US vows revenge after ISIS suicide attack, Scott Morrison condemns evil ISIS attacks
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia condemned the “evil, calculated and inhuman” suicide bomber attacks in Kabul. WARNING: Graphic
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia condemned the “evil, the calculated and inhuman” suicide bombings that have killed dozens of US soldiers and civilians at Kabul Airport.
Mr Morrison said he had written to US President Joe Biden to share Australia’s sympathy over the loss of the US Marines.
“We are mindful of the reported 13 US military personnel who were murdered at the Abbey Gate at Kabul, a gate at which Australian personnel stood just hours before. Unlike Australians who have been at that same airport and at that same gate and many others like it, over the course of these operations, these brave young Americans stood at that gate to protect life, to save life - but lost their own in providing a pathway to freedom for others,” the Prime Minister said from Canberra.
He revealed the evacuations of Australians in Afghanistan had been completed.
“We were able to ensure the departure of the remaining Australian personnel over the course of last night. Not that long before the terrible events that unfolded last night took place. I want to commend all of those who were part of that operation on the ground, be they wearing uniforms all be they civilians in a public service.”
Australian troops involved in joint evacuation efforts in Afghanistan had been at the site of a deadly explosion just hours before it had happened, Mr Morrison said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said at this stage it could not be confirmed whether Australians were among the estimated 90 civilians killed in the blasts.
Mr Morrison said Australian personnel had stood at Abbey Gate “just hours before” the attack occurred.
“They have fallen in a very worthy cause and to all of those in Afghanistan, suffering as they are now, suffering as they have for so long and particularly suffering as a result of this most recent attack, we extend our deepest sympathies.
“We thank the United States and the United Kingdom also. The sacrifice of those young Americans was a part of a broader effort over the course of these many days now, that has enabled Australia to engage in one of the most significant evacuations that we have ever taken part in.”
BIDEN PROMISES REVENGE
US President Joe Biden has vowed to exact revenge on ISIS after it killed 12 American soldiers and at least 90 civilians in Afghanistan, leaving several others seriously injured.
Two suicide bombings wreaked havoc at the Kabul airport – including at the airport’s Abbey Gate and at a hotel outside – as thousands of people gathered to flee the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.
The Wall Street Journal reports that at least 90 civilians lost their lives in the blasts and a further 15 US service members were injured, in what is being described as the deadliest day for the US military in Afghanistan since 2011.
Addressing ISIS – who carried out the attack – Mr Biden said: “We will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down and make you pay”.
Mr Biden confirmed the US soldiers were standing guard at the Kabul airport when the bombs went off, leaving several others seriously wounded.
“We’re outraged as well as heartbroken,” Mr Biden told reporters in Washington, during a visibly emotional address.
Speaking about his own experience with loss, Mr Biden said: “You get this feeling like you’ve been sucked into a black hole. My heart aches for you”.
Mr Biden vowed that the United States will not be deterred from its mission to evacuate thousands of civilians from Afghanistan despite the deadly suicide attacks.
“We will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuation,” Biden said in the televised address.
US officials have said American forces in Kabul are bracing for more Islamic State attacks as the evacuation efforts near an end.
“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,” Marine Corps General Frank McKenzie, head of the US military’s Central Command, said at a media conference.
The threat could include rockets being fired at the airport or car bombs attempting to get in. The suicide blasts are being described as the deadliest attacks on the US military since 2011, when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade killed 30 Americans.
In a Pentagon press briefing, US Central Command Commander General Kenneth McKenzie Jr, confirmed that the Islamic State was responsible for the terror attacks.
“Two suicide bombers assessed to have been ISIS fighters detonated in the vicinity of the Abbey Gate at (the) international airport and in the vicinity of the Baron hotel which is immediately adjacent,” he said.
“The attack on the Abbey Gate was followed by a number of ISIS gunman who opened fire on civilians and military forces.
“At this time we know that 12 US Service members have been killed in the attack and 15 more Service members have been injured.
“A number of Afghan civilians have also been injured and killed in the attack … we are still working to calculate the total loss.”
