Scores of Afghan civilians and at least 13 members of the US military have been killed and many more injured in Kabul suicide bombing attacks claimed by the Daesh terrorist group.

Two explosions rattled the area outside the airport in the Afghan capital on Thursday amid the precarious security situation following the Taliban’s takeover of the country.

Following the attacks, Daesh’s Amaq News Agency said on its Telegram channel that the terror group was behind the explosions.

A suicide bomber from Daesh “managed to reach a large gathering of translators and collaborators with the American army at ‘Baran Camp’ near Kabul Airport and detonated his explosive belt among them,” it said.

The attacks killed 12 US Marines and one Navy medic, US officials confirmed, noting 18 other US service members were injured.

“We can confirm that a number of US service members were killed in today’s complex attack at Kabul airport,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement. “A number of others are being treated for wounds. We also know that a number of Afghans fell victim to this heinous attack.”

A senior Afghan health official also said 90 Afghan civilians were dead and over 100 others wounded.

Meanwhile, General Kenneth McKenzie, the leader of US Central Command, said that the United States would retaliate against the perpetrators of the attack.

“We believe it is their desire to continue these attacks and we expect those attacks to continue and we’re doing everything we can to be prepared for those attacks,” McKenzie said, noting, “We will go after them.”

McKenzie also said that immediately after the explosions, gunmen opened fire on service members and civilians.

Kirby said earlier that one of the explosions happened “at the airport’s Abbey Gate” and “at least one other explosion happened at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate.”

UN chief calls Security Council meeting

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called a meeting of the permanent members of the Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan, AFP quoted diplomats as saying.

The diplomats said Guterres had sent letters formally inviting the US, Britain, France, Russia and China to meet on Monday.

Earlier, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said no UN personnel were believed to have been among the causalities, although some staff were reported to be around the airport compound at the time of the explosions.

“This incident underscores the volatility of the situation on the ground in Afghanistan but also strengthens our resolve as we continue to deliver urgent assistance across the country in support of the Afghan people”, Dujarric added.

The attacks come as thousands of people had gathered outside the airport in recent days as the US and other Western countries have been trying to complete a massive evacuation of their citizens and Afghan allies following the Taliban takeover of the country.

More than 80,000 people, foreigners and Afghans, have been evacuated since August 14, the day before the Taliban laid siege to Kabul.

However, the numbers of people evacuated have already started dwindling down. From 3 am ET Wednesday to 3 am ET Thursday, 13,400 people were evacuated from Afghanistan, with nearly 5,100 via US military flights and 8,300 via coalition flights.

Over the 24-hour period from Monday to Tuesday, 21,000 were evacuated and 19,000 between Tuesday and Wednesday.

McKenzie said the evacuation mission was not going to stop as a result of the attacks.

“I think we can continue to conduct our mission, even while we are receiving attacks like this,” he said.

Also, there was not immediate indication that US President Joe Biden, who has been briefed on the attacks, plans to change the Aug. 31 withdrawal target, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

Culled from Presstv

The Taliban has been showing off its own “special forces” on social media, soldiers in new uniforms equipped with looted American equipment who contrast sharply with the image of the usual Afghan insurgent.

Pictures and videos of fighters in the so-called “Badri 313” unit have been posted online for propaganda purposes to underline how the Taliban have better equipped and trained men at their disposal than in the past, experts say.

The soldiers are shown in uniforms, boots, balaclavas and body armour similar to those worn by special forces around the world — and unlike the shalwar kameez, turban and sandals of the traditional Taliban fighter.

Rather than a battered Russian-designed Kalashnikov rifle slung over their shoulder, the men of Badri 313 hold new US-made rifles such as the M4, sometimes with night-vision goggles and advanced gunsights.

Badri 313 “likely represents some of the best trained and equipped fighters within the Taliban more broadly, although as you would expect there is a degree of sensationalising in propaganda coverage of the unit by the group,” Matt Henman from the Janes defence consultancy told AFP.

A Western weapons expert who writes anonymously on Twitter under the pseudonym of Calibre Obscura said the unit would be no match for Western special forces, or those of India or Pakistan.

But “they are more effective than normal Taliban and certainly more than standard Afghan national army troops from a couple of weeks ago,” he told AFP.

– US weapons –

Named after the battle of Badr 1,400 years ago, when the Prophet Mohammed supposedly vanquished his enemies with only 313 soldiers, the Taliban unit could number up to several thousand men, experts say.

The amount of equipment at their disposal is unclear, but multiple pictures online show jubilant Taliban fighters posing with captured armoured Humvees, aircraft and weapons abandoned by the defeated US-equipped Afghan national army.

Experts say the most sophisticated equipment, especially the helicopters, will be difficult to operate and near-impossible to maintain.

“There is certainly a degree of propaganda, but we saw during the final offensive since May that the Taliban special forces have been critical in the taking over of Afghanistan,” said Bill Roggio, managing editor of the US-based Long War Journal.

“When they began to overrun the Afghan forces, they progressively integrated Western supplies. The US in effect armed the Taliban army,” he added.

In previous days, the unit has been in charge of security outside Kabul international airport, bringing them nearly face-to-face with American troops inside who are overseeing the airlift of thousands of civilians.

In a social media post, Badri 313 troops even mocked their US counterparts by recreating the famed picture of American soldiers raising the Stars and Stripes on the island of Iwo Jima in 1945.

The Taliban figures in uniforms are seen raising their black-and-white flag.

– Haqqani role? –

Badri 313 is also seen as having benefited from training from the Haqqani network, Afghanistan’s most ruthless and feared militant group which has been responsible for multiple suicide attacks on civilian targets.

Mainly based in eastern Afghanistan — with alleged bases across the border in Pakistan’s northwest — the group has become more visible in the Taliban leadership in recent years.

They have also long been suspected of links with the Pakistani military establishment — US Admiral Mike Mullen described them as a “veritable arm” of Islamabad’s intelligence in 2011.

Pakistan denies the allegations.

“There is a strong likelihood of Pakistan having provided at least a vestige of training to the unit,” said Henman from Janes, who specialises in terrorism and insurgencies.

Gilles Dorronsoro, an expert on Afghanistan at the Sorbonne University in Paris, said the emergence of the new Taliban commandoes was part of a larger trend.

“We’ve seen a remarkable professionalisation of the Taliban since the middle of the 2000s,” he told AFP.

“The war they are fighting is not the same as the one their parents fought against the Soviets. They’ve learned from the ground and they are very good technically,” he added.

Source: AFP