Blood strewn bodies, chaos: At least 60 dead after two blasts rock Kabul

• Image Credit: Internet

• Aug 27, 2021 | moderator

Kabul: At least 60 people died including children after two powerful blasts hit the centre of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Tuesday.

Islamic State has staked claimed on the blasts propelled by two suicide bombers near the diplomatic quarters and a busy market square with many government buildings, including the presidential palace, as well as a number of Embassies and offices of media and aid agencies.

Videos shot by Afghan journalists showed scores of bodies strewn near a canal on the edge of the airport. At least two blasts rocked the area, eyewitnesses said.

Blaming the Islamist group for the mayhem, US officials said that one of the suicide bombers targeted “translators and collaborators with the American Army”.

Locals, as well as US troops, have been killed in the blasts that rocked the capital on Tuesday.  The American casualties, which increased to 13 from 12 later on Thursday according to U.S. officials, were believed to be the most U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan in a single incident since 30 personnel died when a helicopter was shot down in August 2011.

Speaking on the incident, US President Joe Biden vowed to go after the perpetrators of Thursday’s bombing and said he had ordered the Pentagon to plan how to strike ISIS-K, the ISIS affiliate that claimed responsibility.

The attack was carried while the US troops were hurriedly evacuating its citizens and its troops from Afghanistan, after President Joe Biden said the United States had long ago achieved its original rationale for invading the country in 2001 – to root out Al Qaeda terrorists and prevent any further September 11 like attacks on the United States.

A Taliban spokesman condemning the incident stated that the violence inflicted by ISIS is a challenge for the Taliban as its poses a threat to the promises they made to the Afghans, that they will bring peace to the country. The spokesman further added that such kinds of attacks are the work of “evil circles” who would be suppressed once foreign troops leave.