Posted on 08/26/2021 10:17:09 AM PDT by USA Conservative
Two explosions, one just outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul and another at the nearby Baron Hotel, caused several casualties Thursday. The attacks came less than a day after the U.S. Embassy warned U.S. citizens to get out of the area. Here’s what we know so far:
The explosion outside the Kabul airport is “definitely believed” to have been carried out by the Islamic State group, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Thursday attacks were carried out by two suicide bombers and gunmen.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed that two explosions took place outside Kabul’s airport on Thursday causing “U.S. and civilian casualties,” part of a complex attack that came after repeated warnings of a threat by the United States and its allies.
According to Kirby, the first blast took place right outside the airport’s Abbey gate and the second at the nearby Baron Hotel. Scattered gunshots were heard after the blasts.
Large crowds of Afghans have been gathering daily at the airport in hopes of fleeing the country following the Taliban takeover. Kirby did not give precise figures but reports from the field say that there are at least 40 dead and 120 wounded, with the majority in critical condition, arriving at Kabul hospitals following the terror attacks, according to a local NYT reporter.
Images coming in from Kabul airport as a huge explosion rocks the abbey gate area:
The moment of the explosion was caught on video:
Horrific aftermath following the terror attack at the #Kabul airport. Viewer discretion is advised despite being blurred:
Another video: (warning: graphic video)
** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
And here’s the Commander-in-chief with his laser-focused statement from a few days ago:
He also walked away from a reporter who asked him about the threat Americans now face from ISIS.
Although U.S. forces have suffered casualties, there have been no reports of injuries or fatalities among British soldiers or government officials, the British defense ministry said.. The ministry statement did not mention whether any British civilian trying to leave Afghanistan was hurt or killed.
The bombings at the Kabul airport on Thursday is a reminder of a fundamental truth: War is an ugly, bloody, violent affair.
That may seem self-evident, even simple. Everybody has heard the “war is hell” cliché at some point. But it bears repeating at this moment, while Americans argue furiously about the wisdom of withdrawing from Afghanistan, because so much of the argument for staying depends on a vision of the war there being essentially bloodless.
“Mr. Biden’s decision to withdraw all U.S. forces destroyed an affordable status quo that could have lasted indefinitely at a minimum cost in blood and treasure,” former Ambassador Ryan Crocker wrote last week in a lacerating essay for The New York Times.
“In the last several years, the United States has maintained a relatively small force in Afghanistan, largely devoted to providing surveillance, logistics, and air cover for Afghan forces while taking minimal casualties,” columnist Bret Stephens offered. “Any American president could have maintained this position almost indefinitely — with no prospect of defeating the Taliban but none of being routed by them, either.”
There is something disturbing about the casual disregard for American lives underlying those statements: “Minimal” casualties means only a few soldiers killed or maimed, only a few families back home devastated by the loss of their loved ones. Even if you accept that idea, Crocker and Stephens and the other hawks aren’t really arguing that the sacrifice is worth it, but rather that there won’t be any real sacrifice at all.
The Kabul attacks demonstrate the lie of that notion. As of this writing, at least three U.S. troops were reportedly injured in the blast — and it won’t be surprising if the casualty numbers go higher. As a number of commenters have pointed out over the last two weeks, a primary reason American forces have suffered so few casualties in recent months is because the Taliban expected U.S. forces to exit.
Updated by Bongino to 10, now at 2:10pm.
“$10 says he won’t be there to meet the planes.”
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The family members would attack or scream at him.
Now 12. 11 marines and 1 Navy medic
I will stipulate "they" are incompetent, that should be apparent to all.
There was the amateurish, sloppy theft of our presidential election, our nation's ineffective and embarrassing, history-making current withdrawal from Afghanistan, and how in a matter of just a year or so of the new president's term our nation's internal affairs are in disarray and threatened.
But incompetency is only a minor part of the causation of our difficulties and not the evil to be addressed and cured; the issue to be resolved, a much larger target, is the fact "they" are obviously pursuing anti-MAGA goals.
( {;^] Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.)
Yes, the Biden’s people have an unusual goal: to Make American a Hellhole... (MAAH)...
SPJNK.
“ SPJNK”
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??? Say what?
You have FRMail.
“The family members would attack or scream at him.”
I have a small spool of piano wire...
“This is only happening because Biden wanted to spite Trump”.
Biden is a moron. “Wrong on every foreign adventure for 40 years”. Yes, spite, but...
The puppetmasters began when renting-then buying-2446 Belmont Road, DC, in sight of the White House. (Obummer and ValJar).
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