and Special Operations veterans, circulated maps of Kabul that marked potential rally points and Taliban checkpoints.
They worked with former soldiers and Marines at the airport, who had better information about which gates were open and which were shuttered than senior State Department and Pentagon officials in Washington.
A senior U.S. official praised the efforts but warned that they had also created chaos and risk as buses waited outside the gate for up to 24 hours. The number of buses outside the airport overnight Wednesday and into Thursday morning was as high as 20, and the number of people up to 760, that official said.
“It’s truly what can be done from 6,000 miles away,” the official said. “But it obviously creates a lot of churn and confusion.”
1,000 Americans are believed to remain in Afghanistan and ‘vast majority’ want out, White House says
About a thousand Americans are believed to still be in Afghanistan, and the “vast majority” are seeking to leave, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.
The State Department said Wednesday that up to 1,500 Americans may still be looking to depart Afghanistan. About 500 of them have since been evacuated, Psaki said, leaving about 1,000 Americans in the country.
“The vast majority — over two-thirds — informed us they were taking steps to leave, and we are in touch with [them]. That is what we are working through and are focused on every single day,” she said.
She added: “We are committed to getting American citizens home and out of Afghanistan should they want to leave.”
U.S. officials have said that getting an accurate count of American citizens in Afghanistan has been complicated by the fact that some had not registered with the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that officials were “aggressively reaching out” to contacts who may be Americans seeking to leave Afghanistan. The bulk of the people whom the administration has sought to contact in the past week are dual citizens of Afghanistan and the United States.
Dozens have signaled that they wish to remain in Afghanistan, the State Department said in a statement Thursday. Biden said Thursday that some may not want to leave behind relatives. Some American citizens told the State Department that they do not plan to evacuate unless they can bring Afghan family members with them, according to a leaked recording of a call between administration officials and congressional staff members on Wednesday afternoon that was obtained by The Washington Post.
The United States has helped evacuate 104,000 people from Afghanistan in recent weeks, Psaki said Thursday. Among them, 5,000 Americans have been airlifted from Kabul since Aug. 14, according to Pentagon data.
ISIS-K, the group behind Kabul airport attack, sees Taliban and U.S. as enemies
For months, terrorism analysts warned that Islamic State-linked militants in Afghanistan would try to turn the Biden administration’s exit into a bloody spectacle.
On Thursday in Kabul, those predictions were realized.
ISIS-Khorasan, the Islamic State’s Afghanistan and Pakistan arm, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the suicide bombing attack that killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghans in an attack outside the airport.
The attack was seen by many observers as a reminder to both the Americans and the Taliban that, no matter who was in the presidential palace, Afghanistan would remain contested.
Authorities had instantly suspected the Islamic State affiliate, known as ISIS-K or ISK for short.
The group’s rivalry with the Taliban is a microcosm of the competition between al-Qaeda and its more radical spinoff, the Islamic State, analysts say. There are generational and doctrinal splits between the groups, with the Islamic State brand more popular with militants in recent years because it captured territory and created a short-lived extremist fiefdom that spanned Iraq and Syria.
In Afghanistan, with the U.S.-backed government gone from power, ISIS-K can now focus on undermining its other local enemy, the Taliban, which analysts said will be hard-pressed to stave off attacks as it struggles to secure and govern a war-weary nation.
Single suicide bomber caused deaths of service members at airport gate, U.S. commander says
An earlier version of this report, relying on information provided by the military, erroneously listed the number of Marines killed in the attacks. There were 10 Marines, not 11, among the dead.
Marine Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., commander of U.S. Central Command, said a single suicide bomber carried out the terrorist attack at the Abbey Gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday.
“We think one suicide bomber at Abbey Gate; we don’t know if it was male or female,” McKenzie told reporters, adding that officials “don’t know much about the second bomb” that was detonated near the Baron Hotel just outside the airport grounds. That includes the size of the bomb, which McKenzie said has not yet been determined.
He noted that he was not aware of any deaths among the State Department consular officers who have also been stationed near the airport gates.
McKenzie said the attacks were not a surprise.
