Afghan evacuations restart after 85 killed in Kabul bomb attacks
PBC News: Last-ditch evacuation flights are taking off from Kabul airport, a day after twin suicide bombings on crowds trying to flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan killed at least 85 people, including 13 US service members, report agencies.
This morning, some evacuation flights resumed with queues of people seen lining up on the tarmac but there were no more crowds near the sites of the blasts, according to AFP reporters.
Britain and Spain announced their evacuation operations would end today, after Canada and Australia had already stopped their flights.
More than 100,000 people have been flown out of the country since the Taliban swept into power on 15 August.
US forces are braced for more attacks after IS said one of its suicide bombers targeted “translators and collaborators with the American army”.
US officials also blamed the group.
General Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, said US commanders were on alert for more attacks by IS, including possibly rockets or vehicle-borne bombs targeting the airport.
“We’re doing everything we can to be prepared,” he said, adding that some intelligence was being shared with the Taliban and that he believed “some attacks have been thwarted by them.”
US forces are racing to complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan by a 31 August deadline set by President Joe Biden.
He has said the United States had long ago achieved its original rationale for invading the country in 2001: to root out al-Qaeda militants and prevent a repeat of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States.
Mr Biden said he had ordered the Pentagon to plan how to strike the so-called Islamic State in the Khorasan region (ISIS-K), which has claimed responsibility.
“We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Mr Biden said during televised comments from the White House.
The US casualties in the attack, were the first in action in Afghanistan in 18 months, and were believed to be the most US troops killed in a single incident there since 30 personnel died when a helicopter was shot down in 2011.