Horrific scenes at Kabul airport after two explosions. The tragedy of Afghanistan, the nightmare and bloodshed never ends pic.twitter.com/DZU9HE9cGB
— Yalda Hakim (@BBCYaldaHakim) August 26, 2021
General McKenzie said he expects that terror attacks in the embattled region will continue.
“Very real threats range from rocket attacks … we also know they aim to get the suicide vehicles in, from a small vehicle to a large vehicle. And a vest suicide attack. All of those things we look at.”
Earlier, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the US was working to determine the full extent of the casualties amid separate reports of civilians, coalition forces and Taliban fighters among at least dozens more killed and injured.
“We can confirm that a number of US service members were killed in today’s complex attack at Kabul airport,” Mr Kirby said.
“A number of others are being treated for wounds. We also know that a number of Afghans fell victim to this heinous attack.”
A Taliban official reportedly told Reuters that several of their forces providing security at the airport were also among those killed and wounded.
Gen. McKenzie: ISIS will not deter us from accomplishing the mission, I can assure you of that. pic.twitter.com/2sahi8gHGY
— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) August 26, 2021
At least 11 Marines and one Navy medic were killed in the suicide bombing outside the airport’s Abbey Gate, a US officials reportedly told Fox News. A witness told the outlet a five-year-old baby girl died in his arms.
A second explosion, believed to be a car bomb, was detonated moments later at the Baron Hotel, a short distance from the Abbey Gate.
The attacks came just hours after Australia and its allies warned of a terror threat that disrupted evacuation attempts.
US troops returned gunfire as all airport gates processing evacuees were closed, with sources saying the explosions, including the detonation of a suicide vest, were part of a “complex attack”.
Evacuation flights continued during the attack, a US official told AP.
The US State Department urged congressional staff on Capitol Hill to stop directing people to the airport amid concerns more Kabul attacks could come soon.
“All staff engaging in this type of uncoordinated messaging to people on the ground must cease due to the security situation,” the message seen by Fox News said.
President Joe Biden met with his national security team in the White House’s secure Situation Room and will continue to be briefed on updates as the situation evolves.
“The President met with his national security team this morning, including Secretary Blinken, Secretary Austin, Chairman Milley, and commanders on the ground,” the White House said in a statement.
A Taliban spokesman condemned the bombing of civilians and that it “took place in an area where US forces were responsible for security”.
“The Islamic Emirate [of Afghanistan] is paying close attention to the security and protection of its people, and evil circle will be strictly stopped,” the Taliban statement said.
Eyewitnesses said that before the blast Taliban were spraying a water cannon on crowds gathered at the airport gate, while fighters other launched tear gas.
Nadia Sadat, a 27-year-old Afghan, was trying to flee with her 2-year-old daughter.
“We have to find a way to evacuate because our lives are in danger,” Sadat said, outside the airport.
The first explosion threw bodies, flesh and people into the nearby canal, a witness named Milad said.
Another witness said there was total panic when people heard the explosion.
“The Taliban then started firing in the air to disperse the crowd at the gate,” the witness said. “I saw a man rushing with an injured baby in his hands.”
Pictures from the scene showed injured people being rushed from the scene in wheelbarrows. Others were walking wounded and covered in blood.
“A lot of people got hurt, and I got a baby girl, she was five years old and she died right in my hands,” an Afghan translator, on his way to the airport to be evacuated, told Fox News.
World leaders have condemned the attack, which is suspected to have been carried out by terrorist group ISIS-K. The group has not claimed responsibility.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel cancelled an upcoming trip to Israel due to “the tense situation in Afghanistan,” according to a government spokesperson.
She will remain in Germany to monitor the last stages of the evacuation of German troops.
“We don’t know all the details yet but the terrorists targeted people waiting at the airport gates who were hoping to leave,” Ms Merkel said. “They wanted security and freedom and that is why it is an absolutely heinous attack in a very, very tense situation.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson chaired an emergency security meeting with the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms, Reuters reported.
“We extend our condolences both to the United States of America and the people of Afghanistan,” Mr Johnson said, adding the British will continue its evacuation.
