Washington | US President Joe Biden has said he will avenge the double bombings at Kabul airport that killed at least 103 people, including 13 US service members. The number of US service members killed in the attacks has risen to 13, with 18 more wounded soldiers currently in the process of being evacuated from the country, according to the latest update from US Central Command’s Public Affairs Officer Bill Urban.
Commenting from the White House late Thursday after the bombings at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday, Biden said, “We will respond with force and accuracy in our time.”
The explosion at the airport was followed by another explosion at the adjacent Barron Hotel, the details of which are being ascertained by the US military.
The Wall Street Journal, citing a senior Afghan health official, reported that at least 90 Afghan civilians were killed in the blasts.
The Afghan Ministry of Public Health had earlier confirmed that more than 60 people were killed and 140 people were injured in the attacks.
Biden said he has ordered US military commanders to attack ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities.
He said IS terrorists will not win. We will save the Americans. We will drive out our Afghan allies, and our mission will continue.
Responding to a journalist’s question whether he would deploy additional troops to Afghanistan in the wake of the attacks, Biden said if the military needed additional forces, I would allow it.