The evacuation mission at Kabul airport ends in death and fear of terrorism. On Thursday afternoon, a suicide bomber blew himself up at one of the airport gates. Another assassin is said to have shot with handguns. A second explosion occurred shortly afterwards in the immediate vicinity in front of a hotel that was used as a terminal building.
At least twelve US soldiers were killed and 15 others injured in the attacks, the US Department of Defense confirmed late in the evening. The BBC quoted a senior Afghan health system officer as saying that at least 60 other people had been killed and 140 injured.
The Pentagon spoke of a “complex attack”, which admittedly proceeded according to a well-known pattern: An explosion in the midst of a tightly packed crowd causes a bloodbath and causes panic, a shooter and a second explosion hit people on the run. The extremist militia Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack via the Internet service Telegram in the evening.
The US government had warned for days that IS could use the Taliban’s takeover and the situation at the airport to launch attacks. A spokesman for the radical Islamist Taliban condemned the attack.
The last machine of the Bundeswehr leaves Kabul
In the meantime, the last machine of the Bundeswehr left Kabul with refugees and soldiers on board. This ended the German rescue flights and withdrew the armed forces. A medical evacuation machine, which was kept ready to protect the German withdrawal, landed in Kabul after the attack. She contributed to the emergency care of the injured and then started with the last two German soldiers on board. After other European nations such as Belgium, Denmark and Poland have largely withdrawn, the USA is concentrating on withdrawing its units.
In shock: Wounded women on their way to the hospital in Kabul after several people died in explosions at the airport.
(Photo: Wakil Kohsar / AFP)
The presumably last day of the rescue was overshadowed by massive terror threats. Secret services had warned of suicide bombers in or at the airport. The nations involved in the rescue called on people not to come to the airport, but this did not reduce the rush at the entrances.
Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of an “absolutely vile attack in a very, very tense situation”. She promised that “those who could not be brought to safety will not be forgotten. We will continue to try to get them to leave.” By Thursday morning, the Bundeswehr had brought 5,200 people to safety, including 4,200 Afghans and 505 Germans. Merkel postponed a trip to Israel planned for the weekend due to the tense situation. It should be made up later.
The US has given assurances that its rescue operation will “not end in 36 hours,” according to a spokesman for the Department of Defense. The US military leadership is concerned that naming a specific endpoint of the mission could lead to panic and another storm at the airport. It is now questionable whether the calculation can work out after the attack. A rapid withdrawal of the USA is now expected.
British and American intelligence agencies had received information that up to twelve suicide bombers were at or even in the airport. It was feared that assassins could get on board a machine via tunnels and blow themselves up after take-off.
The US armed forces had made access to the site even more difficult because of the terrorist threat. Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer emphasized that this further restricts the “operational options we have to get people into the airport and get them onto our planes.” It was not only for this reason that aircraft that were no longer fully occupied took off from the airport.
Almost 100,000 people flown out
According to US data, almost 100,000 people have been flown out of Afghanistan since August 14, when the rescue flights began. 14,500 of the people rescued by the USA are currently at the Ramstein Air Force Base in the Palatinate. Allegedly, up to three charter flights operated by private rescue initiatives had to leave Kabul largely empty. The US believes that there could be more than a thousand of its citizens in the country.
The Taliban, meanwhile, are still keeping a low profile on how they want to organize government work. A spokesman said in an interview with the New York Timesthat it is forbidden to play music in public. Former President Hamid Karzai and the chairman of the National Reconciliation Council, Abdullah Abdullah, were also reported to have been put under de facto house arrest after Taliban militants disarmed their security escorts and confiscated vehicles.