Rockets fired at Kabul airport amid U.S. withdrawal hit homes - The Denver Post
By: Kathy Gannon (The Denver Post)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Kathy Gannon | The Associated Press August 30, 2021 at 7:21 a.m.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Rocket fire apparently targeting Kabul's international airport struck a nearby neighborhood on Monday, the eve of the deadline for American troops to withdraw from the country's longest war after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. It wasn't immediately clear if anyone was hurt.
The rockets did not halt the steady stream of U.S. military C-17 cargo jets taking off and landing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in the Afghan capital. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Last week, the Islamic State group launched a devastating suicide bombing at one of the airport gates that killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.
The airport has been a scene of chaos in the two weeks since the Taliban blitz across Afghanistan took control of the country, nearly 20 years after the initial U.S. invasion that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But since the suicide bombing, the Taliban have tightened their security cordon around the airfield, with their fighters seen just up to the last fencing separating them from the runway.
In the capital's Chahr-e-Shaheed neighborhood, a crowd quickly gathered around the remains of a four-door sedan used by the attackers. The car had what appeared to be six homemade rocket tubes mounted in place of backseats. The Islamic State group and other militants routinely mount such tubes into vehicles and quietly transport them undetected close to a target.
"I was inside the house with my children and other family members, suddenly there were some blasts," said Jaiuddin Khan, who lives nearby. "We jumped into the house compound and lay on the ground."
Some of the rockets landed across town in Kabul's Salim Karwan neighborhood, striking residential apartment blocks, witnesses said. That neighborhood is some 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from the airport. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Five rockets targeted the airport, said U.S. Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for the American military's Central Command. A defensive weapon known by the acronym C-RAM — a Counter- Rocket, Artillery and Mortar System — targeted the rockets in a whirling hail of ammunition, Urban said. The system has a distinct, drill-like sound that echoed through the city at the time of the attack.
In Washington, the White House issued a statement saying officials briefed President Joe Biden on "the rocket attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport" in Kabul, apparently referring to the vehicle-based rocket launch that morning.
"The president was informed that operations continue uninterrupted at HKIA, and has reconfirmed his order that commanders redouble their efforts to prioritize doing whatever is necessary to protect our forces on the ground," the statement said, using an acronym for Kabul's airport.
After the rocket fire, planes continued to land and taxi across to the northern military side of the airport. Planes took off roughly every 20 minutes at one point Monday morning. One C-17 landing Monday afternoon shot off flares as it approached the airport — a defensive maneuver to protect against heat-seeking missiles and a sign that the U.S. military remains concerned about surface-to-air missiles loose in the country.
Smoke from several fires along the airport's perimeter could be seen throughout Monday. It wasn't clear what was ablaze, though U.S. forces typically destroy material and equipment they won't take with them during the evacuation.
The airport had been one of the few ways out for foreigners and Afghans fleeing the Taliban takeover. However, coalition nations have halted their evacuations in recent days, leaving the U.S. military largely alone at the base with some remaining allied Afghan forces providing security.
The White House said Monday that over the last 24 hours, the American military carried out some 1,200 evacuees on 26 C-17 flights, while two coalition flights flew out 50 others. Since the end of July, U.S. forces have evacuated some 122,300 people, the White House said.
Ross Wilson, the charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul now working out of the airport, insisted those evacuations remained ongoing in a message on Twitter.
"This is a high-risk operation," Wilson wrote. "Claims that American citizens have been turned away or denied access to HKIA by Embassy staff or US Forces are false." He did not elaborate.
The U.S. State Department released a statement Sunday signed by around 100 countries, as well as NATO and the European Union, saying they had received "assurances" from the Taliban that people with travel documents would still be able to leave the country.
The Taliban have said they will allow normal travel after the U.S. withdrawal is completed on Tuesday and they assume control of the airport. However, it remains unclear how the militants will run the airport and which commercial carriers will begin flying in, given the ongoing security concerns there.
While the Taliban have honored a pledge not to attack Western forces so long as they evacuate by Tuesday, the threat from the Islamic State's local affiliate remains a danger. The group, known as the Khorasan Province after a historic name for the region, saw some of its members freed as the Taliban released prisoners across the country during their takeover.
On Sunday, a U.S. drone strike blew up a vehicle carrying IS suicide bombers before they could attack the ongoing military evacuation at Kabul's airport, American officials said. However, the Taliban said the strike killed at least 10 people — including civilians and three children, sparking anger over the civilian casualties.
Urban acknowledged the reports of civilian casualties.
"We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life," he said in a statement.
The U.S. carried out another drone strike elsewhere in the country on Saturday; it said two IS members were killed.
On Tuesday, the U.S. is set to conclude a massive two-week-long airlift of more than 114,000 Afghans and foreigners and withdraw the last of its troops, ending America's longest war with the Taliban back in power.
However, Afghans remain fearful of the Taliban returning to the oppressive rule for which it was once known. There have been sporadic reports of killings and other abuses in the sweep across the country.
Meanwhile, a cross-border shooting across the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan killed two Pakistani soldiers, the military said. Pakistani troops "responded in a befitting manner" after the attack in the district of Bajur of the country's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said.
Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Rahim Faiez in Istanbul, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Robert Burns and Lou Kesten in Washington contributed to this report.
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C_RAM is a modified short range Phalanx which were critical in defending Bagram.
THE C-RAM WEAPONS DEFENSE SYSTEM | Daily Mail Online
It looks like R2D2
that is exactly what the troops call it!
I think they should be painted yellow to look like the minnions
Imagine some taliban or isis guy coming out of a hookah bar after sampling some of the local poppy juice seeing that......I imagine they have the same braaaaaaaaaaaaap of an a-10 ...fitting minion speak. the song of their peoples
BANANA!!!!!!
On steroids.
does it have a manual mode? meh, that looks way too heavy to tow behind my lexus. never mind, crap.
Everything is remote except for reloading it. The actual operator could be stationed in Fort Lee VA, Fort Sill OK
or a defense contractor in FL.
Don't forget Nellis AFB and Creech AFB.
The Taliban said...
I think they would go kill innocent civilians just so they could blame the atrocity on the US.
now the last flight has safely evacuated Kabul.
R2D2 was demilitarized and deliberated smashed along with 150 vehicles and a small fleet of helicopters and fixed wing planes that will never fly again.
Good article about the fallen heroes of Kabul from the Washington Examiner.
China will remember the Marines at the gate | Washington Examiner
I was never too concerned about the blackhawks or the drones , they have master kill switches that once they are parked , if the area is unsecure wipes all the software from the on board comps needed to fly the things . to reload the software all it takes is a sat connection , AND the correct codes for the sat to send the software to upload , they are not like the slicks of vietnam .
besides that , who do they have to fly them ? maybe thats why a couple few days ago the taliban was stopping afghani citizens from leaving , and admonition other countries when they said stop taking our drs , egineers and so forth , the one smart enough to learn how to use that stuff was getting out of dodge and they realized it .
As for the russians or chinese getting them , they likely had the specs before the actual equipment got in the field with the troops , all getting one will do is show its shielding capability and confirm what they likely know . The other stuff rifles , NV goggles body armor
thats all expendable and has a shelf life , rifles wear out and break , NV needs the right batteries which may or may not be available , body armor is good until it is hit once or twice then it becomes unreliable ..
The ammo , dont know if i would trust it , oiperation green dot back in VN did hell with scavangers , all it is is mixing is some rounds with the wrong powder loaded blowing up the weapon and person who uses it , that goes back to ww2 at least .
grenades , laws , shoulder missles ? all one and done and they have no replacements , lets not forget , many things that use batteries have manifacturer specific batteries and those batteries HAVE to be the correct ones or it fries whatever it is,s circuts .Example is the stinger , remember the grief that was caused when it was said the tali or al Q had some?
One part very important to the weapon takes a very maker specific battery of the right specifications , without that battery , what you have is a VN era LAW rocket on steroids that wont track or heat seek.
That doesnt mean they dont have acsess to a serious arsenal , but when the shelf lifes start running down , they might aswell have expensive clubs .
All good points.
And fixing shit isn't high on the Afghan skill set.
We contributed a lot of stuff to the recycling markets in Af'stan.
Now they can get back to killing each other with ancient rifles.
Really, you think they can't get replacement ammunition; or replacement parts for high end US guns? Gun running used to be a specialty for both the Afghan warlords and Taliban. I won't take them long to reestablish those trade routes.
Also, the Taliban are not the Afghan military. They are far better trained; and that includes rifle maintenance and operation. We left them more high end rifles than they know what to do with. They will not need to worry about spare parts for quite some time.
Underestimating the Taliban seems to be a US pass time; and we have learned nothing from history. I thought the same about Black Hawks being useless to the Taliban; until these videos.
As for hacking the Black Hawk operating systems, and getting parts to repair them; remember the Russian and Chinese are more than eager to become Taliban allies. Between the two of them I am sure they can workout the programming issue; and how to get parts and the personnel to repair them.
The only weapons the Taliban may not have a use for is the drones- which will be shipped off to Russia and China to be reversed engineered in exchange for a sizable amount of cash to keep the Taliban leaders happy.
The need for this country to put lipstick on this ugly pig that is Afghanistan is blinding us to the new threat that the Taliban is. In doing so we run the risk of making the same mistakes again in the future.
or sticks and stones
Agreed
Disagree
Pass time?
Sorry, couldn't help myself.
Sorry Ronin2, did you watch the Republic video?
It's the same undated video 20 seconds of an AH60 taxiing in a large loop at Kandahar.
Riding in one is not the same as flying the air frame.
Follow the video back to a New York Post article which says this was after several doomed efforts to get one off the ground.
The Newsweek video shows one AH60 in the air, not a great start for the new Emirates Air Force.
Note the ground crew member inspecting the bottom of the BH while in flight, lol.
I'm not sure we left any, or that we couldn't self destruct them any time they are powered up.
They were at one time in Kandahar and could have been flown out at any time. Same with the CIA base at Chapman.
We used two drones recently based outside of Afghanistan so there's no reason yet to assume we left any behind.
It's the same landlocked backwards Islamic shit hole it always was. It should be no threat to anyone for quite some time.