Large crowds milled around Kabul’s international airport on Friday despite repeated warnings of more terrorist attacks, a day after 13 U.S. service members and at least 75 Afghan citizens died in what the Pentagon now says was a single suicide bombing rather than the two previously reported.
The window for civilian evacuations has all but closed for thousands of Afghans as many countries have either ended or are about to end airlift operations on security concerns.
President Joe Biden vowed to complete the U.S. evacuation mission in Afghanistan and pledged to go after the attackers, saying Thursday evening that “we will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down and make you pay.”
A Taliban official said 75 Afghans were killed and about 150 wounded in the airport violence, while the Associated Press quoted unnamed officials as saying at least 95 Afghans had died.
A day after Biden vowed to continue bringing Americans and their supporters out of Afghanistan beyond next week, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said he doesn’t expect “a significant military role in that effort going forward.”
Kirby also said that the U.S. will continue “muscle movements” to reduce troop numbers and destroy some equipment ahead of Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline to end the evacuation effort at Kabul’s airport. He said that the Pentagon will stop providing daily updates on the number U.S. troop remaining, citing operational security.
The U.S. continues to receive “specific credible threats,” Kirby said, adding “we certainly are prepared and would expect future attempts. We are monitoring these threats very, very specifically, virtually and in real time.” — Peter Martin and Tony Capaccio
The Pentagon also said that despite earlier reports to the contrary, there was only one explosion that rocked the perimeter of Kabul’s airport on Thursday, not two.
Army Major General William Taylor told reporters that officials now believe there was only one suicide bomber, adding that “very dynamic events” like those on Thursday often lead to some erroneous information being reported.
