Chaos at Kabul Airport on Thursday. Thousands of people are rushing towards the entrance. Even a week after the Taliban came to power, they are still trying desperately to flee Afghanistan. The streets are full, the civilians stand close together.
In the midst of the crowd, two suicide bombers from the terrorist splinter group Islamic State Khorasan, which is hostile to the Taliban, detonate their explosive belts. More than 100 people died in the explosions around the airport, and over 140 were injured, some seriously.
Dead and many injured: Video shows explosion at Kabul airport(01:02)
Taliban condemn attack
“Suddenly there was an explosion,” an eyewitness described the terrible moment to the Afghan television station Tolo-TV. «It was clear to us that there were many people affected. People were hurled in all directions, ”he says. The injured were driven away in wheelbarrows, he also saw foreigners among the dead. It is now clear: at least 13 US soldiers are among the victims.
A Taliban fighter right at the point of the explosion told a reporter for the New York Times that the attack was probably directed against the Americans: “The situation is out of control. There are people everywhere, dead, injured. There are many dead. ” A Taliban spokesman condemned the attack.
“The situation is really dramatic”
An Afghan journalist says desperately that her husband was among the injured: “He wanted to go to the airport this morning. I begged him, but he really wanted to go and take us out of the country with his government ID. We have four children. What will happen to us here? “
Hundreds of injured people end up in the hospitals around the airport. Eyewitnesses report “endless columns of ambulance cars” that bring the wounded to the hospital. Opposite the «mirror» a senior doctor says he drove from home to the hospital as soon as he heard of the attacks. “They’re people with blast and gunshot wounds,” he said.
US secret services have been warning of a possible attack at Kabul airport for days. A former secret service agent who was stationed in Kabul said on the phone with the Times reporter: “The situation here is really, really dramatic.” (zis)