The situation in Kabul is rapidly deteriorating with an explosion taking place outside Kabul Airport after western governments warned citizens to stay away and the U.S. closed gates to the airport, citing terrorist threats. Earlier, an aircraft carrying refugees bound for Italy was shot at as it took off.
UPDATE: At least 13 Americans GIs and 47 Afhgans have perished in a pair of suicide bombings.
Kabul Airport Explosion After Transport Flight Shot At
Moments ago, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby confirmed a blast took place Hamid Karzai International Airport.
We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul airport. Casualties are unclear at this time. We will provide additional details when we can.
— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) August 26, 2021
At least 14 Americans and 46 Afghans have perished in a pair of suicide bombings.
We fear many casualties from today’s explosion at HKIA (Kabul Airport) via @TOLOnews pic.twitter.com/xD2CyeHXO4
— Saad Mohseni (@saadmohseni) August 26, 2021
This news comes after an aircraft transporting 100 refugees to Italy was shot at while taking off from Kabul Airport. No damage was reported.
Outside the airport, the scene is one of desperation three of four access points to the airport have been closed due to a specific car bomb threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), a division of ISIS inside Afghanistan. The U.S. Embassy, now operating with a skeleton staff from Kabul Airport, warned:
Because of security threats outside the gates of Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so.
U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate, or North Gate now should leave immediately.
The main entrance is still open.
Ross Wilson, Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Kabul, blamed Americans who were still present for not leaving earlier:
“People chose not to leave – that’s their business, that’s their right. We regret now that many may find themselves in a position that they would rather not be in.”
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stained there are far less than 1,000 Americans who remain in Afghanistan:
“From the list of approximately 1,000, we believe that the number of Americans actively seeking assistance to leave Afghanistan is lower, and likely significantly lower.”
Even if true, however, there are thousands of Afghans who remain stuck and are desperately trying to leave the country ahead of the August 31st withdrawal deadline. But the Taliban have said they will no longer allow Afghans to leave the country. A Taliban spokesperson confirmed:
“The road, which goes to the airport, is blocked. Afghans cannot take that road to go to the airport, but foreign nationals are allowed to take that road to the airport. We are not allowing the evacuation of Afghans anymore and we are not happy with it either.”
He added that doctors and other professionals “should not leave this country, they should work in their own specialist areas. They should not go to other countries, to those Western countries.”
Meanwhile, Britain had advised its remaining citizens to flee to the Pakistan border.
CONCLUSION
With the situation rapidly deteriorating, Americans could theoretically pull out even ahead of the August 31st deadline, which both President Biden and the Taliban have refused to extend. Plans are now underway to evacuate remaining U.S. and other western troops as the Taliban prepare to retake full control after the 20-year war.
To those still stuck and trying to get out: godspeed.
image: @saadmohseni / Twitter
Just praying everyone is OK. Damn!!
I am stunned this pathetically executed withdrawal/transition is not going smoothly. Stunned.
The question is did it wake up sleepy, creepy, slippy joe the schmoe?? How about da ho??
Didn’t creepy sleepy make a deal (pay extortion) to those new and improved cuddly Taliban until the 31st????
Maybe it was those crazy white supremicists yet again!!!
Almost all reports from people directly in Kabul are exactly the opposite of what the Biden administration is telling the American people. Although CNN is confirming Bidens account with their daily reports – things are going well and Biden has done a great job. For your information, if you can’t seem to find a new pick-up truck for sale in this country, word is there are 22,000, $200,000 Humvees available in afghanistan with the keys in them – no title needed , just take one.
I feel so bad for those Americans still in Afghanistan 🙁 Note to self if I’m ever in a similar situation to make sure to leave at least a month (or sooner) before target date. This is an instance where it’s best not to procrastinate regardless of the timeline.
What a fustercluck. With this mess, soaring inflation, border crisis and Biden’s increasing senility, this administration as it is will not last to 2024.
It won’t last until 2024; it will last until 2025, either as a Biden Administration or perhaps eventually as a Harris Admin, until noon on January 20, 2025.
