Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Fri 03/29/2024 View Thu 03/28/2024 View Wed 03/27/2024 View Tue 03/26/2024 View Mon 03/25/2024 View Sun 03/24/2024 View Sat 03/23/2024
2021-08-27 Afghanistan
Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack outside Kabul airport
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

IS named one of the attackers as “Abdul Rahman al Loghari,” from Afghanistan’s Logar province. The terror group claimed he reached within 5 meters of US forces before detonating his explosives.

US officials: 11 Marines and 1 Navy medic killed in Kabul airport attack

Another huge blast heard in Kabul, Taliban say it was not an attack
[AlAhram] A huge blast rocked Kabul early Friday, hours after a deadly twin kaboom at the airport that was claimed by Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
The new blast was heard by AFP staff. It was not immediately clear what caused it, and in the absence of any administration since the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
takeover on August 15, further details were not immediately available.

Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahadid, however, tweeted that it was a controlled explosion by US forces destroying equipment at the airport and Kabul residents should not worry.

Over 100,000 evacuated from Afghanistan, US says
[IsraelTimes] The United States has evacuated more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan since August 14, the eve of the Taliban’s return to power, the White House says.

“Since August 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 100,100 people,” the White House says in a statement issued hours after Islamic State suicide bombers attacked crowds gathered outside Kabul airport hoping to flee.

US says around 1,000 Americans still in Afghanistan
[IsraelTimes] The US State Department says it is tracking roughly 1,000 American citizens whom it believes may still be in Afghanistan, as evacuation efforts proceed, despite deadly suicide attacks outside the Kabul airport.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said yesterday that some 1,500 US citizens were still thought to be in the country, but the department says today that it confirms that about 500 of them had been evacuated.

In the meantime, it says another 500 people claiming to be Americans wanting to leave have gotten in touch with the US embassy, but that it expects the majority of them would turn out not to be US citizens. Of the 1,000 Americans the department believes to be in Afghanistan, it says about 75 percent are making preparations to leave.

The local news reports as of 9:41 p.m. local time Thursday:
Kabul Airport Blasts Cause Scores of Casualties
[ToloNews] At least 60 people were maimed in two explosions close to Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
...A product, and probably the sole product, of the Southern Alliance...
International Airport in Kabul on Thursday evening, according to officials at Emergency hospital.

The blasts occurred from inside a crowd of Afghans close to the Abbey gate area who were trying to leave the country, said the US Pentagon's press secretary John Kirby.

"We can confirm that the earth-shattering kaboom at the Abbey Gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of US and civilian casualties. We can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate. We will continue to update," Kirby said.

At least 52 people were maimed in the blast near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate in Kabul airport, said Zabihullah Mujahid, a front man for the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
, adding that two explosions occurred in the area and the other blast also has casualties but the number is not yet clear.

Two US officials said at least one of the earth-shattering kabooms appeared to be from a suicide kaboom, according to a Rooters report.

A Taliban official told Rooters that at least 13 people were killed in the blast, including children, and many Taliban guards were maimed.

A US official told Rooters as many as three US service members were among those hurt, and that US casualty numbers were expected to increase, according to initial information.

At least one of the US personnel was seriously hurt, an official said.
Khaama Press adds:
Two kabooms killed four US marines, 13 civilians, and maimed over 70 more at Abbey gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday, August 26.

The first bomb is said to be among the crowd gathered to enter the airport to fly out while the second one was reportedly away from the gate.

Medical officials of the emergency hospital in Kabul said that the health condition of those maimed is critical.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow...
unconfirmed reports say that the twin explosions have killed 40 and maimed over 130 more.

Afghanistan Islamic Emirate has condemned the blasts in which civilians were targeted and said that the earth-shattering kabooms have occurred in a location manned by US forces.

The acting minister and spokesperson of AIE Zabiullah Mujahid said that they are committed to protecting the lives of the Afghan people.

ISIS has purportedly claimed the responsibility for the earth-shattering kabooms.
Al Ahram has more human interest about the aftermath of the bombs, adding:
The second blast was at or near Baron Hotel, where many people, including Afghans, Britons and Americans, were told to gather in recent days before heading to the airport for evacuation.

Denmark's last flight has already departed, and Poland and Belgium have also announced the end of their evacuations. The Dutch government said it had been told by the U.S. to leave Thursday.

But Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said some planes would continue to fly.

'Evacuation operations in Kabul will not be wrapping up in 36 hours. We will continue to evacuate as many people as we can until the end of the mission,'' he said in a tweet.

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.

Germany ends evacuation operation in Afghanistan — defense minister
[IsraelTimes] Germany has pulled all of its soldiers out of Afghanistan, with its last evacuation flight from Kabul, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer says. Germany had flown out 5,347 people since August 16, the minister says. The military evacuation mission has therefore now ended, she says.

“All soldiers, members of the foreign ministry, and federal police who have led this mission to a safe end for us on the ground have been flown out of Kabul,” she says.

France seeks to evacuate ‘several hundred’ more from Kabul
[IsraelTimes] France is still seeking to evacuate hundreds more people from Afghanistan, ahead of a looming deadline, President Emmanuel Macron says, warning of an “extremely risky” situation, in the wake of blasts around Kabul airport.

