US presses on with evacuation from Afghanistan after deadly Kabul airport attack - CNN

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(CNN)The United States has vowed to continue the evacuation of American citizens and allies from Afghanistan, as US troops brace for the threat of more terrorist attacks following two deadly bombings at Kabul's airport.

Few people were at the airport on Friday, and people were not allowed to go to the main gate of the airport, according to a local journalist working with CNN. Almost five hundred yards before the main gate, the road was blocked by the Taliban with cars.

At least 90 Afghans died and another 140 were injured Thursday, an official with Afghanistan's Ministry of Health said, after suicide bombers and gunmen attacked packed crowds outside the airport.

"It was as if someone pulled the ground from under my feet; for a moment I thought my eardrums were blasted and I lost my sense of hearing," said one man who had been in the queue near the airport's Abbey Gate in the hope of getting onto one of the flights leaving the country during the final days of the airlift.

"I saw bodies and body parts flying in the air like a tornado taking plastic bags ... into the air. I saw bodies, body parts, elderly and injured men, women and children scattered in the blast site," the man, a former employee of an international development group with a US special immigrant visa, told Reuters news agency.

"It is not possible to see doomsday in this life, but today I saw doomsday, I witnessed it with my own eyes," he said.

According to the Pentagon, 13 US service members were killed and 18 others injured in the attack.

Ten Marines were among the troops killed and several more were wounded, Marine spokesman Maj. Jim Stenger said. The identities and units of those killed won't be announced until after relatives are notified, he added.

President Joe Biden plans to contact the families of the US service members who were killed in Thursday's attack, according to a senior official, who added that the White House is first working to ensure that next of kin notifications have taken place.

The assault came as the US and other Western countries were racing to evacuate their citizens and Afghan allies ahead of an August 31 deadline, after the Taliban retook control of the country.

Relatives load in a car the coffin of a victim of the August 26 twin suicide bombs, at a hospital in Kabul on August 27, 2021.

Thousands of Afghans had been gathering at the airport's gates in recent days in hopes of being evacuated. Footage posted to social media on Thursday after the explosions showed chaotic scenes of crowds trying to help the wounded amid bodies on the ground. Photos showed bloodied people being transported away from the scene in wheelbarrows.

Video shot by local Afghan journalists in the wake of the blasts, appears to show people continuing to gather near the airport perimeter despite the enormous personal risk.

ISIS in Khorasan, known as ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the attack, but provided no evidence to support the claim. US officials have said the group was likely behind the atrocity.

Speaking from the White House, Biden said evacuation efforts would not be stopped by the attack, and that he had ordered US military commanders to develop plans to strike "ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities."

"We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay," Biden said.

About 8,500 people were evacuated by the US military, and approximately 4,000 were evacuated via coalition flights, from 3:00 a.m. eastern time Thursday to 3:00 a.m. Friday, with a total of approximately 12,500 people evacuated. It's unclear how many of those evacuations took place after the attack.

That brings the total number of people evacuated via US military and coalition flights to 105,000 since August 14, and 110,600 since late July, according to the White House.

Gen. Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie, head of US Central Command, said US troops were continuing the evacuation mission at "best speed," noting there were still about 1,000 American citizens in Afghanistan.

But he said the focus right now was on the "extremely active threat streams against the airfield."

McKenzie described the threats from ISIS as "imminent," raging from rocket attacks to "vehicle-borne" suicide attacks in addition to "walk-in" suicide attackers like the assault on Thursday.

He said the US military is using attack helicopters and other manned and unmanned aircraft to defend the airport in Kabul, as well as sharing some intelligence with the Taliban for security purposes.

"They don't get the full range of information we have. But we give them enough to act in time and space to try to prevent these attacks," said McKenzie.

US officials have been warning over the past week that a threat of a terror attack at the airport was becoming more acute. Earlier on Thursday local time, US diplomats in Kabul warned American citizens to "immediately" leave several gates into the airport, citing security threats.

The risk of potential suicide attacks by ISIS-K had already led the US to establish alternative routes to Kabul airport, earlier on in the evacuation operation.

One of the explosions on Thursday happened at the airport's Abbey Gate, the main entry point to the airport; primary security there has been provided by US Marines. The area around that gate had been used for holding refugees after they passed through the Taliban checkpoints outside the airport, and before they were allowed to enter the facility.

At least one other explosion happened at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate, according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.

Baron Hotel was used by British soldiers and other allies as an evacuation handling center to process evacuees, before moving them up to the Abbey Gate. It is unclear whether international forces were still in the area when the explosion happened.

Speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper, journalist and author Matthieu Aikins said he could hear "shooting and sirens" from the airport less than an hour after the attack.

"At that point, we went back to the emergency hospital, and they were bringing the casualties in there. There was just body after body. It was a really terrible sight," Aikins said. "You have tens of thousands of people cramming in from every angle at the same time, this desperate pressure to get the American citizens and others out. So it was really truly a recipe for disaster."