Kabul Airport Suicide Blasts Kill Four U.S. Marines
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Four U.S. Marines were among scores killed in twin suicide attacks and gunfire at Kabul’s airport, U.S. officials and other sources said. Three American Marines and roughly 140 other people were injured. The blasts and gunfire erupted around Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Earlier reports said 15 people died, but the death toll reportedly rose to at least 60 people.
The two explosions ripped through crowds of Afghans trying to enter the airport on Thursday, footage showed.
Witnesses spoke of multiple fatalities among the Afghans, many of whom were trying to enter the airport because they had assisted U.S.-led coalition efforts and feared persecution by the Taliban.
One of the bombers struck people standing knee-deep in a wastewater canal under the sweltering sun, throwing bodies into the fetid water, reporters said.
Those who moments earlier had hoped to get on flights out could be seen carrying the wounded to ambulances in a daze, their clothes darkened with blood.
A U.S. official reportedly said the terror attack set off a firefight at Abbey Gate, where last night 5,000 Afghans and potentially some Americans tried to enter the airport to flee.
The Pentagon confirmed the initial explosion and a second explosion at the Baron Hotel, where Americans have gathered in the past for rescue and evacuation.
The U.S. military casualties were the highest in Afghanistan in some two years.
Thursday’s drama unfolded amid growing criticism about how the president, and commander-in-chief, Joe Biden, handles the U.S. withdrawal.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday had said that up to 1,500 Americans may still have to be evacuated, though other sources spoke of thousands of Americans.
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