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Paramedics at the airport in Kabul after the attack on Thursday: Dozens of people were killed
Photo: Wakil Kohsar / AFP
The Islamic State (IS) jihadist militia has declared that it carried out the devastating attack near Kabul airport.
Thousands of people crowded in front of the airport gates on Thursday to get a seat on one of the last evacuation planes in western countries.
Then apparently two suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing dozen bystanders, including at least twelve US soldiers.
The US Army leadership blamed IS for the attacks.
The Islamists then took up the attack without hesitation.
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As the US company Site, which specializes in monitoring extremist groups on the Internet, announced that ISIS announced through its propaganda spokesman Amaq that one of its fighters had blown himself up at the airport.
The fighter from the regional IS branch of the Province of Khorasan (ISKP) was able to overcome all security barriers and get US soldiers "no more than five meters" closer.
He then let his explosives vest detonate.
A photo of the attacker was also published.
The statement only mentions one suicide bomber.
ISIS appeared in Afghanistan in early 2015.
He wants to establish a province called IS-Khorasan there and on Pakistani territory and has carried out attacks primarily on Shiite targets.
The US and Afghan security forces have attacked his positions several times a week in recent years.
Nevertheless, IS continued to carry out serious attacks, intensified recruitment and tried to gain a foothold in northern Afghanistan as well.
IS in Afghanistan enemies with the Taliban
Despite great ideological closeness, IS is hostile to the Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan a good week ago.
US General Kenneth McKenzie, who heads US Central Command Centcom, said he did not assume that the Taliban were involved.
The Taliban also wanted US troops to leave the country by August 31.
"So we share a common goal," McKenzie said in a column with journalists at the Pentagon.
As long as this is the case, cooperation with the Taliban is useful.
Previously, among others, US President Joe Biden and European leaders had expressly warned against an attack by a local IS offshoot in Afghanistan.
US General: IS "will not deter us from completing the mission"
Michael McCaul, the senior Republican MP on the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, said on Thursday of the killed US soldiers: "It is because of these brave men and women that so many have come out of Afghanistan and will be able to live in freedom."
Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer expressed her condolences.
"My thoughts and prayers are with our American allies," wrote the CDU politician in English on Twitter on Thursday evening.
The Bundeswehr ended its evacuation mission on Thursday.
France, on the other hand, wants to continue operations in the Afghan capital despite the attacks until all French soldiers have left the country, said the spokesman for the French General Staff, Pascal Ianni.
The mission was not interrupted, and more flights to Kabul are also planned.
US General McKenzie said ISIS "will not deter us from completing the mission."
UN General Secretary António Guterres has called a crisis meeting of the permanent members of the UN Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan on Monday.
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