The US will continue its evacuation mission from Afghanistan — and will keep relying on the Taliban for “protection” in the aftermath of the deadly terror attacks on the Kabul airport on Thursday, Department of Defense officials said in a news briefing.
At least 13 US service members were killed and 15 wounded after two suicide bombers struck the area around Hamid Karzai International Airport, Gen. Frank McKenzie Jr., commander of US Central Command, told reporters.
A “number of ISIS gunmen” then opened fire on US troops, he said.
The bombers appear to have somehow gotten past Taliban checkpoints on the outer perimeter of the airfield, McKenzie said, acknowledging there was “a failure somewhere.”
US officials are bracing for more attacks, and will continue to coordinate with the Taliban to secure the area.
“The threat from ISIS is completely real, we expect those attacks to continue and we are doing everything we can to be prepared for those attacks,” McKenzie said.
“That includes reaching out to the Taliban who are actually providing security for the outer cordon of the airfield,” he continued, “to make sure they know what we expect them to do to protect us.”
Asked whether he trusted the Taliban, McKenzie noted the group and the US share “the common goal” of getting Western troops out by Aug. 31.
“As long as we keep that common purpose alive, they’ve been useful to work with. They’ve cut some of our security concerns down and they’ve been useful to work with going forward,” he said.
There was no indication that the Taliban allowed Thursday’s attacks to happen, McKenzie said.
“We’ve reached out to the Taliban, we’ve told them you need to continue to push out the security perimeter,” he said.
“We’ve identified some roads that we would like for them to close. They’ve indicated that they will be willing to close those roads, because we assess the threat of a suicide borne vehicle threat is high right now, so we want to reduce the possibility of one of those vehicles getting close.”
He said the evacuation mission would continue, and that 5,000 people were on the ramp awaiting air lift out of Kabul.
“ISIS will not deter us from accomplishing the mission, I can guarantee you that,” McKenzie said.
He vowed to go after the perpetrators.
“We’re prepared to take action against them — 24/7 we are looking for them,” McKenzie said.
Officials said one of the deadly explosion occurred outside the airport’s Abbey Gate, the airfield’s main entrance. The second blast was a short distance away, outside the nearby Baron Hotel.
Afghan officials said at least 60 people were killed and 140 injured.
The dead included several Marines, officials told the Associated Press. A number of US troops were also wounded.
