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Suicide Bombers Attack Close To Kabul Airport And Kill At Least 70 People

Suicide Bombers Attack Close To Kabul Airport And Kill At Least 70 People

ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the attack while the Taliban has condemned it.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Islamic State suicide bombers have set off a series of explosions close to Kabul's international airport.

At least 60 Afghans and 12 US troops have been killed in the twin blasts and dozens more have been wounded.

The explosives were detonated near the entry gate to Hamid Karzai Airport, where thousands of people have descended since the Taliban took control of the capital in the hope they could escape the country.

Zubair was just 50 metres from where one of the blasts happened and described the carnage that happened after.

PA

"Men, women and children were screaming. I saw many injured people - men, women and children - being loaded into private vehicles and taken toward the hospitals," he said.

Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) is the arm of the terrorist group that is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan and they have claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The group's Amaq News Agency said on its Telegram channel that a suicide bomber 'managed to reach a large gathering of translators and collaborators with the American army at 'Baran Camp' near Kabul Airport and detonated his explosive belt among them, killing about 60 people and wounding more than 100 others, including Taliban fighters'.

ISIS-K is described as 'the most extreme and violent of all the jihadist militant groups in Afghanistan'.

PA

It was established in 2015 when Islamic State had become its most powerful and recruited jihadists from both countries, especially those who defected from the Taliban who thought their own group wasn't extreme enough.

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen slammed Islamic State for carrying out an attack, adding: "We strongly condemn this gruesome incident and will take every step to bring the culprits to justice."

He said the bombings 'took place in an area where US forces are responsible for security'.

Despite the attacks at Kabul Airport, the US mission to evacuate as many people as possible will continue.

PA

US Central Command chief Kenneth Franklin McKenzie Jr said: "ISIS will not deter us from completing the mission, I can assure you of that.

"The threat from ISIS is extremely real...we believe it is their desire to continue those attacks."

Just hours before the bombs were detonated, British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey warned there was 'very, very credible' intelligence to suggest militants were planning on targeting Kabul's airport because of how many people had gathered there.

US General Kenneth McKenzie revealed they have been in talks with the Taliban to secure the location.

"We've reached out to the Taliban, we've told them you need to continue to push out the security perimeter," the head of Central Command said.

"We've identified some roads that we would like for them to close. They've indicated that they will be willing to close those roads, because we assess the threat of a suicide borne vehicle threat is high right now, so we want to reduce the possibility of one of those vehicles getting close."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News, No-Article-Matching, ISIS