Two bombs in and around the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul wounded or killed scores of civilians and military, late Thursday afternoon, local time. The Islamic State (IS), tagged in the West as ISIS-K, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the bombing at the airport. They provided a video of the suicide bomber that attacked the Abbey Gate at the airport and they claimed that they had killed or wounded around 160. Another bomb, thought to be a vehicle bomb, exploded at the nearby Baron hotel, with major casualties. Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie, Jr, commander of the US Central Command, said that of US military personnel, twelve were killed and fifteen wounded. Early reports said that at least sixty wounded people were being treated at a hospital emergency room. For both bombs, RT cites “local health officials” as estimating 60 dead and 140 wounded. The Wall Street Journal cites an Afghan health official, saying that some 90 Afghan civilians were killed.
ISIS-K has been, since 2015, a spinoff of the ISIS operation in Syria. The “K” refers to the Khorasan province on Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan, where the group is primarily based. They object to the Taliban, accusing them of being part of a US plot. They are thought to have been founded by Hafiz Saeed Khan of Pakistan, who was killed by a US airstrike in 2016. His deputy was a former Guantanamo detainee, Abdul Rauf Aliza, also killed in a US airstrike. Shahab al-Muhajir, reportedly from the Haqqani networks, seems to be the present leader. The United Nations estimates that they have 1,500-2,200 hardcore fighters. They have a history of summary executions of civilians, which helps them recruit the most jaded of youth. In 2020, they attacked the Kabul University compound, the Presidential Palace, and Kabul’s International Airport. Earlier this year, they attacked a school for girls. The Taliban says that they’ve cleared them out of Jowzjan, in the north, they are fighting them in the northwest, and they have captured hundreds in Jalalabad in the east.
Earlier this week, the Taliban warned the NATO alliance of an imminent terror attack upon the Karzai Airport. The Taliban’s Information Minister, Zabihullah Mujahid, made this public on Wednesday, explaining: “Over the last 20 years we have learned things and changed. We want to prove that we are not what anti-Taliban propaganda has portrayed us to be.” As a result, several European countries began wrapping up their evacuation efforts early. President Biden on Tuesday said: “The longer we stay, starting with the acute and growing risk of an attack by a terrorist group known as ISIS-K, an ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan – which is the sworn enemy of the Taliban as well – every day we’re on the ground is another day we know that ISIS-K is seeking to target the airport and attack both US and Allied Forces and innocent civilians.”
