- Title: Smoke rises from Kabul airport in explosion aftermath
- Date: 27th August 2021
- Summary: KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (AUGUST 26, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SMOKE RISING OVER KABUL AIRPORT IN THE DISTANCE VARIOUS OF MILITARY AIRPLANE FLYING OVERHEAD PLANES ON TARMAC AT KABUL AIRPORT VARIOUS OF MILITARY PLANE TAKING OFF VARIOUS OF BUILDINGS AND PLANES ON TARMAC IN THE BACKGROUND VARIOUS OF AIRPLANES IN-FLIGHT
- Embargoed: 10th September 2021 10:39
- Keywords: Kabul airport afghanistan aftermath explosion
- Location: KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
- City: KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
- Country: Afghanistan
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA001ES23DC7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Smoke could be seen rising in the distance at Kabul airport on Thursday (August 26) after at least one Islamic State suicide bomber killed 85 people including 13 U.S. soldiers.
U.S. forces helping to evacuate Afghans desperate to flee Taliban rule were on alert for more attacks on Friday (August 27).
Two blasts and gunfire rocked the area outside the airport on Thursday evening, 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, although a Taliban spokesman later denied that any of their fighters guarding the airport perimeter had been killed.
The U.S. military said 13 of its service members were killed in what it described as a complex attack.
Islamic State (ISIS), an enemy of the Islamist Taliban as well as the West, said one of its suicide bombers targeted "translators and collaborators with the American army".
It was not clear if suicide bombers detonated both blasts or if one was a planted bomb. It was also not clear if ISIS gunmen were involved in the attack or if the firing that followed the blasts was Taliban guards firing into the air to control crowds.
U.S. officials vowed retribution.
(Production: Lisa Keddie, Dina Selim) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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