The attack at Kabul airport stunned Biden administration officials in part because they received detailed intelligence reports warning of the likelihood of such an attack, but failed to prevent the bloodiest day for American troops there in recent years.
The appalling number of bodies includes 13 U.S. military personnel killed and 18 wounded at the airport entrance gate, as well as scores of Afghans killed or wounded there and at a nearby hotel. US officials believe the attackers were members of a group known as the Islamic State of Khorasan* or ISIS-K*, deadly rivals of the Taliban* militants who now hold power in Kabul.
For the White House, already deeply shaken by the events, this was yet another shock.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this level of sadness and horror,” one official said Thursday. On Wednesday, the White House received intelligence that a coordinated, multilateral ISIS-K attack could take place at the airport and tried unsuccessfully to prevent it.
President Biden, grim but determined during a press conference at the end of the day, called the day “hard.” He vowed to take revenge on the ISIS-K terrorists who attacked American troops.
We will not forgive, we will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. It sounded like a presidential directive to the CIA drone operators.
Biden did not apologize for his withdrawal policy, which was supposed to remove Afghanistan from the national agenda, but provoked the collapse of the government in Kabul, which brought new suffering and grief. He said of the ongoing US airlift of refugees from Kabul, threatened by ISIS-K fighters, “Knowing the risk, this is the right decision.”
Hours before the bombings, the State Department warned the Americans to stay away from airport entry points. But US officials did not have accurate intelligence to stop the attackers in the chaos around the airport. American officials turned to the Taliban for help, but the airport proved to be an impregnable position. A senior Pentagon official warned in an interview that “we are not out of the woods yet,” as there are reports that ISIS-K may be planning another attack.
The massacre at the perimeter wall of the Kabul airport was captured on video from mobile phones: bodies scattered throughout the affected area, some of them piled on others in the explosion; rescuers transporting crippled survivors to emergency medical facilities. In one grim video, the only sound was the wailing of a grief-stricken Afghan.
The Biden administration continues its unlikely security partnership with the Taliban, who were bitter enemy less than two weeks ago. A symbol of this cooperation was a meeting on Monday in Kabul between CIA Director William J. Burns and Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar. Sources said they talked about security measures that could allow the US embassy to reopen, which the Taliban want. Baradar tensed when Burns raised the question of whether the United States could stay at Kabul airport after Aug.31, sources said.
The United States hastily evacuated Americans and Afghan allies to meet this deadline, and airlifted more than 100,000 people were safe. But the rescue operations, impressive as they were, left perhaps 1,000 Americans and many more Afghans behind.
Serious problems begin for the tens of thousands of Afghans who have left Kabul and for the countries to which they are fleeing. Resettlement in the United States will be difficult for unvaccinated Afghans and undesirable for many Americans. Many of those rushing to board the emergency evacuation planes do not have the required documents. And Afghans traveling overseas can pose serious security and humanitarian challenges to neighboring countries such as Pakistan, Russia, China and Iran.
According to some White House officials, the military too quickly complied with Biden’s order to withdraw troops: the commander and most of the troops were withdrawn by early July.
The Pentagon claims the timeline was unequivocally approved by the White House. Officials complain that the Department of State was unable to quickly cut embassy staff or prepare visa documents for thousands of Afghan citizens who would have to be evacuated if Kabul fell. And while the CIA warned that the Afghan government was shaky, even pessimists thought it might not fall until October or November.
On Thursday, Biden tried to calm these differences by reaching out to mourning military personnel. But rest assured that when the story is written, there will be enough blame for everyone. There is too much sadness today.
The Washington Post
* – an organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation