The brother of a British Afghan who died when an ISIS suicide bomber hit Kabul's airport today insisted he was shot dead by panicked w...
The brother of a British Afghan who died when an ISIS suicide bomber hit Kabul's airport today insisted he was shot dead by panicked western troops - not killed by the blast.
An ISIS-K terrorist detonated a suicide vest in the middle of families waiting for evacuation flights near a sewage canal by Hamid Karzai airport, taking the lives of innocent men, women and children trying to flee the country. The explosion and chaotic aftermath left 13 US troops and 170 Afghans dead.
But survivors have claimed that frightened soldiers protecting the airport may have opened fire in the aftermath, inadvertently adding to the death toll, which included two Britons and the child of a UK national.
Among the dead was Muhammad Niazi, a taxi driver from London who had travelled back to Afghanistan to try and help get his family evacuated out of Kabul. His wife was killed in the blast, and his youngest child and eldest daughter are still believed to be missing.
His brother Abdul Hamid, who survived the blast, made the claims about bullets from western guard posts killing people and told the BBC: 'The fire came from the bridges… the towers… from the soldiers'. He added: I saw some small children in the river, it was so bad. It was doomsday for us.'
The second British victim, Musa Popal, 60, was pushing through the crowd trying to attract the attention of soldiers by waving his UK passport when he was killed by the suicide bomber, it was reported last night.
Other witnesses to the suicide bomb attack also say that their relatives weren’t killed in the blast but by fire in the confusion afterwards. Abdul says he saw American and Turkish soldiers amid the chaotic scenes as gunfire reined over the crowds of people.
Another man claimed his friend who had helped US forces during the war had been killed by a gunfire from a Western troops.
'This guy served the US Army for years,' he told the broadcaster. 'And the reason he lost his life wasn’t because of Taliban, he wasn’t killed by ISIS...'
When asked why he was so sure, the man added: 'Because of the bullet, the bullet went inside his head, right here near to his ear,' suggesting a troop guarding the airport may have hit him by mistake. He added that his friend had not suffered any other injuries in the blast.
Claims of Afghans being killed by friendly fire came as:
- The Taliban welcomed the US' drone strike targeting 'multiple suicide bombers' planning an attack on Kabul's evacuation airport. Multiple rockets have been fired at Kabul airport today in just the latest attack as the US races to get its last troops out of Kabul before the August 31 deadline;
- Two Britons killed in ISIS attack included Musa Popal, who seen pushing through the crowd trying to attract the attention of soldiers by waving his British passport when blast erupted;
- MPs and former military leaders have called on the government to create a new regiment in the British Army for Afghan special forces - just like the Gurkhas;
- The mother of an American Marine killed in the Kabul airport attack called US President Joe Biden a 'dementia-ridden piece of crap' as the president meets with families of the 13 fallen service members on Sunday;
- Former commander of British troops in Afghanistan Colonel Richard Kemp warns the UK faces its 'greatest danger from terrorism since Islamic State at its height' in aftermath of country's collapse;
The brother of British Afghan Muhammad Niazi (pictured) who was killed following a suicide bomb attack on Kabul airport says he was shot dead by panicked western troops. Muhammad's youngest child and eldest daughter (pictured but not named) are still believed to be missing
His brother Abdul Hamid, who survived the blast, told the BBC that his brother was shot dead by western troops - not killed by the suicide bomb
Musa Popal (pictured) was pushing through the crowd trying to attract the attention of soldiers by waving his British passport when he was killed by the suicide bomber, it was reported last night
It came as three children were killed in a US drone strike targeting 'multiple suicide bombers' planning an attack on Kabul's evacuation airport - just hours after Joe Biden warned of the possibility of another jihadist atrocity following this week's attack.
Witnesses said a rocket strike blew up two cars parked outside a residential building near the Hamid Karzai airport to the north of Afghanistan's capital. It is believed the vehicles were going to be used in an 'imminent' attack by ISIS-K militants.
The strike on the vehicles, filled with explosives, is then believed to have caused a secondary blast, killing and wounding several civilians. This morning as many as five rockets were fired at Kabul's international airport but were intercepted by a missile defense system, a US official told Reuters.
An Afghan official, speaking on condition of anonymity out of security concerns, said that three children were among the dead. It is not known where the children killed in the incident were at the time of the explosion.
