:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/MTBO4JUJ7ZDKDBDPDNTH7VX4LA.jpeg "Afghanistan: at least 170 dead and 150 injured in Islamic State suicide bombing in Kabul")
The attack by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) at the Kabul airport , where a crowd tried to board one of the evacuation flights to flee the Taliban regime, caused at least 170 deaths, in addition to dozens of wounded who are still admitted. in hospitals in the Afghan capital.
Although there are still no official data on the impact of the attack perpetrated yesterday in the vicinity of the Hamid Karzai international airport, sources close to the Taliban confirmed this Friday to Efe that “at least 170 people died and 150 more were injured,” including victims in the American troops.
The United States had anticipated that 13 American soldiers died in the attack and another 18 were wounded. The British Government has also reported the death of citizens of that nationality.
Only the Wazir Akbar Khan hospital in the Afghan capital has received 145 dead bodies after the attack at the airport and fifty receive care with serious injuries, health sources told Efe today, who requested anonymity.
In addition, another 16 deaths were recorded in the hospital of the Italian NGO Emergency in Kabul, while in that center some 40 patients were also admitted with injuries from the explosion, according to the same source.
ON ALERT
After more than 24 hours of the attack claimed by the State of Khorasan, the Afghan branch of the Islamic State, the city remains on alert after a new warning from the United States Department of Defense about imminent threats.
“We still believe that there are credible threats. In fact, I would say they are credible specific threats, “Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said at a Pentagon news conference.
Sources of the US troops told Efe that they have asked “the Afghan media to avoid the Kabul airport for the time being,” since “there are active threats and the situation is currently not safe.”
Faced with the risk that attacks could increase in the area, the Taliban blocked access to the roads leading to the airport.
Several images show fundamentalist fighters controlling traffic in the vicinity of the airfield in the Afghan capital and stopping pedestrians who were approaching the surroundings.
NEAR THE END
Members of the Islamist group have also reported that a special team of the Taliban has entered the military area of the airport, an area until now controlled only by US troops.
The Taliban special forces “Victorious Force” are taking control of the military part of the Kabul airport, Bilal Karimi, a Taliban spokesman, told EFE.
“Some parts (of the military airport) were evacuated (by foreign troops) and our forces took control of them,” he said.
Tariq Ghazniwal, a member of the insurgent movement, released a series of images in which a caravan of military vehicles can be seen entering what is supposed to be the vicinity of the airport.
“This is now coming to an end,” Ghazniwal posted on Twitter.
THE END OF EVACUATIONS
The United States took control of the airfield’s military area a day after the Taliban’s victory and their rise to power, in an apparent non-aggression pact that has allowed international forces to evacuate thousands of foreign and Afghan citizens.
However, this period of truce will end on August 31, the deadline imposed for Americans to leave the country, something that increases the pressure to conclude as soon as possible the evacuations of Afghans who could be threatened by the arrival of the fundamentalist group Islamic to power.
Since the victory of the insurgents, thousands of desperate people flock to the airport to try to get on evacuation planes, which before the attack had left scenes of chaos and violence with at least a dozen dead.
Precisely this urgency to escape before the deadline agreed between Washington, and now demanded by the Taliban, is what kept the airport gates full of citizens at the time of the attack.
Since last August 14, the United States and the allied countries have evacuated or facilitated the departure of more than 105,000 people from Afghanistan, some 12,000 of them in the last day, according to a balance offered today by the White House.
Although there is still until Tuesday to conclude the deadline, several countries have reported the end of the evacuations in the next few hours, which is presumed that the time will not be enough to evacuate many Afghans who still want to leave the country.