At least 95 Afghans killed in Thursday's bombings in Kabul

At least 95 Afghans were killed in Thursday's suicide bombings in Kabul, according to an official. The unnamed official added that the actual death toll could be even higher as others were involved in evacuating bodies.
4 min read
27 August, 2021
Afghans and western officials have expressed concerns that another deadly attack could take place in the capital leading up to the August 31 deadline for US troops to withdraw [source: Getty]

An official says at least 95 Afghans were killed in Thursday’s

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The official said the actual death toll is even higher because others were involved in evacuating bodies.

Afghan and US officials earlier said the bombings killed at least 60 Afghans and 13 UStroops, in Afghanistan since August 2011.

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resumed with new urgency on Friday, a day after the two suicide bombings. The USsays further attempted attacks are expected ahead of Tuesday deadline for foreign troops to leave, ending America’s longest war.

Kabul residents said several flights took off Friday morning, while the anxious crowd outside the airport was as large as ever. In one location, dozens of Taliban members with heavy weapons about 500 meters from the airport were preventing anyone from venturing forward.

, back in control of Afghanistan two decades after they were ousted in a US-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks, have insisted on upholdingthe August 31 deadline.

The Trump administration in February 2020 struck an agreement with the Taliban that called for it to halt attacks on Americans in exchange for the removal of all UStroops and contractors by May; announced in April he would have them out by September.

While the USon Thursday said more than 100,000 people have been safely evacuated from Kabul, as many as 1,000 Americans and tens of thousands more Afghans are struggling to leave in one of history’s largest airlifts. GeneralFrank McKenzie, the USCentral Command chief overseeing the evacuation, on Thursday said about 5,000 people were awaiting flights on the airfield.

Yet more were arriving. Thursday's attacks led Jamshad, who gave just his one name, to come early Friday with his wife and three small children, clutching an invitation to a Western country he didn’t want to name. This was his first attempt to leave, he said: "After the explosion I decided I would try because I am afraid now there will be more attacks and I think now I have to leave.”

The scenes at the airport, with people standing knee-deep in sewage and families thrusting documents and even young children toward UStroops behind razor wire, have horrified many around the world as far-flung efforts continue to help people escape.

But those chances are fading fast for many. Some USallies have said they are ending evacuation efforts, in part to give the UStime to wrap up its evacuation work before getting 5,000 of its troops out by Tuesday.

, and the main British processing center for eligible Afghans has been closed. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News there would be “eight or nine” evacuation flights on Friday, and they will be the last. British troops will leave over the next few days.

The Spanish government said it has ended its evacuation operation. And the French European affairs minister, Clement Beaune, said on French radio Europe 1 that France will end its evacuation operation “soon” but may seek to extend it until after Friday night.

Untold thousands of Afghans, especially ones who had worked with the USand other Western countries, are now in hiding from the Taliban, fearing retaliation despite the group’s offer of full amnesty. from 1996 to 2001, when it largely confined women to their homes, banned television and music and held public executions.

But Afghans in Kabul and elsewhere have reported that some Taliban members are and going door to door in search of people who had worked with Western forces.

No one knows how effective the Taliban will be at combating the Sunni extremists of IS, who have links to the group’s more well-known affiliate in Syria and Iraq and have carried out a series of brutal attacks in Afghanistan, mainly targeting its Shiite Muslim minority.