Kabul airport blasts: 95 dead; alert for rockets, vehicle borne attacks

A Taliban fighter stands guard at the site of two powerful explosions, which killed scores of people including 13 US troops, at Kabul airport on Friday. Pic/ AFP

An official says at least 95 Afghans were killed in Thursday's suicide bombings outside Kabul's international airport.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The official said the actual death toll is even higher because others were involved in evacuating bodies.

A Taliban official says at least 28 of the Afghans killed were Taliban members.

Evacuation of civilians have now been accelerated after the attacks, a Western security official told a global news wire, adding that flights are taking off regularly

US President Joe Biden has sworn revenge on the attackers, saying he would "hunt them down".

This, as the US warned that more attacks could come, with US commanders saying they were on alert for possible rockets or vehicle-borne bombs targeting the airport, BBC said.

Also Read: We will hunt you down and make you pay: Joe Biden warns Kabul airport attackers

Reacting to the Kabul airport blast, Tom Tugendhat, UK Conservative MP and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee has said that whenever Islamist extremists take power, terror follows.

"The attack on innocent people at Kabul airport simply trying to escape the horror of Taliban rule shows exactly who the group has brought with them. The pattern is well established - from Nigeria and Mali to Syria and Iraq whenever Islamist extremists take power, terror follows."

He added that Taliban rule has brought this to innocent people trying to escape the horror of Taliban rule.

The prime suspect for the suicide bombing at Kabul airport is the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan known as Islamic State Khorasan Province, ISIS-KP, The Guardian reported.

Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden's national security adviser, said on Sunday there was an acute and "persistent" threat to the continuing evacuations from the Afghan capital from ISIS-K - which takes its name Khorasan from that used by a series of Muslim imperial rulers for a swath of land stretching from Iran to the western Himalayas.

The warning, which focused attention on a group that has hitherto had a very low international profile, was echoed this week by British and western European officials.

(With inputs from PTI)

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