Kabul airport blast kills at least 13

Alleged suicide bombers collided with the swarming gates of Kabul airport with at least two explosions on Thursday, causing a massacre among distressed civilians trying to flee.

The attack has cast the final days of the Western airlift of its associates into chaos.

At least 13 people including children had been killed, stated the Taliban.

A medical hospital run by an Italian charity stated that it was handling more than 60 wounded.

The Pentagon has claimed that the US personnel were among those hurt.

Video images uploaded to the internet by an Afghan journalist displayed a pile of blood-soaked bodies in a street delimited by remains. The man filming it was sobbing.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said one blast happened near the airport’s Abbey Gate and the other close to the nearby Baron Hotel.

“We can confirm that the explosion at the Abbey Gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of US & civilian casualties,” Kirby said on Twitter.

“We can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate.”

The blast took place amongst crowds outside the airport, where distressed Afghans have been waiting in hope of escaping in an airlift which the United States says will end by Tuesday.

There was no instant claim of charge for the blasts, but Washington and its allies had been advising civilians to stay away from the airport on Thursday because of a threat of a suicide attack by Daesh militants, adversaries of both the West and the Taliban.

Western countries have expatriate nearly 100,000 people, mostly Afghans who helped them, in the past 12 days.

The Taliban official said many Taliban guards, who are safeguarding the airport, were among the injured.

“Our guards are also risking their lives at Kabul airport, they face a threat too from the [Daesh] group,” said a Taliban official.

US President Joe Biden has been informed on the blast, according to a White House official.

Biden was in a meeting with security officials about the situation in Afghanistan when the explosion was first reported.