Multiple U.S. troops, Afghan civilians killed in Kabul airport attack - Axios
AT LEAST 10 American Military killed and the Pentagon sources note the toll will likely go higher as there are a number with severe injuries.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Dave Lawler, Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath
Smoke rises after two explosions outside Hamid Karzai International Airport. Photo: Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The Pentagon has confirmed that multiple U.S. troops and "a number of Afghan civilians" were killed in an attack outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Thursday. Additional U.S. troops are being treated for injuries.
What we know: The "complex attack" involved an explosion at the Abbey Gate entrance to the airport and a second explosion "at or near the Baron Hotel," Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said.
The big picture: The explosions followed warnings from the U.S. and allies about a potential terror attack near the airport, where thousands of Afghans have gathered in hopes of fleeing the country.
- The State Department on Wednesday night urged Americans not to travel to the airport and to leave immediately if they were gathered near the Abbey Gate, East Gate or North Gate. The department reiterated that warning after Thursday's explosions.
- The U.K. and Australia gave similar warnings. James Heappey, the British armed forces minister, told the BBC that the threat of a suicide attack by ISIS forces was "credible, imminent and lethal."
- The White House has stressed for several days that the possibility of an attack from ISIS-K was one factor pushing them to attempt to complete the evacuation operation by Aug. 31.
The latest: Photos shared by Afghanistan's TOLO News showed injured people, bleeding and being carried away from the blast site.
- The Taliban has reported that at least 13 people were killed and that many Taliban guards were wounded, per Reuters. About 60 people injured in the blasts have been treated at the NGO Emergency's surgical center so far, the organization said.
- The Taliban condemned the attack and claimed it took place in an area where the U.S. was handling security.
- Between the lines: The U.S. has security control of the airport itself but the Taliban is in control beyond the perimeter.
A view after two explosions reported outside Hamid Karzai International Airport. Photo: Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Thursday's attack came as President Biden was meeting with his national security team on Afghanistan in the Situation Room.
- He delayed his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, set for 11:30am ET, because those consultations were still ongoing, Axios' Barak Ravid reports.
Several NATO allies have ended their evacuation operations due to the terror threat and the need to prioritize the evacuation of U.S. troops over the coming days.
- Kirby said earlier on Thursday that the evacuation mission would continue through Aug. 31, but it's unclear whether civilians will still be able to enter the airport after Thursday's attack.
- Thousands of Afghans and hundreds of Americans are still attempting to flee. For now, Americans are being advised to stay away.
- Norway's foreign minister has said that the country will no longer be able to evacuate any civilians because "the doors at the airport are now closed and it is no longer possible to get people in."
A view after two explosions reported outside Hamid Karzai International Airport. Photo: Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Go deeper: U.S. allies scramble to leave Afghanistan
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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What will our response be? Will we beg forgiveness and ask them may we please leave your country?
We should bomb the whole country until it's just a giant parking lot. That's what we should have done to begin with.
Locate the ISIS K villages along the Pakistan border and drop some MOABs and Daisy cutters while the drones film it all.
Wait a week and then do it again.
A.F. Branco Cartoon – Surrender In Chief
Biden’s surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan has put blood on his hands. Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021.
Read More »[Deleted]
Put your money (or you) where your mouth is.
12 Marines and 1 Navy Medic dead now. Awful day for our country, Awful few weeks for our allies and citizens in Afghanistan as we cowardly abandon them.
Joe Biden is unfit to serve and must resign.
This is just horrible.
I have always dreaded that idea, but now need to accept it.
Three and a half years with Kamala Harris as President is looking acceptable in comparison. I honestly don't believe I actually said that!
Sadly, I agree.
Actually, it was 11 Marines and 1 U.S. Navy FMF (Fleet Marine Force) Hospital Corpsman. Army and Air Force have medics. Navy has Corpsmen.
It's hard to imagine this is real, a US president relying on the Taliban for security and safe passage to an airport full of US troops who are essentially surrounded and out numbered?
This administration is a complete disaster!
The President takes questions from the press the other day and his staff cuts the mic to keep a man with dementia from exposing his ailment? He hires a cabinet and staff of left wing ideologues who are fascinated with men wearing skirts and white supremacy. None of them are capable operating a lemonade stand that passes out free lemonade.
It will go down in history as the worst assembly of Morons to every occupy the White House.
All the Democrats and left can say is "But Trruuummmmppppp!!!!!!" Their battle cry is beyond pathetic.
Biden pulled that again at his pathetic press conference yesterday.
And one needs to remember that all of those morons had worked in the Obama administration. E V E R Y O N E of them.
