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Afghanistan: Biden vows revenge after two Isis blasts outside Kabul airport kill dozens

  • Thirteen US service members including marines were among the casualties,
  • ‘We will hunt you down and make you pay,’ US president says

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People arrive at a hospital after the attack at Kabul airport on Thursday. Photo: Reuters TV via Reuters
Robert Delaneyin WashingtonandMark Magnierin New York
US forces helping to evacuate Afghans desperate to flee Taliban rule braced for more attacks on Friday after an Islamic State (Isis) suicide bomber killed 85 people, including 13 US soldiers outside the gates of Kabul airport.
The two bombs were detonated on Thursday, deepening the most serious political crisis that US President Joe Biden has faced in his eight months in office.
The attack, for which Isis claimed responsibility, followed warnings by the US and other countries of potential attacks by the militant group at Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, where the US has been evacuating thousands of Americans, individuals from allied countries and Afghans with special visas.

The US defence department confirmed one explosion immediately outside the airport’s gate, where a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device as the individual was being assessed to board an evacuation flight, and a second explosion occurred near a hotel in the airport’s vicinity. Pentagon officials said on Wednesday that about 10,000 people were in the area.

“The threat from Isis is extremely real; we’ve been talking about this for several days,” Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie Jnr told reporters in Washington. “We saw it actually manifest itself here in the last few hours with an actual attack. We believe it is their desire to continue those attacks and we expect those attacks to continue, and we’re doing everything we can to be prepared for those attacks.”

02:30

At least 60 killed by explosions outside Kabul airport, Afghan health official says

At least 60 killed by explosions outside Kabul airport, Afghan health official says

Biden held a press conference on Thursday evening, in which he warned that more attacks on the ground in Kabul were likely. He vowed to continue the US airlift and “respond with force and precision at our time at the place we choose in a moment of our choosing”.

“We will hunt you down and make you pay,” the US leader warned Isis militants before defending his administration’s decision to continue with the withdrawal from Afghanistan that the administration of his predecessor Donald Trump agreed to with the Taliban leadership, which controls most of the Central Asian nation.

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