Biden’s not running again. This is him clearing the desk for future US Presidents. You too should thank Biden for being willing to carry the burden of the inevitable mess and ugliness that comes from delivering on ending a long, expensive, and ultimately unrewarding military occupation long-destined for failure. I salute Biden for doing the difficult stuff, for his willingness to bear the historical and reputational burden of being the President who ended the Afghan occupation debacle that was destined for a debacle during its end (and after too).
I remember when the US didn’t negotiate with terrorists, period. And for the most part, that was a sufficient deterrent. Rarely would anyone try, because they knew what would happen if they did.
Biden – Making Jimmy Carter look like a genius since 2021.
What absolute clown.
The US has been negotiating with terrorists since well before you were born and been doing so throughout your life too.
Update – 4 US marines dead. This is what happens when you elect people who hate their country enough to put America last. Between this and the southern border, how could any sane US citizen not demand impeachment.
I trust that Joe Biden’s steady hand will see us through this minor bump in the road in Afghanistan. That is, of course, unless that same hand is distracted groping female body parts.
Sleepy Joe Biden is pathetic. guy should be transported to a nursing home ASAP.
Mint chocolate chip ice cream and in bed by seven for the Potato in Chief. Everything’s fine….nothing to see here…
And the Neanderthal is hiding in his basement while Americans are being killed.
Forget updates from CNN, Fox, CNBC since their news is always biased. Look for the source to see what this demented president did to US citizens in Afghanistan.
https://mobile.twitter.com/AsvakaNews
“It’s better to cross the line and suffer the consequences than to just stare at the line for the rest of your life”. From Paulo Coelho, who I am sure you will know and have read, Santastico.
I hate to say it, but this buffoon makes Trump look like a smart, strategic, and competent leader by comparison.
Because Trump is. For some his character flaws were too much, more important than the economy or national security. So this is what we get. But hey at least there’s no more orange man bad hurting someone’s feelings. I work in a US government organization who has been trying to get hundreds of people out. It is a TOTAL CLUSTER FUCK. It’s worse than you have been reading. Nobody is in charge. Afghan nationals who worked with us are starting to realize help is not coming. The emails are tough to read.
Yes, it’s an administrative snafu from top to bottom. The situation with Afghan SIV-eligible persons is heart-breaking, not just because of their situation for being at-risk but also because it makes clear how limited and disorganized US capabilities are. This is the kind of situation where it needs a point-person to run the show and willing to run micromanagers to break doors to get things done, but it’s not been there. And that’s on what happened to Trump’s breaking the bureaucracy and on the Biden Admin not dealing with that reality and Trump’s contribution to broken American Government.
As I’ve learned, some of the most well-connected people in and outside government can’t pull off much of anything at this point for SIV-eligible individuals who were and would be great assets for the US. And not so surprisingly this gets us to Trump-buddy Erik Prince semi-mockingly offering on-the-ground evacuations for c. $7,000 per head. SIV-eligible? State is swamped; and DHS is the mess it always is and this time too provides just another example of why DHS should never have been created and should never have been allowed to be involved in anything that was traditionally State Department territory.
There are Americans who are stuck trying to get Pakistani, Indian, Qatari, Emirati and Saudis to see if they can deliver for Americans and SIV and SIV-eligible Afghans in Afghanistan what the Biden Administration won’t.
To all the Trumpettes who have commented above: You do know that your Dear Leader negotiated the withdrawal DIRECTLY WITH THE TALIBAN in late winter 2020 (a year and a half ago), saying that the US would be out by May 1, 2021. He bypassed the Afghan government entirely, and even saw to it that 5000 Afghan prisoners were set free, some of whom are no doubt friendly to ISIS-K. You also know that ISIS-K and the Taliban are NOT good friends and they have actually fought each other. So Trump and his minions thoroughly screwed this up and once he was defeated (and YES, he lost), washed his hands of the whole deal and left the steaming pile of excrement for Biden to clean up.
Exactly.
The deal Trump made with the Taliban and some other terrorist outfits was a mess from the start and was a set-up for failure. That included its stupid firm exit date idea that Trump and Pompeo were so proud of having included, all while not really holding the Taliban to much of anything in 2020 as long as they took a sort of break from attacking US troops.