“We will do everything we can” to bring to France Afghan citizens and dual nationals who were in the French embassy, and are currently outside the perimeter of the airport in 20 buses, Macron says on a visit to Ireland.

Canada ends Afghanistan evacuation operations

Bangladesh Trying to Evacuate Afghan Students as Bombings Hit Kabul Airport
[BenarNews] Dhaka was trying to evacuate 15 of its nationals and 160 young Afghan women who had been studying at a university in Bangladesh, a diplomat said Thursday, as two suicide bombers struck crowded areas outside the international airport in Afghanistan’s capital, killing dozens.

A source with Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs who spoke on condition of anonymity said the group slated for evacuation via a chartered flight from Kabul was not affected by the bombings and still waiting in vehicles near the airport for permission to enter.

The fate of future evacuations was unclear in the aftermath of Thursday’s attacks, however.

The two simultaneous bombings hit late Thursday, hours after Western embassies urged people to leave the area due to the threat of a terror attack by the regional branch of the Islamic State group.

“We can confirm that the explosion at the Abbey Gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of U.S. & civilian casualties,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Twitter, referring to an area near the airport typically jammed with would-be evacuees.

“We can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate,” Kirby said.

Video footage from the scene showed what appeared to be dozens of corpses, and witnesses at the scene said that the blasts were followed by gunfire, Reuters news agency reported.

Taliban official Suhail Shaheen said the two explosions took place in an area managed by U.S. forces. “We strongly condemn this gruesome incident and will take every step to bring the culprits to justice,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s main spokesman, told AFP that “between 13 and 20” people were killed and 52 wounded in the twin blasts.

Twelve U.S. servicemen were among those killed, according to a Pentagon press briefing.

‘VERY CRITICAL’
Earlier, a Bangladeshi diplomat described to BenarNews efforts underway to evacuate 15 Bangladeshis and 160 Afghan students from the Asian University of Women in Chittagong who were stranded in their home country.

“They required permission from the Taliban and U.S. military to go to the airport. They don’t know when they will be able to fly, but they are trying,” Zahangir Alam, Bangladesh’s envoy to Uzbekistan, told BenarNews. He said that UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, was coordinating the attempted departure.

“The situation at Kabul airport is very critical. That’s why we are not sure when the journey will start,” Zahangir said.

As Bangladesh currently has no diplomatic mission in Afghanistan, Zahangir has been remotely coordinating evacuations, communicating directly with his countrymen from Tashkent, he said.

In Dhaka on Thursday, speaking to reporters before the bomb blasts, Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen gave limited information about the evacuation efforts.

“We are trying to bring back the Bangladeshis who are in Afghanistan. But we are not disclosing the procedures. There is a fluid situation in Kabul. That’s why we do not want to make any mistakes,” he said.

“Till now we have traced 29 Bangladeshis in Afghanistan,” a senior foreign ministry official, Mashfee Binte Shams, told reporters at the same press conference.

“Of them, about five people have already returned to Bangladesh while more 15 are waiting to go back home. Our effort to bring back the rest is underway.”
Posted by Fred 2021-08-27 00:00|| || Front Page|| [2 views ]  Top
 File under: Islamic State 

#1 Pentagon Says Only ONE Suicide Bomber Caused Blast Near Kabul Airport: “We’re Not Sure How the Report Was Provided Incorrectly” (VIDEO)
Posted by Skidmark 2021-08-27 14:13||   2021-08-27 14:13|| Front Page Top

#2 Speaking at a briefing on Friday, Army General Hank Taylor said : 'We do not believe there was a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel. It was one suicide bomber. We're not sure how that report was provided incorrectly but we do know that in the confusion of very dynamic evets like this, can cause information to sometimes to be misreported or garbled.'
Posted by Skidmark 2021-08-27 14:16||   2021-08-27 14:16|| Front Page Top

#3 Pentagon now says there was 1 explosion near Kabul airport, after initially reporting 2
Posted by Skidmark 2021-08-27 14:18||   2021-08-27 14:18|| Front Page Top

#4 Pentagon bracing for more attacks after troops killed at Kabul airport
Posted by Skidmark 2021-08-27 14:21||   2021-08-27 14:21|| Front Page Top

#5 Yeah, one bomb and 1000 rnds of Talban small arms fire, but we'll prolly never know for sure.
Posted by Besoeker 2021-08-27 14:25||   2021-08-27 14:25|| Front Page Top

15:04 Grom the Reflective
14:56 swksvolFF
14:54 M. Murcek
14:43 ed in texas
14:42 DooDahMan
14:41 swksvolFF
14:41 ed in texas
14:39 Grom the Reflective
14:38 ed in texas
14:37 Grom the Reflective
14:30 DooDahMan
14:28 NoMoreBS
14:28 DooDahMan
14:27 Grom the Reflective
14:20 USN, Ret.
14:15 Grom the Reflective
14:11 Grom the Reflective
14:08 Procopius2k
14:05 trailing wife
14:03 Frank G
14:01 magpie
13:56 DarthVader
13:40 M. Murcek
13:39 Whiskey Mike









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com