“We thought this would happen sooner or later; it’s tragic that it happened today,” he said. “We’re prepared to continue the mission … even while receiving attacks like this.”
But McKenzie said the attack at the airport was “a failure somewhere,” given that the suicide bomber got close enough to U.S. service members to kill 10 Marines, two soldiers and one Navy corpsman. When asked whether the Taliban let the attack happen, he said: “I don’t know.”
“As long as we’ve kept that common purpose alive, they’ve been useful to work with,” he said of the militant group that controls much of Afghanistan.
He added that the military has not been able to assess whether reports of additional attacks in Kabul on Thursday were accurate. But he noted that the military is watching for threats against aircraft — even though it does not think the Islamic State has the capability to strike military planes.
“We know that ISIS would like to get after that aircraft if they can,” McKenzie said, using another name for the Islamic State. He explained that “the safety of our aircraft coming in and out is of paramount importance.”
“Really, the aircraft are the only way we’re going to get people out of there,” he added. McKenzie indicated that the charter planes that have been supplementing the U.S. military evacuations could be more vulnerable to attack than military aircraft.
A 13th U.S. service member dies and 18 are reported injured, military says
Another service member has died and three more have been reported injured after the attack on a Kabul airport and hotel, according to military officials.
On Thursday evening, the U.S. Central Command said that a 13th service member had died after the attack and that 18 had been wounded and were being flown out of the country on "specially equipped C-17s with embarked surgical units.”
“We continue to provide the best possible medical care to those injured,” said Capt. Bill Urban, a Centcom spokesman. “Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the injured and to the friends and family of those who were killed.”
Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the Centcom commander, said earlier in the day that 12 service members had died and that 15 had been injured.
Of those killed, 10 were U.S. Marines, two soldiers and one a Navy corpsman. McKenzie had said earlier that 11 were Marines and one was in the Navy.
White House defends cooperation with Taliban on securing Kabul airport
President Biden defended the United States’ cooperation with the Taliban on securing Kabul’s airport in the wake of Thursday’s deadly attack.
One of the two explosions occurred near Abbey Gate, and the Taliban was responsible for screening people who approached that gate, prompting questions about whether members of the militant Islamist group bore any blame for the attack.
Biden told reporters at the White House on Thursday that he had not made a mistake in trusting the Taliban. He said the United States had no evidence of “collusion” between the Taliban and the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the twin explosions. Biden repeatedly emphasized that the Taliban and ISIS-K, the Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan, are enemies.
“It is not what you’d call a tightly commanded, regimented operation like the U.S. military is, but they’re acting in their interests,” Biden said of the Taliban.
Those interests include curbing ISIS-K and ensuring that foreign forces leave by the Aug. 31 deadline, he said.
Biden said the United States had asked the Taliban for support in securing access to the airport, including moving back the security perimeter the group has established, stopping vehicles, and searching people seeking to make their way to the airport. Asked about reports that the military had provided the Taliban with a list of names of evacuees, Biden said U.S. forces have asked the Taliban to let specific buses and people through checkpoints, but that he was not aware of the U.S. providing a list of names.
“They’re not good guys, the Taliban. I’m not suggesting that at all,” he said, “But they have a keen interest. … They very much would like to figure out how to keep the airport open.”
Marine Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters Thursday that U.S. forces think the Taliban has thwarted attacks around the airport. He said it is unclear whether Taliban members allowed the militant who carried out Thursday’s attack near Abbey Gate.
U.S. forces have asked the Taliban to help with closing roads to prevent car bombings, McKenzie said.
A Taliban spokesperson said this week that the group would block Afghans seeking to reach the airport and asked the United States to stop encouraging Afghans to leave.
Analysis: The U.S. deal with the Taliban, explained
With the withdrawal from Afghanistan turning deadly for U.S. troops, President Biden faces new criticism for a situation that he argues presents him few options.
The deal last year that President Donald Trump cut with the Taliban forced Biden to choose between a withdrawal now or an escalation of the war, Biden said Thursday, as he addressed the nation after at least 12 U.S. military members were killed in Kabul.
