Kabul Airport Attack Death Toll Rises As Evacuation Flights Resume

The death toll from Thursday’s attacks on Kabul airport rose to at least 108, including 95 Afghans and 13 US troops, officials said Friday, as evacuation flights from the country resumed.

Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to the airport, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover.

The US general overseeing the evacuation said the attacks would not stop the United States from evacuating Americans and others, and flights out were continuing. General Kenneth McKenzie, head of US Central Command, said there was a large amount of security at the airport, and alternate routes were being used to get evacuees in. About 5,000 people were awaiting flights on the airfield, McKenzie said.

The blasts came hours after Western officials warned of a major attack, urging people to leave the airport. But that advice went largely unheeded by Afghans desperate to escape the country in the last few days of an American-led evacuation before the US officially ends its 20-year presence on August 31.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the killings on its Amaq news channel. The IS affiliate in Afghanistan is far more radical than the Taliban, who recently took control of the country in a lightning blitz. The Taliban were not believed to have been involved in the attacks and condemned the blasts, in which it said 28 of its fighters were killed.

In an emotional speech from the White House, US President Joe Biden said the latest bloodshed would not drive the US out of Afghanistan earlier than scheduled, and that he had instructed the US military to develop plans to strike IS.