WASHINGTON: An explosion outside Kabul airport killed at least 13 people, including children, and wounded many Taliban guards, a Taliban official told Reuters.
US and allied officials had said they had intelligence that suicide bombers were threatening to attack the airport.
The explosion came as thousands were in the proximity of the airport seeking to flee Afghanistan, with Western countries ramping up evacuation efforts as the pull out deadline – August 31 – approaches.
Biden and his aides have not budged on the hard deadline – even as some foreign nations warned they would be forced to leave at-risk Afghans behind. US President Joe Biden was briefed on the explosion, according to a White House official. Biden was in a meeting with security officials about the situation in Afghanistan, where the US is in the final steps of ending its 20-year war, when the explosion was first reported, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The US has been racing to airlift its citizens and some Afghan citizens from Kabul before its military is set to fully withdraw from Afghanistan on August 31. The United States and coalition partners have evacuated about 95,700 people since August 14, the day before the Taliban entered Kabul, the White House said on Thursday. —agencies