He chose withdrawal.
“I had only one alternative,” he said, “to send thousands more troops back into Afghanistan to fight a way that we had already won relative to the reason why we went in the first place.”
When Biden took over, there were 3,500 U.S. troops left in the country (from a high of 100,000 during the Obama years). He pushed back the date of the planned withdrawal from May 1 to four months later, but he kept the deal intact. U.S. troops would be out of Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, he said.
The Taliban didn’t even wait for the Americans to completely leave before they took over the country in a matter of days. As the world watched Kabul fall, Biden has defended his decision not to stay and fight by saying Trump’s deal required him to either maintain the withdrawal or escalate fighting.
On Thursday, Biden credited the deal for the fact that the Taliban hadn’t attacked Americans during the withdrawal.
Critics have contended that that’s a false choice, noting how many other international agreements of Trump’s that Biden has eschewed or rewritten. But given that Biden shared the goal to withdraw, it left him little leverage to renegotiate with the Taliban.
Biden stands by Afghanistan withdrawal despite deaths: ‘It was time to end a 20-year war’
President Biden said Thursday that he stood by his decision to pull out of Afghanistan, despite the attacks outside the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service members, the first American military fatalities in Afghanistan since February 2020.
“I bear responsibility for fundamentally all that’s happened of late,” Biden told reporters after an address to the nation. He also stressed that it was former president Donald Trump who made a deal with the Taliban that all American forces would be out of Afghanistan by May 1, in exchange for a commitment that the Taliban would not attack U.S. forces.
“Imagine where we’d be if I had indicated on May the 1st I was not going to renegotiate an evacuation date, [that] we were going to stay there. I’d have only one alternative: Pour thousands and more troops back into Afghanistan to fight a war that we had already won relative [to] why … we went in the first place,” Biden said.
The president did not rule out the possibility of sending more American troops to ensure the safety of Americans helping with the evacuation efforts.
“I’ve instructed the military whatever they need, if they need additional force, I will grant it,” he said, adding that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other commanders on the field have conveyed to him that they will evacuate as many people as possible within the established time frame.
Earlier this week the president had reaffirmed his intent to complete the evacuation mission by that date, but he said he had ordered contingency plans if that cannot be accomplished.
Biden added that despite the violent attacks Thursday, American troops will continue to get people out and that after the exit deadline, there would be “numerous” opportunities to help those who want to leave Afghanistan, including through cooperation with the Taliban.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters later that it would not be possible for every Afghan who wants to leave Afghanistan and Taliban rule to be removed.
Noting that al-Qaeda was reemerging, Biden added that terrorism has “metastasized around the world,” with greater threats coming out of countries where the United States did not have military encampments.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it was time to end a 20-year war,” he said.
Biden to those who carried out Kabul attacks: ‘We will hunt you down and make you pay’
President Biden on Thursday promised retribution against terrorists who carried out an attack outside the Kabul airport that killed 12 U.S. service members and dozens of civilians.
“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said in an address to the nation Thursday evening. “I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command.”
Biden said he had ordered his commanders to develop operational plans to strike key assets, leadership and facilities of the Islamic State terrorist group in Afghanistan, which he said had been planning a complex set of attacks on U.S. personnel in recent weeks.
“We will respond with force and precision at our time, at a place we choose, in a moment of our choosing,” Biden said. “These ISIS terrorists will not win. We will rescue the Americans and we will get our Afghan allies and our mission will go on. America will not be intimidated.”
Biden also called the fallen U.S. service members heroes and vowed to continue evacuation efforts.
“These American service members who gave their lives … they were heroes — heroes who have been engaged in a dangerous, selfless mission to save the lives of others,” Biden said. “They are part of an airlift and evacuation effort, unlike any seen in history. … They are part of the bravest, most capable, the most selfless military on the face of the Earth.”
Coalition forces use a controlled detonation at the Kabul airport
A controlled demolition by coalition forces took place at the Kabul airport Thursday after the deadly attack, a defense official said, putting residents and evacuees at further unease.