Again I remain mystified as to how the USA could allow this to happen.
Biden's decision to pull out was apparently based on a certainty that the Afghan government and military would remain intact. That is clearly a mistake at the Biden level of decision making.
No matter how wrong Biden's decisions were, we still have the reality that the balance of our government has failed so miserably in what should have been a well-planned, well-orchestrated, safe withdrawal.
Just blows my mind that our nation —our government, our military— could be this incompetent. As CiC, Biden is responsible for all the failures but what bothers me far more than Biden's poor decisions is the apparent incompetence of the military and government machine.
My questions are rhetorical since nobody on this site could possibly know the answers. All anyone can offer are opinions and most will be based on partisan 'thinking' rather than objective analysis.
It is not the incompetence of the "machine". They were following orders. That is what I fault the "leaders" for. Self preservation over as they say 'Doing what is right'.
That makes no sense. Our machine is too complex for orders from a PotUS to translate into non-decisions made at every level. It is impossible to engage in an initiative like this without a collaboration of decision makers throughout the machine. My questions made this point. For example, how is it possible that we did not have a contingency plan in place in case the Afghan military fell flat? Did Biden order that NO contingency plans be formulated (a routine procedure)?
The "machine" is quite capable of doing just that. "Orders" are given and executed... The 'but sir' questions, suggestions and pleas are ignored and those lower on the totem pole are basically told to shut up and execute... right or wrong is immaterial, it's the orders that matter.
I simplified my set of questions @5 down to one question to make this real simple. You ignored it:
I would imagine that what's happening now is the contingency plan. Wouldn't you?
Scrambling is a pretty crappy contingency plan. I would have expected a plan that at least fortifies safe passage rather than one that relies upon the good faith of the Taliban and on the incompetence of other radical forces like ISIS-K to take timely advantage of our exposure.
I agree and yet here we are...
Perhaps this is a result of being more concerned about how "woke" or diverse an administration is as opposed to how much experience they have.
U.S. officials in Kabul gave the Taliban a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies to grant entry into the militant-controlled outer perimeter of the city’s airport, a choice that’s prompted outrage behind the scenes from lawmakers and military officials.
The move, detailed to POLITICO by three U.S. and congressional officials, was designed to expedite the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan as chaos erupted in Afghanistan’s capital city last week after the Taliban seized control of the country. It also came as the Biden administration has been relying on the Taliban for security outside the airport…
“Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list,” said one defense official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. “It’s just appalling and shocking and makes you feel unclean.”
“They had to do that because of the security situation the White House created by allowing the Taliban to control everything outside the airport,” one U.S. official said.
We are trying to evacuate people because the Taliban will kill them for helping us. We then provide a list of those people to the Taliban who helped us.This is insanity. How are people this criminally stupid allowed any sort of power?
I've been watching today's Pentagon briefing/press conference. General Hank Taylor said the opposite of what you posted, even though multiple media sources are in agreement with your comment. So ... more lies and cover-ups from Taylor.
Kirby, Biden's SoS bumbling numbskull, said that the administration will no longer be giving us daily number updates of US military, US citizens, green card holders, SIVs, etc., who, in reality will be stranded and abandoned as of August 31, 2021. More cover-ups.
It was apparently the British Embassy that left the files of Afghan employees and applicants behind.
Report: Afghan staff details left behind at UK Kabul embassy (msn.com)
Ross Wilson says he is in negotiations for both a limited diplomatic presence in Kabul and Taliban assurances that Americans and others will be allowed to come and go unimpeded. The Taliban need us as much as we will need them.
Ross Wilson says reports of US embassy closing are not true | Ariana News
Oh? These MB/FC "approved" left wing sites paint a very different picture. None mention the British Embassy.
No one mentioned the fact that 2 Britons and a UK dependent child were killed by one of the suicide bombers yet either,
Does that mean that they are alive?
I don't play the move goal posts game.
Sorry, I mistook you for a professional.
Moving on...
After being presented with 5 valid left wing sites to rebut your claim, the best comment you can make is to state that I'm not a professional. So be it, SP.
Indeed.
So sad to hear the dreadful news this morning of the souls lost in Kabul...
ditto
These are the US service members killed in the Kabul airport attack
Semper Fi Marines - Semper Fi.
Anoon six...yes their photos and their history is on the news here..
Heart breaking for all concerned and all way to young..but serving their country and helping people..thank you to them for their service...🥀🇦🇺🇺🇲
And their Corpsman.
Can you take me higher
Sorry, I don't get your meaning.
