• LLUÍS MIQUEL HURTADO

    @llmhurtado

    Istanbul

Updated on Friday, 27August2021-02: 57

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  • Afghanistan What is the Islamic State of Khorasan, the author of the Kabul attack?

Violent Islamists once again made fleeing Muslims their victims. It happened yesterday, twice, next to the gates of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The east gate, called Abbey Gate by international troops, which this week had been the scene of the attempts of thousands of Afghans to be evacuated in the face of the Taliban threat, was the scene yesterday of the most atrocious horror. The Islamic State in Khorasan claimed responsibility for this new carnage.

Two suicide bombings caused

chaos in the escape

. They left at least 60 dead and 120 injured in the short stretch of street between the gate of the airport and the Baron hotel, one of the buildings near the access control posts and a meeting point for those who were to be evacuated. There was a third explosion in the center of Kabul, with no casualties. Among the fatalities at the airport were also 12 US soldiers and marines, whose forces were stationed behind the first cordon, made up of militants from the Taliban Red Unit.

In front of them, hundreds of people were kneading in the middle of the afternoon, when the two explosions occurred - separated by a few minutes -.

Faced with news and rumors that the window for evacuations was closing rapidly, many desperately tried to reach the eastern gate before Friday, the day scheduled by most countries to conclude with the departure of civilians, after which

Joe Biden

asked them to complete the "sooner the better" process.

Two hours after the attack, the Islamic State in Khorasan (IS-K), the local branch of the armed organization that has spread terror around the world for the last five years, claimed responsibility.

The attacks blow up the evacuation process, fraught with tension between the US and its allies. If shortly before it occurred, Washington had opened the door to continue with the transfer of civilians until August 31, the date of the departure of the last foreign soldier who did not want to change, the hours after the massacre could alter the calculations. Before pronouncing on Biden, British Prime Minister

Boris Johnson

assured that his country would

continue with the evacuation despite the attack.

It did not clarify whether civilians as well or only military.

In Kabul, after the explosion, panic doubled. In images of the subsequent moments, a large

mass of human limbs

could be seen

in the drainage channel of the airport, one of the black points of the

bloody epilogue

that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan has become. The few ambulances available came and went transporting victims, dead or alive. Disorder and confusion have prevailed in a rebellious Kabul since the Taliban took the city a week and a half ago.

The Movement's ability to maintain security in the country, after the massacre, is doubly questioned.

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen issued a statement "harshly condemning this horrible incident."

He assured that his movement, in charge of guarding the outer perimeter of the airport - yesterday it was still unknown whether its members are among the victims - "will take every step to bring the guilty to justice."

Taliban accuse US forces

After the employee term "incident" raised eyebrows, another Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Naeem, assured that "the Islamic Emirate strongly condemns the bombing of civilians" in "an area where security is in the hands of US forces," he said. with the pointing finger. "The Emirate attaches great importance to the safety and protection of its people, and will firmly repel the crimes of evil circles," he added, without naming any culprit.

Western secret services had been on the trail of possible IS-K attackers for weeks. The latest intelligence reports from the US and UK spoke of "credible" threats, of

bomb men entering Kabul with their guard down

and the possibility of a major attack exactly where it ended up. Now, according to international media, citing US officials, there is fear that there will be new similar coups.

The Islamic State had warned. A week ago, while the jihadists' messaging channels were full of reproaches to the Taliban for celebrating their victory, an editorial in the daily

al Naba,

from their orbit,

mocked "the new Taliban",

whom it accused of being a tool "disguised as Islam", used to confuse Muslims and confront their organization. The IS criticized the Taliban claiming as their own a victory resulting from the withdrawal of international troops, not from a real struggle.

After the fall of the Afghan government, in a statement, the IS-K denounced in a statement that what happened "is nothing more than the

replacement of a shaved tyrant by a bearded tyrant

, the US believing that the latter is more useful."

Then, he warned that "the soldiers of the caliphate are preparing for a new phase of their holy jihad."

A new scenario that threatens to spread violence beyond the Afghan borders: "This is victory and the rest are temptations and mirages," the IS-K settled.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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