It is unclear what the controlled detonation was for. Troops will sometimes destroy equipment in a withdrawal if they can’t take it with them, or will obliterate damaged equipment if it contains classified components.
Controlled detonations are also used to destroy unexploded ordnance such as rockets and suicide bombs. The attacker, who officials described as an Islamic State militant, used a suicide vest with explosives to kill at least 12 U.S. troops and wound 15 more, McKenzie said in a news conference.
At least 60 Afghan civilians were killed, according to the Associated Press.
ISIS claims responsibility for attack
The Islamic State took responsibility for the attack in a statement Thursday evening.
The statement, verified and shared by SITE Intelligence Group, said an Islamic State adherent penetrated security barriers around the airport, dived into a large crowd of American forces and civilians, and detonated an explosive belt.
A separate statement released by the Islamic State-affiliated Amaq News Agency purported to show a photo of the attacker standing in front of a black Islamic State flag.
Taliban has ‘thwarted’ other attacks, U.S. commander says
Marine Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters Thursday that U.S. forces have relied on Taliban militants to monitor threats and in some cases thwart attacks, comments that came after an explosion that killed at least 12 U.S. troops.
While U.S. helicopters, drones and other aircraft are used to monitor crowds and search for potential attackers, such as the Islamic State militant who struck Thursday outside the Kabul airport, McKenzie said, one of the last rings of security is in the hands of the Taliban, which has set up perimeters and checkpoints outside the airport.
U.S. forces have shared threat assessments and other curated information with Taliban leaders, McKenzie said.
“We believe attacks have been thwarted by them,” he said, but he added that it is unclear whether Taliban members allowed the militant near Abbey Gate, where the attack occurred. One of the Taliban’s responsibilities is to filter people who approach the gate.
In response to the attack, U.S. forces have sought the Taliban’s assistance to close roads to forestall any car bombings, McKenzie said.
Officials are investigating how the airport attack unfolded even as U.S. troops prioritized putting distance between civilians trying to enter through the gate and where they operate.
While the attacker didn’t breach the gate, service members are in an inherently dangerous and close position because they have to search every potential evacuee, McKenzie said.
“This is close-up work. The breath of the person you are searching is upon you,” he said. “While we have overwatch in place, we still have to touch the clothes of the person coming in. I think you can all appreciate the courage and dedication that is necessary to do this job, and to do it time after time.”
Images of gruesome scenes emerge outside Kabul airport
Within seconds, Thursday’s bomb attack transformed a canal that flowed by the blast walls of Kabul’s international airport into a graveyard, according to a video of the aftermath that was posted to social media. In one section, twisted bodies, mostly of young men, lay piled atop each other, some faces frozen in agony.
In another section, bodies were partly submerged in the water. One man tried to pick up an unconscious youth, calling him as “bacha” — child. Nearby, the wounded, their faces bloodied, were being helped up by those physically untouched by the blast.
Moments before, the victims all shared something in common: a desire to leave their country and the uncertainty of life under the Taliban. They had waited for hours, perhaps days, for an opportunity to enter the airport through Abbey Gate, controlled by American forces. They were young and old, women and men, children and babies.
At least 13 people were killed in the explosions, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. It was unclear whether the U.S. service members killed were included in the death toll.
Those who survived the twin bombing, depicted in videos and photos posted on social media, managed to stagger away, their bodies covered in blood. Some were rolled away in wheelbarrows and taken to emergency wards, already crowded with patients, where crowds gathered to learn of the fates of their loved ones.
“Our hospital in Kabul was already 80% full before the explosions. Now we added extra beds to admit wounded people coming from the airport in life-threatening conditions,” said Rosella Miccio, the head of Emergency, a medical charity that helps victims of war, in a statement the group posted to Twitter.
In a separate statement, the organization quoted a medical coordinator at its hospital in Kabul describing the scenes he witnessed there.
“Those who arrived could not speak, many were terrified, their eyes totally lost in emptiness, their gaze blank,” the coordinator, identified as Alberto, was quoted as saying. “Rarely have we seen such a situation.”
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