At least 13 said killed at Kabul airport in suspected IS suicide attack
Explosions went off on Thursday outside the Kabul airport, where thousands of people were gathered to try to flee Afghanistan on Western airlifts since the Taliban seized power earlier this month. Officials described the incident as deadly suicide bombings allegedly carried out by the Islamic State terror group.
The Pentagon and Russia’s Foreign Ministry said a second explosion then went off outside Kabul airport. Moscow said the twin suicide attacks killed at least 13 people and wounded another 15.
A Taliban official told Reuters children were among the killed and numerous Taliban guards were among the injured.
A US official told Fox News that the explosion near one of the airport gates in Kabul was a combined suicide bombing and firefight. The outlet said at least three US troops were injured and that there were also Afghan casualties.
A US official said on condition of anonymity that the attack was “definitely believed” to have been carried out by the Islamic State. The terror group, which is more radical than the Taliban and has carried out a wave of attacks targeting civilians, was yet to officially claim responsibility.
The US official said members of the US military were wounded in the attack, which involved two suicide bombers and gunmen.
#BREAKING : Second explosion hit Baron Hotel near #Kabul airport where Americans were rescued last week.
— ZionWarrior (@ZionWarrior6) August 26, 2021
Reports saying now 30 killed in blasts pic.twitter.com/Et74OMlBvV
Lee Smith: The Dream Palaces of the Americans
When new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meets with President Joe Biden and his minders at the White House today, a few things seem like sure bets. First, Bennett and his aides will lay out a scheme for keeping Iran from going nuclear, which the Americans will nod at and ignore. Second, the American side will solemnly raise the necessity of establishing a Palestinian state living side by side in peace with Israel.The Caroline Glick Show: Episode 18 – The fallout for Israel (and the world) of Biden’s destruction of U.S. credibility
Instead of nodding, smiling, and pretending to share the dream of peaceful democratic Palestinian statehood, Bennett could show true friendship to America by pointing to the example of Afghanistan. It’s clear no one in the American political establishment has yet internalized the lesson.
For twenty years, official Washington, DC dared not describe Afghanistan as it truly is and would be after America’s exit. It would have been gauche to do so— worse, it would have shown that one lacked vision, high ideals. Anyone who didn’t believe there was a democratic polity just waiting to escape its despotic chains and unleash its liberal energies was guilty of “the soft bigotry of low expectations” — that is, a racist. In this fun-house-mirror version of Afghanistan, America was building yet another city on a hill, a citadel whose government would promote Western gender theory’s latest findings, which would be enforced by elite special forces units trained by American officers and loyal to the central government in Kabul.
These elements of the Afghani dream-state were part of a bespoke tapestry spun out by and for the policy establishment and Beltway defense contractors, NGO workers, think tank experts, and the rest of the client state. So long as everyone was getting paid, the mirage never hurt anyone — unless your child happened to subscribe to the fiction and put his or her life in danger either in uniform or as an aid worker. But now, the dream palace has burned to the ground, and as the smoke clears no one can mistake the fact that authentic Afghanistan is in the hands of the Taliban.
Bennett knows it would be more polite to nod along meaningfully with his hosts and that he’d insult them by explaining Palestinian statehood is a hallucination on the level of Afghani democracy. Speaking up, however, would nonetheless help safeguard the interests of his own country, while winning the favor of an American public that has seen their elites throw away the lives of thousands of the country’s most high-spirited and honorable young men and women to satisfy their whimsy.
Episode 18 of the Caroline Glick Mideast News Hour with Gadi Taub focused on the strategic repercussions of the U.S. defeat in Afghanistan for the U.S. and it allies in the region and the world and of course on Israel. The Israel-centered second half of the show centered in on Israel’s unelected Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s trip to Washington this week to meet with Biden and his top advisors while they oversee the abandonment of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. How will the rout in Afghanistan affect Bennett’s hopes of convincing Biden to work with Israel to block Iran’s efforts to become a nuclear power?
Thanks @colrichardkemp for joining my podcast The Diplomat on @Newsweek to discuss the terrible situation in #Afghanistan. Take a listen. Episode 2 in my Afghanistan series. You can listen to all episodes on Apple, Spotify & wherever podcasts are heard.
— Jason D. Greenblatt ???? ???????? (@GreenblattJD) August 24, 2021
https://t.co/HcJuz8IFJL