There were “no reported UK military or UK Government casualties”, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the “coming hours will remain extremely dangerous in Kabul and at the airport”.
Speaking at a joint news conference with the Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin, Mr Macron said the situation around Kabul airport had seriously deteriorated.
“We are confronted with a very tense situation and we are co-ordinating with our American allies,” Mr Macron said at a joint press conference with the Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin.
‘TERROR THREAT’
The terror attacks disrupted the biggest human airlift in history but not before 95,700 people were evacuated by US and Coalition partners, the US announced on Wednesday.
The airlift from Kabul airport was suspended off and on for many foreign nations trying to get their citizens out of the Afghan capital as credible intelligence came though of an imminent attack.
About 13,400 people alone were flown on Thursday.
But many nations were forced to abandon further flights at the request of the US for security reasons and also because of crowded airspace ahead of the August 31 deadline to be out of the country.
The future of further Australian rescue flights was understood to now be under review with discussions with coalition counterparts continuing.
The Dutch government announced it would stop evacuation flights from Kabul after being told by US forces to leave the Afghan capital’s airport ahead of the withdrawal of American troops by the August 31 deadline.
“The Netherlands has been informed today by the United States that it has to leave and will in all probability run the last flights later today,” the Dutch foreign and defence ministers said in a letter to parliament. Poland, Hungary and Belgium have also ended their flights.
Germany is expected to make an announcement in coming hours.
The situation in and around the airport on Thursday night remained tense.
On Thursday night, both the Pentagon and the British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey announced an “imminent” and “severe highly volatile” threat was about to take place in Kabul as they urged citizens to take shelter.
“The credibility of the reporting has reached the stage where we believe there is a very imminent, a highly lethal, attack, possible within Kabul,” he said.
He added: “The opportunism of wanting to target a major international humanitarian mission is just utterly deplorable but sadly true to form for an organisation as barbarous as Daesh (Islamic State).”
The attack plot was suspected to have been from ISIS-K, a splinter group of Islamic State from Syria and a group that has been fighting the Taliban for years about the Afghanistan and Pakistan border.
There had been particular concerns that extremists may have seized heavy weaponry abandoned by Afghan troops who fled the Taliban advance earlier this month.
Already, military cargo aircraft leaving Kabul airport for the last couple of days have launched flares shortly after take off when the flight is vulnerable, to disrupt any potential missile fire.
But thousands of people decided to take their chances and ignore advice to move away from the airport gates.
Australia’s Assistant Defence Minister Andrew Hastie was more specific and referred to suicide bombings.
“The situation has deteriorated so much now that the US, Australia and other countries have told people moving to the airport to turn back because the risk of a suicide bomber is so high the threat situation is increasing,” Hastie told Perth radio.
Colonel Richard Kemp, former head of British forces in Afghanistan, said the threat of a terrorist attack at Kabul airport “has existed right the way from when this evacuation began”.
“That threat of terrorist attack, whether it’s from Taliban, the Islamic State, or al Qaeda, it could equally be all three of those groups,” he told the BBC.
ISIS-K was created in 2015 from disgruntled Afghan Taliban fighters and militants from Pakistan.
Its leadership was decimated since that time by US fighter and drone strikes with its latest leader Abdullah Orokzai captured in April last year by Afghan Security forces with 20 of his deputies and commanders.
It was not seen as a threat until this month and the vulnerability created by the foreign forces evacuation about Kabul.
Earlier this week, the US announced it had credible intelligence elements of the terror group had moved to Kabul to carry out an attacks on foreign and local Afghans hoping to evacuate.
The threat prompted agencies including Australia’s DFAT on Wednesday to immediately warn those away from the airport, even if they had visas or passports to travel to Australia.
“Do not travel to Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport. If you’re in the area of the airport, move to a safe location and await further advice,” its alert stated.
There are thousands queuing about the airport desperate to get into the sprawling compound and onto the ever dwindling coalition forces mass airlift flights, now leaving every 39 minutes but still likely to leave behind hundreds of eligible evacuees, as they race to get out before an August 31 deadline.
— with Justin Vallejo
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