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Desperate Afghans scramble to airport despite ISIS-K suicide bomber killing 170 in last ditch attempt to flee Taliban
DESPERATE Afghans have scrambled to Kabul airport despite a ISIS-K suicide bomber killing 170 - including three Brits - in a last ditch attempt to flee the Taliban.
Terrified Afghans have jammed a sewage canal outside Kabul airport where a suicide bomber blew himself up and sent bodies flying on Thursday.
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Evacuation flights have resumed despite 170 being killed in Thursday's suicide attack that saw scores of Afghans and 13 US troops die.
Among them are two British nationals and the child of a British national, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab confirmed on Friday.
"These were innocent people and it is a tragedy that as they sought to bring their loved ones to safety in the UK they were murdered by cowardly terrorists," he said.
"Yesterday's despicable attack underlines the dangers facing those in Afghanistan and reinforces why we are doing all we can to get people out.
"We will not turn our backs on those who look to us in their hour of need, and we will never be cowed by terrorists."
The Pentagon said on Friday that a deadly attack at the gate to Kabul airport in Afghanistan on Thursday was carried out by one suicide bomber, not two.
"I can confirm for you that we do not believe that there was a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, that it was one suicide bomber," Army Major General William Taylor told reporters.
Another 200 people were wounded while 132 were left so maimed by the attack that they're unidentifiable, according to a in Afghanistan.
Thousands of men, women and children have continued to flee Taliban rule but their chances are fading fast as US and UK forces have begun packing up ahead of Tuesday's deadline.
On Friday, the UK defence minister Ben Wallace said Kabul airport gates were now shut and that no more people would be called to the airport.
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"We are really down to hours now, not weeks," he said earlier this week in a move that could see 150 Brits stranded and left in the vengeful hands of the Taliban and ISIS-K, who launched Thursday's deadly terror attack.
Wallace said the threat of attacks by ISIS-K increased every day foreign forces remained in Kabul.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Isis have an intent, they have the capability, should they wish to do so, to deploy more of these types of attacks.
"I'm absolutely concerned that, until we've gone, there's an absolute threat to our forces, and even after we've gone there's a threat to the Afghan people from Isis."
Wallace confirmed that 1,000 Brits and Afghans already inside Kabul airport will be the last civilians to be evacuated today.
ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the Kabul terror blast in which Brits are "likely" to have perished, according to officials.
This comes as shooting reportedly took place at the eastern gate of Kabul airport, according to and Al Jazeera.
ISIS-K has released a picture of the suicide bomber, identified as Abdul Rehman Al-Loghri.
The terror group claimed the attacker was able to come within five metres of American troops who were collecting documents from people desperately trying to flee Afghanistan.
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A statement posted online in Arabic by the terror group claimed that more than 150 people were killed or hurt in the bombing.
At least 95 Afghans have been killed - 72 of them civilians, according to the Taliban - and more than 200 people hurt in the attacks.
Thirteen US service members were killed, including 12 Marines and one Navy medic, while 15 were injured, the Pentagon said.
One explosion rocked the airport in Afghanistan just hours before the evacuation deadline.
It happened in a "standoff area" where Brit troops has pushed back from the Baron Hotel processing centre.
Wallace said: "The night before [the attacks], the British Army and others had pushed away from the Baron's hotel, a standoff area about 300 metres away from the Baron's hotel, and that is in fact where the bomb detonated, we think, himself, at that standoff.
"If they hadn't pushed that perimeter further out I think we could've been in a worse place."
The blast carnage at the airport comes as…
- Kabul airport bombers ISIS-K will train Brit wannabe terrorists who fly to Afghanistan for a new and devastating wave of attacks on the West
- Ex-Marine Pen Farthing is forced to leave without his dogs and 25 staff after the rules surrounding who could be evacuated changed
- Brit Embassy staff leave a "hit list" of Afghan workers who helped Western forces in their abandoned compound in Kabul
- Desperate Afghans were told ‘forget airport and run for border’ to flee from Taliban
Thousands of people have gathered at the airport over the past 12 days hoping to be evacuated after the Taliban seized power.
Other blasts were heard in Kabul hours later, but were believed to be US troops carrying out controlled explosions as they dispensed of weapons.
US President Joe Biden told those behind the Kabul airport attack: “We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.”
A US official confirmed the first blast was caused by a suicide bomb, with initial reports suggesting the second explosion was a car bomb.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said one explosion occurred near buses lined up outside Abbey Gate and the other close to the nearby Baron Hotel.
A source told Fox News that the attacks in Kabul may be an "ongoing event" - with more violence to come.
Meanwhile, former military commander General Sir Richard Barrons said the UK would need to form a relationship with the Taliban to "get on top of" ISIS-K.
The suicide bomber reportedly hit people standing in a wastewater canal - sending bodies flying into the water.
It's understood he walked into the middle of families waiting in Kabul before blowing himself up.
People waiting desperately for a space on a flight out of Afghanistan were seen carrying those who had been wounded to ambulances, their clothes covered in blood.
Desperate kids showed British passports at Kabul airport just hours before the terrorist blast.
Three-year-old Tawid, his sister Asia, six, and their mum Sultan Zari had been among crowds trying to flee Afghanistan.
Sobbing Sultan said: “Getting to the UK is everything for us. This is hell on earth.”
It was not known last night if the family had been evacuated yet.
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Bloodied survivors were raced from the scene in wheelbarrows, according to local TV news channels.
Shocking footage showed desperate loved ones searching through dozens of bodies in a sewage canal on the outskirts of the airport.
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Defence Secretary Ben Wallace says there is only a 'matter of hours' left to evacuate those remaining in Afghanistan from Kabul airport
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