Two blasts and gunfire rocked the area outside the Kabul airport Thursday evening, according to witnesses said. Video shot by Afghan journalists showed dozens of bodies strewn around a canal on the edge of the airport.
A health official and a Taliban official said the toll of Afghans killed had risen to 72, including 28 Taliban members. The U.S. military said 13 of its service members were killed.
Islamic State (ISIS), an enemy of the Taliban as well as the West, said one of its suicide bombers targeted "translators and collaborators with the American army". U.S. officials also blamed the group and vowed retribution.
US president Joe Biden has vowed to hunt down the bombers. 'We will not forgive or forget and they [bombers] will pay for it,' Biden said.
General Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said U.S. commanders were on alert for more attacks by Islamic State, 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." (Source: Reuters, headline composed by Newsroom, photo from Google search)
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