Thursday’s bombing at Kabul airport, which killed and wounded US troops in Afghanistan, marked the worst, darkest and most tragic moment for President Joe Biden.
The bombing of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport came as the Biden government approached the deadline for the announcement on August 31, the end of the US military presence in Afghanistan.
Biden announced in April a plan to withdraw 2,500 US troops still in Afghanistan after 20 years of war and occupation, but with the fall of Mohammad Ashraf Ghani’s government on August 15 (August 24) and Taliban takeover. He was forced to send thousands more to Kabul to evacuate those at risk.
The hasty, irregular and dangerous process of evacuating people from Kabul airport has provoked a wave of global criticism in recent days, and the Biden government’s foreign, defense and security policies have been widely questioned by the international community.
Perhaps that is why CIA Director William Burns met with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul on Monday, the highest-ranking official since the Taliban took control of Kabul.
As US and allied forces gathered their equipment to evacuate in the days leading up to the evacuation deadline, the evacuation rate was inevitably slowed, and White House security, defense, and foreign policy officials were shocked by the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan. To justify and explain the dimensions of this crisis, they appeared on TV channels daily to say that Kabul would no longer be a Saigon for the United States.
The terrible silence of the White House in the first moments of the explosion.
But the Kabul airport bombing on Thursday left the White House in a state of shock, and despite moment-by-moment international, US and local media reports, the only official to confirm the blasts was ministry spokesman John Kirby. It was the defense (Pentagon) that first confirmed the explosion on its Twitter account and then announced that American forces had been killed and wounded without giving any statistics.
All of the White House’s plans were overshadowed by the blast, and Biden’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who is in Washington, was initially postponed to the next day.
Narratives of American casualties.
According to Al-Jazeera, two suicide bombers and several gunmen attacked a large crowd in front of Kabul airport on Thursday evening.
ABC News and Fox News first reported that at least three American soldiers had been wounded in the attack.
The Wall Street Journal later quoted a US official as saying that the US ambassador to Kabul had said that four US Marines had been killed and at least three soldiers wounded in an explosion at Kabul airport.
Moments later, Fox News reported that at least 10 U.S. Marines and soldiers had been killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport, and the Associated Press later reported that 11 Marines and a U.S. Navy doctor had been killed, as well as a number of U.S servicemen have been injured.
Confirmation of the killing and wounding of American troops by the Pentagon.
Finally, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, who tweeted that he had confirmed the Kabul airport bombing, said in a statement that “we can confirm that a number of US troops were killed in today’s complex attack and others were injured in the Kabul airport bombing.”
A Pentagon spokesman, however, did not say how many people were killed or injured.
The Independent reports that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has confirmed that US Marines are among the victims of a suicide bombing outside Kabul airport this evening.
“I can confirm that a brutal terrorist attack has taken place and that a number of American soldiers have lost their lives,” he said.
The commander of Centcom broke the silence of the White House.
Eventually, the White House was silenced and a press conference was held by Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, but he did not speak and handed over the reins to Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of Centcom.
McKenzie attended the meeting via video conference and confirmed that 12 US troops had been killed and 15 wounded in a terrorist attack on Kabul airport.
He added that the attacks included two suicide bombings and then the shooting of gunmen.
The commander of Centcom added: “Let me be clear, we will continue this operation while we are saddened by the loss of life, both among the Americans and among the Afghans.”
Hours later, Bill Urban, a spokesman for US Central Command (Centcom), announced an increase in the number of US dead and wounded, saying 13 US soldiers had been killed and 18 wounded in the blast.
According to the Washington Post, with 13 Americans killed on Thursday, the number of Americans killed in Afghanistan in the last 20 years has reached 2,461.
The US military was spending the last days of its presence to help evacuate diplomats, Americans and Afghans who had worked with the Americans for two decades.
ISIS took the responsibility of the blast.
Meanwhile, Politico news website reported that the explosion was carried out by ISIL outside Kabul airport.
The Associated Press also quoted a U.S. official as saying that the sophisticated attack was carried out by ISIS.
The unnamed U.S. officials told the Associated Press that the attack was carried out by two suicide bombers and gunmen.
“We are working in a dangerous environment in a country now under Taliban control,” the secretary of state said in a statement the day before the blast. The possibility of an ISIS attack is very real.
The ISIS terrorist group officially claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks at Kabul airport on its Telegram account.