The death toll is expected to rise with Afghan TV presenter Muslim Shirzad reporting that as many as six children were dead and nine people in total, including an interpreter who had worked with US troops, and an Afghan army officer due to get married tomorrow.
The Taliban said it welcomed the drone strike in an apparent sign of uneasy co-operation on security around the airport.
Two unnamed US officials earlier confirmed to Reuters that American forces had launched a successful strike in the capital city targeting suspected ISIS-K militants.
US Navy Captain Bill Urban, a military spokesman, had earlier said the military was investigating whether there were civilian casualties but that 'we have no indications at this time'.
'We are confident we successfully hit the target,' Urban said. 'Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material.'
Dina Mohammadi said her extended family were in the building and that several of them had been killed, including children.
Ahmaduddin, a neighbour, said he had collected the bodies of children after the strike, which set off more explosions inside the house.
There were earlier reports of a possible separate incident in which it was claimed a child had been killed in a rocket strike on a house near to the airport. It has since emerged this is the same event.
A security official from the recently deposed government told AFP a house was struck while a source at the Afghan Ministry of Health separately told the BBC the blast was near the airport, with two witnesses informing Reuters a house north of the airport was struck by a rocket.
There was no official confirmation and no terrorist group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. A US official told CBS: 'We are confident we hit the target we were aiming for. Initial reports indicate there were no civilian casualties.'
The official added that the drone strike caused 'significant secondary explosions' indicating the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material in the vehicle.
Mr Biden had previously warned another terror attack on the airport was imminent after an attack at Kabul airport carried out by ISIS-K - an Islamic extremist group operating in the Central Asian country - killed 13 American service personnel and scores of Afghans.
The Pentagon said a US drone mission in eastern Afghanistan killed two members of the so-called Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate early on Saturday in retaliation for the airport bombing, and Mr Biden said the extremists can expect more.
The President and First Lady Jill Biden made an unannounced trip to Delaware on Sunday morning for a ceremony to honour the 13, whose remains were flown back to Dover Air Force Base, where fallen troops' return to American soil is marked by a solemn movement known as the 'dignified transfer.'
In a statement on Saturday, Mr Biden said: 'The 13 service members that we lost were heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our highest American ideals and while saving the lives of others.
'Their bravery and selflessness has enabled more than 117,000 people at risk to reach safety thus far. May God protect our troops and all those standing watch in these dangerous days.'
Some 300 American citizens are still waiting to be evacuated from Afghanistan, Secretary of State Andrew Blinken revealed, as he warned that 'this is the most dangerous time in an already extraordinarily dangerous mission'.
The withdrawal of US forces allowed the Taliban to regain power after an almost 20-year war. The President's allies at home and abroad have openly accused Mr Biden of blindsiding them with his rush to exit by August 31 and slammed his bungled handling of the crisis.
The last British troops stationed in Afghanistan landed in RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire this morning. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Britain's hasty scuttle was 'the culmination of a mission unlike anything we've seen in our lifetimes'.
The British Ambassador to Kabul, Sir Laurie Bristow, vowed to continue to help UK nationals and Afghans who remain in the country and still need help.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan thundered that the US has shown in other countries that it is capable of 'suppressing the terrorism threat... without a large permanent presence on the ground. And we will do that in Afghanistan as well as we go forward'.
But untold numbers of vulnerable Afghans, fearful of a return to the brutality of pre-2001 Taliban rule, are likely to be left behind. There also are roughly 280 others who have said they are Americans but have not told the State Department of their plans to leave the country.