Not surprised.
We should have been gone with our Afghan friends.
My heart to those who lost their lives.. rest well my brothers and sisters, and my deepest sympathies to their families.
When I read that there were a bunch of University of Southern California students there, I wondered why anyone who does not HAVE to be in a really dangerous place want to go there.
Oooops, I saw a headline that said Southern California students and I made the mistake that it meant University of Southern California students, it was actually Cajon Valley Union School students, who went to Afghanistan with their parents for a holiday, so I suppose it was their original nation.
From what I read, the students and their parents were visiting relatives who live in Afghanistan. Here's the most current article I could find ...
So, when fucking ISIS bombs the damned Taliban in fucking Afghanistan and some Americans are killed American rightwinger blame America's President?
Talk about blaming America first! Get Outta Here!
No....just blaming Bumbling Biden, not America
WTF are you talking about? The embassy and US intelligence were screaming there was going to be a terrorist hit at the air port. Not in Kabul; not against Taliban positions; but against the airport where US troops were stationed; and Afghans seeking to flee were. There were far more valuable Taliban targets; with far more Taliban forces staged around them- say the Presidential Palace where the Taliban leaders are. This was terrorist hit against the US! The few Taliban the blast caught were collateral damage. Since they are such enemies, ask yourself how they got past rings of Taliban check points that have done such a great job of shutting down US citizens and Afghans that aided us from getting to the airport? Either the terrorists knew which check points were manned by those sympathetic to them hitting the US; or the Taliban are incompetent on the level of Joe Biden.
Anyone with a brain is blaming Biden. He has fucked this up from this withdrawal from the start. His arrogance and stupidity made our best case scenario to use Karzai Airport which is not even close to being a secure facility. He made the US Marines and those they were trying to protect an easy target; and ISIS K took advantage of it.
No one is blaming America. We are blaming the weak, incompetent, moronic Joe Biden. He is unfortunately our president; but he is damn well not "America". We are going to have to remind our allies & enemies repeatedly of that in the near future.
The left are the last ones to be telling anyone what to do. Which is it party or country? Are you going to keep a President that has damaged us at every level with every decision in power? Millions of illegal immigrants streaming across our wide open southern border; inflation; upside down unemployment and jobs numbers; higher gas prices; Covid numbers spiking all over the US; China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran pushing outwards and gaining power. The rest of the world knows Joe Biden is unfit to lead; too bad Democrats seem to have decided party will always be far more important than country.
WTF are you talking about ? Kabul covers about 400 square miles and the airport is 2 miles from downtown and the Presidential Palace.
The ISIS people were trying to get a bomb on a plane. Back up plan get as close as you can and detonate.
You need a rest dude.
So they just go lost, and had bad aim is what you are claiming?
Glad you can admit the truth; which is more than JBB is capable of. Seems you didn't comprehend his comment; but you sure as hell voted it up.
I need a rest? The left needs to get a strong dose of reality. Name one thing that I posted that isn't true. But by all means keep defending the imbecile in chief. Party over country.
Well, here we are 6 hours later and not one leftist on here has been able to rebut anything which you posted.
Remember when there was no internet?
When left and right web sites weren't just parroting their own version of the first thing someone else published?
The original stories blasted here were 3 KIA, then 10, 11, 12,13. All USMC, then a Corpsman, then 1 Army.
I prefer to see it for myself or get it directly from someone I worked with.
Or wait for a consensus that wasn't rushed to the viewers without verification.
If the Taliban were interested in "kill lists" they would not be letting 100,000 plus people leave the country.
They could have shut down the airport a week ago and forced all foreigners to walk to Pakistan.
They didn't.
This is odd.
A calculated risk by a wiser Taliban?
Don't know yet.
Stay tuned.
Isn't true or isn't the vile, hateful BS of a partisan POV?
It's one of the inalienable rights I earned. You too apparently.
Really, a personal insult?
What a waste of time....
This is what you imagine happened yesterday?
This is what happened. ISIS inAfghanistan bombed everyone, the Taliban included. That is how truly fucked up that “country” os, there aren’t 2 sides, there aren’t 3 sides, there are 50 fucking sides and they all hate each other.
29 minutes ago "we" used a drone to destroy an ISIS target.
This was ISIS in Afghanistan, yes apparently there is such a thing and they and the Taliban hate each other. This kinda shit is why we were never going to “succeed”.
My sympathies to the families of those killed.
Amen.
How about the 190 Afghani's and 3 UK citizens?
From all of the outrage about 13 fallen heroes, you would think they were the only lives that mattered