- Title: 'Devastating, insane, disgusting' - New Yorkers on Kabul airport attacks
- Date: 27th August 2021
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (RECENT - AUGUST 12, 2021) (REUTERS) 9/11 NORTH REFLECTING POOL TO ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER SHOT FROM THE 80TH FLOOR OF 3 WORLD TRADE CENTER TO OVERHEAD OF THE 9/11 MEMORIAL NORTH AND SOUTH REFLECTING POOLS
- Embargoed: 10th September 2021 14:28
- Keywords: 9/11 Afghanistan Kabul New York Twin Towers World Trade Center attacks
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
- City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
- Country: USA
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,International/National Security,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA005ES22AMF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES
U.S. forces helping to evacuate Afghans desperate to flee new Taliban rule were on alert for more attacks on Friday (August 27) after an Islamic State attack killed 92 people including 13 U.S. service members just outside Kabul airport.
In New York on Friday, passersby called the situation "absolutely devastating... absolutely insane... and absolutely disgusting."
Thursday's (August 26) two blasts and gunfire took place near the airport gates where thousands of people have gathered to try to get inside the airport and onto evacuation flights since the Taliban took control of the country on Aug. 15.
U.S. and allied forces are racing to complete evacuations of their citizens and vulnerable Afghans and to withdraw from Afghanistan by an Aug. 31 deadline set by President Joe Biden.
Most of the more than 20 allied countries involved in airlifting Afghans and their own citizens out of Kabul said they had completed evacuations by Friday.
Islamic State (ISIS), an enemy of the Islamist Taliban as well as the West, said one of its suicide bombers had targeted "translators and collaborators with the American army" on Thursday.
The attack underlined the realpolitik facing Western powers in Afghanistan: engaging with the Taliban who they have long sought to fend off may be their best chance to prevent the country sliding into a breeding ground for Islamist militancy.
The number of Afghans killed has risen to 79, a hospital official told Reuters on Friday, adding more than 120 were wounded. A Taliban official said the dead included 28 Taliban members, although a Taliban spokesman later denied that any of their fighters guarding the airport perimeter had been killed.
(Production: Roselle Chen, Hussein Al Waaile) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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