KABUL – Last-ditch evacuation flights took off from Kabul airport on Friday, a day after twin suicide bombings on crowds trying to flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan killed at least 85 people, including 13 US servicemen.
The bombings, claimed by the Islamic State terrorist group, injected further panic into the final days of an already frenzied US-led airlift.
The attacks targeted US forces, but hit hardest the mass of people fearing life under the Taliban who converged on the airport in a desperate bid to board a flight out.
At least 72 people among the crowd were killed, as well as the 13 American troops, according to various authorities.
But with people searching for missing relatives in hospitals on Friday, there were fears the death toll would climb.
President Joe Biden, under enormous pressure over his administration’s handling of the Afghan crisis, vowed to punish those responsible.
“We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” he said.
However Biden, determined to end two decades of war in Afghanistan and citing fears of more IS attacks, also insisted that he would stick to his August 31 deadline to end the airlift.
On Friday morning, some evacuation flights resumed with queues of people seen lining up on the tarmac but there were no more crowds near the sites of the blasts, according to AFP reporters.
Britain and Spain announced their evacuation operations would end Friday, after Canada and Australia had already stopped their flights.
More than 100,000 people have been flown out of the country since the Taliban swept into power on August 15.
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