A child in Kabul has been killed in an explosion as the US launched a military strike targeting a vehicle containing 'multiple suicide bombers' driving to the Afghan airport
Smoke rises after an explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 29, 2021
A destroyed vehicle is seen inside a house after a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, this afternoon
The strike destroyed a vehicle carrying 'multiple suicide bombers' from Afghanistan's Islamic State affiliate on Sunday
Parts of a destroyed vehicle is seen inside the house in Kabul, the Afghan capital, which has been at the centre of a US-led evacuation effort
Broken windows at a house in Kabul after the US drone strike. An American official said there had been no reports of civilian casualties
A destroyed vehicle is seen inside a house after this afternoon's drone strike, which vapourised several suicide bombers, according to officials
A man stands next to a damaged section of metal sheeting. It is not clear whether this was the site of the US drone strike or the separate rocket attack
An US Marine with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit carrying a baby as the family processes through the Evacuation Control Center today
Two US officials speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters that American forces launched a strike in the Afghan capital targeting a possible suicide car bomb that was aiming to attack Hamid Karzai International Airport
A Kabul police chief said a child was killed. Two witnesses said the blast appeared to have been caused by a rocket that struck a house in Khajeh Baghra area to the north of the airport
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden departed for Dover Air Force Base on Sunday to meet with families and receive the remains of the 13 U.S. troops who died in the Kabul airport attack
The president saluted at the top of the stairs before boarding Air Force One on Sunday morning
The president and first lady board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland for Dover AFB where they will meet with families of the fallen
Marines are seen manning a checkpoint at the Kabul airport on Thursday. Thirteen US troops were killed when a suicide bomb went off near this checkpoint, also killing some 160 Afghans
The Pentagon said a US drone mission in eastern Afghanistan killed two members of the so-called Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate early on Saturday in retaliation for the airport bombing, and Mr Biden said the extremists can expect more
The evacuation of Americans proceeded as tensions rose over the prospect of another IS attack. The State Department issued a new security alert early on Sunday instructing people to leave the airport area immediately 'due to a specific, credible threat'.
Mr Sullivan said that for those US citizens seeking to leave Afghanistan by Mr Biden's deadline, 'we have the capacity to have 300 Americans, which is roughly the number we think are remaining, come to the airport and get on planes in the time that is remaining'.
He added: 'We moved out more than that number just yesterday. So from our point of view, there is an opportunity right now for American citizens to come, to be admitted to the airport and to be evacuated safely and effectively.'
He also pledged the US 'will make sure there is safe passage for any American citizen, any legal permanent resident' after Tuesday, as well as for 'those Afghans who helped us'.
Mr Sullivan said the US would continue strikes against IS and consider 'other operations to go after these guys, to get them and to take them off the battlefield'.
He added: 'We will continue to bring the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan to make sure they do not represent a threat to the United States.'
The administration's plan 'is not to have an ongoing embassy presence in Afghanistan', Mr Sullivan said.
'But we will have means and mechanisms of having diplomats on the ground there, be able to continue to process out these applicants, be able to facilitate the passage of other people who want to leave Afghanistan.'
The US Embassy said: 'Due to a specific, credible threat, all U.S. citizens in the vicinity of Kabul airport (HKIA), including the South (Airport Circle) gate, the new Ministry of the Interior and the gate near the Panjshir Petrol station on the northwest side of the airport, should leave the airport area immediately.'
Before the warning was issued, Mr Biden vowed that his revenge strike for the terror attack is 'not the last' and added that the 'situation on the ground continues to be extremely dangerous.'
Following the announcement, United States Marines were seen escorting children and families through an evacuation centre in Kabul.
The Taliban condemned the US drone strike, with a spokesman describing the operation as a 'clear attack on Afghan territory'. 'The Americans should have informed us before conducting the airstrike,' spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters on Saturday.
However, Mujahid later took to Twitter to disavow the interview, writing: 'Reuters has interviewed me and distorted my words. I urge the media and journalists not to take these words seriously.'
Mujahid claimed that two women and a child were wounded in the drone strike. The Pentagon says it is not aware of any civilian casualties.
The Pentagon earlier confirmed that two ISIS-K targets were killed and one wounded in the drone strike responding to the suicide attack in Kabul, after earlier confirming only one kill.
The two killed targets were 'high profile', but were not senior members of ISIS-K, Army Major Gen. William D. 'Hank' Taylor said at a Pentagon briefing on Saturday, saying there were no known civilian casualties.
The retaliatory strike was launched a day after an ISIS-K suicide bomber blew himself up outside the walls of Kabul airport, killing 13 US troops and scores of Afghan civilians.
The terror threat at the airport remains 'very real' and 'very dynamic' Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Saturday.
'Threats are still very real, they're very dynamic and we are monitoring them literally in real time. And as I said yesterday, we're taking all the means necessary to make sure we remain focused on that threat stream and doing what we can for force protection,' Kirby said at a briefing.
