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Pentagon bracing for more attacks after troops killed at Kabul airport

Crowds of people show their documents to U.S. troops outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan August 26, 2021.

27 August 2021 06:38 (UTC +04:00)

American forces in Kabul were bracing for more Islamic State attacks while winding up their evacuation mission, U.S. officials said, as the number of U.S. troops killed in Thursday's suicide bomb attack rose to 13, APA reports citing Reuters.

A U.S. official told Reuters the number of U.S. personnel killed was likely to rise even higher. More than a dozen were wounded.

The attack marked the first U.S. military casualties in Afghanistan since February 2020 and represented the deadliest incident for American troops in the country in a decade.

At least two explosions tore through crowds that had thronged the gates of Hamid Karzai International Airport desperate to leave Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power almost two weeks ago ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden's Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw American troops after two decades.

In a statement, Islamic State claimed responsibility and said one of its suicide bombers had targeted "translators and collaborators with the American army."

Marine Corps General Frank McKenzie, head of the U.S. military's Central Command, told a news briefing the explosions were followed by gunfight. McKenzie said the threat from Islamic State persists alongside "other active threat streams."

"We believe it is their desire to continue these attacks and we expect those attacks to continue - and we're doing everything we can to be prepared," McKenzie said.

McKenzie added that future potential attacks could include rockets being fired at the airport or car bombs attempting to get in. McKenzie said he saw nothing that would convince him that Taliban forces had let the attack take place.

U.S. officials said one bomb detonated near the airport's Abbey Gate and the other was close to the nearby Baron Hotel.