The August 2021 suicide bombing that killed 173 people including 13 US military personnel at Kabul airport during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan was carried out by a single assailant, a US investigation has concluded. Pentagon released Friday. The investigation ruled out the idea that more than one person or anyone using firearms was involved in the August 26 attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
At least 160 Afghan civilians and 13 American soldiers were killed in the explosion during the last days of the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, following two decades of conflict in the country, also affirmed the investigation of the Pentagon. The powerful bomb detonated in a dense crowd gathered outside the airport waiting or hoping to board a plane that would leave the country, while the Taliban had already taken control of Kabul.
Although gunshots were heard following the explosion, US authorities claimed that they were “warning shots”, and that none of the victims recorded had been killed by these shots. “There were no gunshot wounds” among the victims, said US Brigadier General Lance Curtis, who presented the results of the investigation on Friday.
“Immediate chaos and sensory overload”
According to the senior officer, the deaths were the result of shrapnel (Editor’s note: types of balls) emanating from the bomb during its explosion, some elements of which might cause wounds similar to gunshot wounds. General Curtis admitted that the US military that day considered the attack “complex”, and involving an IS shooter in addition to the suicide bomber.
Adding to the confusion, shrapnel from the bomb pierced tear gas canisters carried by US soldiers for crowd control. The smoke created “immediate chaos and sensory overload,” one of the US officials said speaking to reporters regarding the investigation. The bomb also injured 45 American soldiers, some with brain damage due to the force of the explosion.
In the only video of the investigators on the attack, we can see the suicide bomber dressed in black. He was later identified by IS as Abdul Rahman Al-Logari, released from an Afghan prison by the Taliban following they captured Kabul on August 15.