The Pentagon described the two targets killed in the drone strike as a 'planner' and 'facilitator' of ISIS-K plots who were involved in planning additional future attacks in Kabul, but declined to name them.
Families evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, walk through the terminal before boarding a bus after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va.
Thousands of Afghans have been evacuated to the US from Kabul airport after the Taliban took over the country
Today the Taliban was said to have offered an assurance that it would allow anyone else wanting to leave safe passage
A United States Marine with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit carried a baby as its family passed through the Evacuation Control Center at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul
Soldiers are seen manning an checkpoint at the Kabul airport earlier this week. 'The situation on the ground continues to be extremely dangerous, and the threat of terrorist attacks on the airport remains high,' said Biden
Army Major Gen. William D. 'Hank' Taylor said at a Pentagon briefing on Saturday that two ISIS-K targets had been killed and one wounded in the drone strike in Afghanistan
Taliban patrols outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday. The Taliban has now effectively sealed off the airport, and the US Embassy is warning any Americans not to approach the gates
'They lost a planner and they lost a facilitator and got one wounded. The fact that two of these individuals are no longer walking on the face of the Earth, that's a good thing,' said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
It was not immediately clear whether the targeted ISIS-K members were directly involved in Thursday's airport attack. The US military had initially said one person was killed.
'They were ISIS-K planners and facilitators and that's enough reason there alone. I won't speak to the details of these individuals and what their specific roles might be,' Kirby said.
He added: 'We have the ability and the means to carry over the horizon counterterrorism capabilities and we´re going to defend ourselves.'
Kirby declined to say whether all three suspects were intentional targets of the strike, saying: 'It was a single mission to get these targets and as the assessments and information flowed over time, we were able to recognize that another was killed as well and one wounded.'
Another defense official told CNN that the strike on Friday only took place after surveillance on the compound confirmed the target's wife and children had left.
Biden authorized the drone strike and it was ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet publicly announced.
The Pentagon said that 6,800 people had been evacuated from Afghanistan in the past 24 hours, and that 1,400 people are now screened and inside the airport for processing and removal.
Since July, 117,000 people have been evacuated by US and NATO forces, including 5,400 US citizens, said Taylor.
However, hope for escape is dwindling for anyone not already inside the airport, after the Taliban sealed off access to the airport on Saturday to most Afghans hoping to leave.
The Pentagon insisted that some gates at the airport remain open and that US passport holders can still get in.
However, the US Embassy in Kabul issued an urgent alert on Saturday warning citizens not to approach the airport and avoid airport gates.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the US drone strike on ISIS-K as a 'clear attack on Afghan territory' but later disavowed the statement, saying that Reuters had 'distorted' his words
'They lost a planner and they lost a facilitator and got one wounded. The fact that two of these individuals are no longer walking on the face of the Earth, that's a good thing,' said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby
The Pentagon said on Saturday that two ISIS-K targets had been killed in the drone strike responding to the suicide attack in Kabul, after earlier confirming only one kill
Afghan families live in a temporary shelter at a park in Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday after the Taliban sealed off the airport
'U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey gate, East gate, North gate or the New Ministry of Interior gate now should leave immediately,' the Embassy said in the alert.
Mujahid, the Taliban's main spokesman said on Saturday they would announce a new government for Afghanistan in the coming week.
He appealed to the United States and other Western nations to maintain diplomatic relations after their withdrawal, which he expected would be completed 'very soon'.
There is mounting frustration in Kabul at the severe economic hardship caused by a plummeting currency and rising food prices, with banks still shuttered two weeks after the fall of the city to the Taliban.
Mujahid said officials had already been appointed to run key institutions including the ministries of public health and education and the central bank.
Meanwhile, the US rescue operation is entering in its final hours ahead of President Joe Biden's Tuesday deadline for withdrawal, and US troops will now shift their focus to the final removal or destruction of equipment and extraction of service members.
Most NATO nations have now flown out their troops after two decades in Afghanistan, winding down a frantic airlift that Western leaders acknowledged was still leaving many of their citizens and local allies behind.
The United States, which says the round-the-clock flights have evacuated more than 100,000 people since the Taliban claimed Kabul on August 15, was keeping up airlifts ahead of Biden's Tuesday deadline.
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