By James Simons-
An explosion gas gone off outside Kabul’s airport, where thousands of people have flocked as they try to flee the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Officials offered no casualty count, but a witness said several people appeared to have been killed or wounded.
It follows a warning earlier in the day of a possible attack at the airport in the waning days of a massive airlift. Suspicion for any attack targeting the crowds would likely fall on the Islamic State group and not the Taliban, who have been deployed at the airport’s gates trying to control the mass of people.
Sources said one of the blasts took place by a hotel where British troops and journalists have been staying, followed by small arms fire, while the second one was by Abbey Gate.
The blast at the Barons Hotel, where some evacuees had been congregating, was set off by a bomber wearing a suicide vest followed by small arms fire, according to a UK defence official. The blast by the Abbey Gate was a vehicle explosion, the official said
The UK official added that Isis-K, the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, was “highly likely” to have been behind the attack. There are no UK military or government casualties.
News agencies reported multiple dead and wounded, with Reuters quoting a Taliban official as saying at least 13 people were killed.
The Russian foreign ministry described the blast was a suicide attack which had killed at least two people and wounded a further 15.
French president Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday while visiting Ireland, as a suspected suicide bomb exploded outside the airport and is thought to have killed at least 11 people.
“We are facing an extremely tense situation,” Macron told a joint news conference with the Irish prime minister Micheal Martin, calling for caution.
He said France’s ambassador in Afghanistan would not remain in the country for security reasons, adding French special forces were at the airport.
Macron said:
Nobody expected such a rapid and brutal situation in Kabul. President Biden confirmed to us during the G7 that he will leave the military airport and stop its operations with Afghanistan.
I think de facto all of us are put in a position where we cannot protect all the Afghan people we wanted to protect.
Now it is our responsibility to build additional solutions to protect them during the coming weeks and mont
Several countries urged people to avoid the airport, where an official said there was a threat of a suicide bombing. But just days — or even hours for some nations — before the evacuation effort ends, few appeared to heed the call.
Some countries have ended their evacuations and begun to withdraw their soldiers and diplomats, signaling the beginning of the end of one of history’s largest airlifts. People have gathered outside airports for days in a desperate attempt to leave the country.
Afgahns queueing outside airport before blast Image: AP
Following the explosion close to Kabul airport, the Ministry of Defence tweeted: “We are working urgently to establish what has happened in Kabul and its impact on the ongoing evacuation effort.
“Our primary concern remains the safety of our personnel, British citizens and the citizens of Afghanistan. We are in close contact with our US and other Nato allies at an operational level on the immediate response to this incident.”
Hundreds of people gathered near an evacuation control checkpoint during ongoing evacuations at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul
The Taliban have so far honoured a pledge not to attack Western forces during the evacuation, but insist the foreign troops must be out by America’s self-imposed deadline of August 31.
New warnings emerged from Western capitals about a threat from Afghanistan’s Islamic State group affiliate, which likely has seen its ranks boosted by the Taliban’s freeing of prisoners during their blitz across the country.
British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey told the BBC on Thursday there was “very, very credible reporting of an imminent attack” at the airport, possibly within “hours”.
Heappey conceded that people are desperate to leave and “there is an appetite by many in the queue to take their chances, but the reporting of this threat is very credible indeed and there is a real imminence to it”.
“There is every chance that as further reporting comes in, we may be able to change the advice again and process people anew, but there’s no guarantee of that,” he added.
Late on Wednesday, the US Embassy warned citizens at three airport gates to leave immediately due to an unspecified security threat. Australia, Britain and New Zealand also advised their citizens on Thursday not to go to the airport, with Australia’s foreign minister saying there was a “very high threat of a terrorist attack”.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied that any attack was imminent. “It’s not correct,” he wrote in a text message after being asked about the warnings. He did not elaborate.
On Thursday, the Taliban sprayed a water cannon at those gathered at one airport gate to try to drive the crowd away, as someone launched tear gas canisters elsewhere. While some fled, others just sat on the ground, covered their face and waited in the noxious fumes.
Senior US officials said Wednesday’s warning from the embassy was related to specific threats involving the Islamic State group and potential vehicle bombs. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss ongoing military operations.
The Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan grew out of disaffected Taliban members who hold an even-more extreme view of Islam. Naming themselves after Khorasan, a historic name for the greater region, the extremists embarked on a series of brutal attacks in Afghanistan that included a 2020 assault on a maternity hospital in Kabul that saw infants and women killed.
The Taliban have fought against Islamic State militants in Afghanistan. However, their advance across the country likely saw IS fighters freed alongside the Taliban’s own. There are particular concerns that extremists may have seized heavy weapons and equipment abandoned by Afghan troops who fled the Taliban advance.
Amid the warnings and the pending American withdrawal, Canada ended its evacuations as European nations did or prepared to do the same.
Danish Defence Minister Trine Bramsen bluntly warned: “It is no longer safe to fly in or out of Kabul.”
The Taliban have said they’ll allow Afghans to leave via commercial flights after the deadline next week, but it remains unclear which airlines would return to an airport controlled by the militants. Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said talks were underway between his country and the Taliban about allowing Turkish civilian experts to help run the facility.