My1sttoday: Four U.S. marines killed in kabul airport attack
Four (4) United States of America Marines were killed and three were wounded in an explosion at the Kabul airport Thursday, according to Wall Street Journal report.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby later on Thursday confirmed “a number of U.S. service members were killed” in the airport attack, though he did not provide a number on the casualties.
“A number of others are being treated for wounds. We also know that a number of Afghans fell victim to this heinous attack,” Kirby said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the loved ones and teammates of all those killed and injured.”
The U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan’s capital alerted staff of the casualties, a U.S. official told the Journal. Multiple explosions rocked the area around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Thursday, killing and wounding a number of U.S. and Afghan civilians.
The “complex attack” took place near one of the gates of the airport and led to “a number of US & civilian casualties,” and a second explosion happened near the Baron Hotel, located a short distance from the airport gate, Kirby said in a tweet.
12 U.S. Service Members Killed, 15 Wounded in Kabul Airport Attack
The airport explosion took place outside the Abby gate – the location where U.S. forces directed American citizens to go for evacuation flights – after an ISIS militant detonated a suicide vest, multiple outlets reported.
Both the Taliban and Russian government reported that 13 people had been killed in the explosions.
A Pentagon source confirmed, that evacuation flights out of the country are still running, though it is unclear whether Thursday’s attacks will alter the withdrawal timeline.
The Biden administration has repeatedly warned of looming terrorist attacks from ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), the Islamic extremist group’s Afghanistan affiliate, as thousands of people had gathered outside the airport in recent days hoping to board evacuation flights ahead of the U.S. military’s Aug. 31 withdrawal from the country.
On Tuesday, President Biden said the longer U.S. troops stay in Afghanistan, there is a “growing risk of an attack” by ISIS-K.
“Everyday we’re on the ground is another day we know that ISIS-K is seeking to target the airport and attack both U.S. and Allied forces and innocent civilians,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Wednesday warned citizens there to avoid traveling to the airfield and said that “U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate, or North Gate now should leave immediately.”
Other western nationals also warned their citizens against approaching the airport or have left altogether following the explosions. British officials told their citizens to avoid the airport due to “an ongoing and high threat of terrorist attack,” while the German military evacuated completely from Kabul. White House report reveled that over 101,300 people have been relocated from Afghanistan since July.