At Least 13 Dead, Dozens Wounded In Kabul Explosions: Report

UPDATE:

At least 13 people people have died and 52 were wounded, including children and foreigners, in connection to multiple explosion outside Kabul airport on Thursday (August 26), a Taliban security official confirmed the casualties to NBC News.

CNN reports there are some U.S. personnel among the wounded individuals, but the Pentagon is working to confirm an "unknown number of casualties" in connection to the explosion at the Abbey Gate and another near the Baron Hotel, a short distance away.

"We can confirm that the explosion at the Abbey Gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of US & civilian casualties. We can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate. We will continue to update," John Kirby, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, confirmed via Twitter.

President Joe Biden is reportedly monitoring the attack from the Situation Room of the White House.

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An explosion has taken place at Hamid Karzai International Airport amid the United States' evacuation operations in Afghanistan.

John Kirby, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, confirmed the explosion outside Kabul airport on Thursday (August 26) morning via Twitter.

"We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul airport. Casualties are unclear at this time. We will provide additional details when we can," Kirby tweeted.

Kirby had tweeted that "operations in Kabul will not be wrapping up in 36 hours," within an hour prior to confirming the explosion. "We will continue to evacuate as many people as we can until the end of the mission.

Three U.S. officials told CNN the blast took place outside the Kabul airport and is believed to be a suicide attack.

Crowds of Afghans were gathered at the gates trying to get into the airport at the time of the attack.

No American casualties have been confirmed in the attack as of Thursday morning, however, CNN reports there are an undetermined number Afghans injured.

The news comes hours after CNN reported U.S. diplomats in Kabul suddenly warned American citizens to "immediately" leave several gates into the airport due to security threats.

The warning came hours after a U.S. defense official told CNN that American officials were notified of a "very specific threat stream" coming from the ISIS affiliate, "ISIS-K," in Afghanistan, which claimed to have planned attacks on the crowds outside the Kabul airfield.

CNN reports there is no confirmation that ISIS-K is responsible for the attack as of Thursday morning.

President Joe Biden said prior to the report that he planned to stick to his proposed Tuesday (August 31) deadline to end the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

The mission initially began with a chaotic drawdown and has since evolved into a massive airlift, with more than 95,700 individuals being taken out of Kabul, including more than 13,400 within the last 24 hours on U.S. and coalition flights, according to the White House via CNN.

An estimated 150 American citizens in Afghanistan are still needed to get assistance to the airport, a source familiar with the situation told CNN.

That creates a scenario where Americans who want to leave and thousands of Afghan translators and/or allies could be left behind as Tuesday's deadline quickly approaches.

ISIS-K is a sworn enemy to both the U.S. and the Taliban and had previously led an attack on a school of girls that killed dozens of people, mostly children, earlier this year.

"It's hard to overstate the complexity and the danger of this effort," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday via CNN. "We're operating in a hostile environment in a city and country now controlled by the Taliban with the very real possibility of an ISIS attack."

Blinken said U.S. forces have pulled at least 4,500 U.S. citizens out of Afghanistan as of Wednesday and provided another 500 Americans with instructions on how to reach the Kabul airport safely.

So far, there have been no reported deaths among Americans during the evacuation and Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.