Anyone who knows this area reasonably well should know that like-minded extremists sort of come and go among like-minded groups, often even doing so along-standing familial/neighborhood ties/divisions. And so the Taliban freeing its own from Afghan prisons was also going to have the Taliban freeing the like-minded ISIS-Khorasan types and a whole bunch of others who may seem ripe to pick up and use arms for “the cause”. Trump was fine with negotiating with terrorists and giving them what they wanted as long as he thought he could have another chance for a “Nobel Peace Prize”. While Obama mocked the idea of his getting a Nobel Peace Prize, Trump has been jealous from the start and desperate to try to get that feather in his own cap, and the Trump deal with the Taliban and Haqqanis was part of that.
Here’s a bit of a window into how this situation is not an intelligence failure, not a military failure, and not even a Biden Administration failure. It was a Trump Administration set-up for a mess that was the byproduct of a pursuit for personal ambitions by Trump figures and delivered satisfaction to America’s enemies and discomfort to our allies and supporters.
Left out the link:
https://www.justsecurity.org/77801/cias-former-counterterrorism-chief-for-the-region-afghanistan-not-an-intelligence-failure-something-much-worse/
Tragically, we lost at least 16 US service members in duty to the humanitarian mission of evacuating those in need of evacuation (and the number is still subject to possibly rising further from just those already noted attacks); and it’s the worst single day casualty count in quite some time in that theater. This is part and parcel of the US reliance on the Taliban for security there, and only being able to get that by seeming to sort of sticking to the Trump withdrawal deal with the Taliban and Taliban-affiliated terrorist outfits.
Sadly, these KBL attacks mark yet another (understandable, but frustrating) excuse for a massive drawdown of what little remaining evacuation capacity by air for Afghan SIV-eligible individuals there is. Even many of the remaining Afghans who have been considered rather high-value assets for US and UK operations are going to be stuck without a chance if trying to count on flights out of Kabul airport at this point.
In a case of immense irony parceled with the risk of dealing with unreliable and immensely dangerous parties like the Taliban, the US will be counting on the Taliban and Pakistan as the best last chance to get any substantial volume of people out of Afghanistan, and that is only while the “going is still good” with the Taliban’s “cooperation” to some extent.
Ending “unwanted” public “congregations” is what the Taliban has been and remains about when it runs the show there, and that was already the desire of the day by the US and remaining foreign security capability in the place but wasn’t delivered despite the knowledge of the threat. [I am pretty sure the US and others had told people to avoid congregating at the airport and at the Baron Hotel and to remain at least 30 minutes away in non-busy areas if not willing to shelter in place.] As ending the “congregating” is just about the only way to have continuity of use of KBL as an evacuation point in the days and weeks ahead while minimizing the risk from the threat posed by ISIS-Khorasan and others — the Taliban included too — who believe that Muslims shouldn’t live in the “land of non-believers” and who want to trap as many Muslims as possible inside “the Islamic Emirate/Caliphate/State”.
Don’t be surprised to see massive convoys of vehicles and even helicopters going around Spin Boldak and having US assets there and deeper in Baluchistan seeking the assistance of the Bugtis and Marris as the last chance to get people out safely — that too with a need for reliance on the anti-Baluchi Taliban (who are the Baluchi nationalists/separatists historical enemies due to the Taliban doing the dirty business of the Pakistanis, and even less directly the Iranians, to suppress the ethno-national aspirations of Baluchis in Pakistan and in Iran). And this all while needing to forbid massive congregations at and on the way to/from exit/entrance points for the country, but probably not being able to really have that delivered easily.
There are a lot of very angry and disappointed people with how this unfolding in Afghanistan — inside Afghanistan, inside the US, but also our allies elsewhere — but this military occupation of Afghanistan was never going to end well. It’s Afghanistan, with a long and storied history of being the graveyard of those trying to exercise imperial powers. And unsurprisingly, it’s Russia and China celebrating this inevitable mess and any and everything that may make the US seem less powerful/competent and inspiring in the world.