The Bombings at the Kabul Airport

The Daily

The New York Times

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🗓️ 27 August 2021

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

For days, many dreaded an attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, as Western forces scrambled to evacuate tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan. On Thursday, those fears were realized — amid the large crowds outside the airport, terrorists carried out two suicide bombings. The attacks killed at least 60 people, including 13 United States service members. ISIS-K, a branch of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, has claimed responsibility. Will these attacks be the effective end of the U.S. evacuation effort and where does this leave the Afghanistan mission? Guest: Matthieu Aikins, a writer based in Afghanistan for The New York Times.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro. This is Adalee.
0:09.6	For days, the United States had warned of a potentially devastating terror attack
0:15.5	on the airport in Kabul that would be carried out by ISIS-K, a branch of the Islamic state in
0:23.3	Afghanistan that is the common enemy of both the Americans and the Taliban.
0:28.7	The Pentagon confirming there has been an explosion outside Kabul airport where thousands of
0:33.9	people have gathered to try to evacuate the country. Yesterday, it happened.
0:40.0	My colleague, Matthew Aigens, was there.
0:43.0	It's Friday, August 27th.
1:08.0	Met are those helicopters flying above you?
1:10.5	No, they're C-17s or their evacuation jets.
1:15.2	Oh, yeah, they go all day and night.
1:29.6	Now, just a start. Can you tell us where you are and what time it is there?
1:34.9	My sense is that it's very late.
1:36.0	Yeah, it's about one in the morning and I'm at home where I've been living since June.
1:43.3	And it's in the center of Kabul, which is even quieter than it normally is at night because right now,
1:48.9	you have the Taliban in the streets and people are very afraid and uncertain.
1:53.8	Mm-hmm. Well, I wonder if you can just walk us through your day. How did your day start in Kabul?
2:08.0	Well, this morning I went to meet up with an interpreter that I've been following and I've been
2:12.9	touched with. How are you? He's someone who worked for the United States. He worked for
2:19.1	the Special Forces and had one of these SIV cases was hoping to be evacuated to go to America
2:26.5	because he's afraid he'd actually fled Canterhart before the fall of Kabul, fearing for his life.
2:33.3	And since then, has been trying the airport basically every day without success.
	...

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