The death toll from Kabul Airport blasts has risen to 90 with more than 150 others wounded, TOLO News reported as the ISIS-K (the Islamic State offshoot) claimed responsibility for the attack. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province suicide bombers attacked crowds of people gathered Thursday outside Hamid Karzai International airport hoping to flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The explosion also at least 13 US troops, with US President Joe Biden vowing to hunt down those responsible.
“We will not forgive. Will not forget. We will hunt you down — and make you pay,” President Biden said, adding that the attack near Kabul’s airport will not stop the United States’ mission to evacuate American citizens and Afghan civilians from Afghanistan. Asked by a reporter if he bore any responsibility for the death of the US service members killed Thursday, Biden said: “I bear responsibility fundamentally for all that’s happened of late.”
The president said the ISIS-K was behind the gruesome attack at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul and at a hotel nearby.
“As you all know, the terrorist attacks that we’ve been talking about and worried about within the intelligence community, was an undertaking attack by a group known as ISIS-K,” Biden said.
“They took the lives of American service members standing guard at the airport and wounded several others seriously. They also wounded, a number of civilians, and civilians were killed as well,” he said.
Biden said he has ordered his commanders to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities.
“We will respond with force and precision at our time at the place we choose in a moment of our choosing…these ISIS terrorists will not win,” he said.
Meanwhile Taliban blamed the US for the blasts. The explosions outside Kabul airport claiming over 60 lives were carried out by the United States forces to destroy their belongings, claimed the Taliban who seized control over Afghanistan in mid-August.
‘Several explosions were heard in Kabul in the evening. The blasts were carried out by US forces inside Kabul airport to destroy their belongings. Kabul residents are not worried,’ Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a tweet.
