Associated Press/Wali Sabawoon
- Witnesses described scenes of horror and chaos in the aftermath of Thursday's deadly twin suspected suicide bombings outside of the Kabul airport.
- "There was a very strong and powerful suicide attack, in the middle of the people," one witness said.
- The attacks are believed to have been carried out by the Islamic State terror group affiliate, ISIS-K.
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Witnesses described scenes of horror and chaos Thursday in the aftermath of the deadly twin attacks that struck outside the airport in the Afghanistan capital of Kabul amid evacuation efforts.
The attacks – believed to have been carried out by the Islamic State terror group affiliate, ISIS-K – rocked the entrance to Hamid Karzai International Airport where crowds had amassed, leaving at least 12 US service members among the dead.
"There was a very strong and powerful suicide attack, in the middle of the people. Many were killed, including Americans," a witness who only identified himself as Jamshed told Reuters.
Jamshed said he went to the airport in hopes of fleeing the Taliban-controlled country and obtaining a visa for the United States, according to the news outlet.
Another witness, only identified as 24-year-old Zubair, told Reuters that he was roughly 160 feet away from the first of two suicide bombers detonated explosives outside of the airport's Abbey Gate.
"Men, women, and children were screaming. I saw many injured people - men, women, and children - being loaded into private vehicles and taken toward the hospitals," said Zubair, a civil engineer who along with a cousin has been attempting to get inside the airport for nearly a week.
The initial blast was followed by gunfire and then a second bombing nearby.
Some people were standing in a wastewater canal up to their knees when one of the bombers detonated, hurling bodies into the water, according to The Associated Press.
"All of a sudden we heard gunshots and our vehicle was targeted, had our driver not turned around he would have been shot in the head by a man with an AK-47," Paul Farthing, a former Royal Marine, told Britain's Press Association news agency, the AP reported.
US Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, blamed the Islamic State for the vicious attacks during a press briefing Thursday.
Fifteen US service members were wounded and a number of Afghans were also killed and injured, according to McKenzie.
"ISIS will not deter us from accomplishing" the evacuation mission, McKenzie said.
The attacks came as the US has just five more days to get people out of Afghanistan until President Joe Biden's August 31 evacuation mission deadline.