Kabul airport gates closed after deadly bombings, crowds cleared
Darpan News Desk IANS, 27 Aug, 2021 10:30 AM
Kabul, Aug 27 (IANS) All the gates of the Kabul airport were closed on Friday following the deadly twin bombings a day earlier that killed 90 people, including 13 US personnel, and the crowds outside have been cleared, a witness said.
"I drove a group of people to the airport early morning. We failed to reach the airport as Taliban soldiers did not allow vehicles to approach the airport, I drove them back to their home," a cab driver Mohammad Quraishi told Xinhua news agency.
On Thursday evening, a suicide bombing rocked a gate of the airport where a crashing crowd was waiting for evacuation flights, and later another explosion hit the nearby Baron Camp, a former coalition base.
The ensuing gunfight lasted for hours, according to reports.
"The coalition forces and a group of Afghan security forces who remained in the airport after Taliban took over shut all gates, including the main gate, and no crowd was seen as I saw from long distance," Quraishi said.
Besides the victims, over 150 people were also injured in the deadly attacks, for which the extremist Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility.
Dozens of evacuation flights were conducted during Thursday night and early Friday.
Nearly 6,000 US troops have been deployed at the Kabul airport to secure the airlifting operation since the Taliban's takeover of the city on August 15.
A US-based software engineer, whose name was listed in the Green Card backlog, died suddenly and as a result, his pregnant wife has been rendered out of status resulting in her inevitable return to India, a media report said.
Mourning Dhaliwal’s tragic death, the resolution described Dhaliwal as a remarkable and selfless hero who represented the very best of American ideals.
Delhi ranks first in terms of polluted air among 10 major cities of the world as the air quality index (AQI) in the capital is at 450, which is dangerous.
The 32-year-old sister of an Indian-origin Islamic State suspect was on Wednesday given a restraining order preventing her from any contact with a UK journalist after a court was told that she had become "obsessed" with him following an interview.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian honoured 35-year-old Dr Sharma, from the School of Chemistry at UNSW, with the award at the Government House in Sydney, the university said in a statement on Friday.
