ISIS’s suicide bombings at Kabul Airport: who is the beneficiary?

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Afghanistan suffered the deadliest terror attacks in decades—the maiden after the Taliban took power—on Thursday, August 26th 2021. Nearly 72 people, including 60 Afghan nationals and 12 US servicemen were killed in suicide bombings at Kabul Airport. The victims include women and children as well, according to unverified eyewitness narrations on social media.

The first attack, according to Al Jazeera, took place around 13:53hrs GMT. Around 15:08hrs GMT, the second explosion was heard and confirmed by the Pentagon. Some reports suggest there were seven to eight explosions. The US stalled its airlifting of people from Kabul Airport after the explosions. The Taliban has condemned the attacks, for which the CIA-funded Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is blamed.

The suicide bombings at Kabul Airport came after the US and the UK warned of such attacks at the crowded airport, where thousands gathered to be airlifted by the US and its allies who occupied and colonised Afghanistan since 2001. The Taliban, which has been at loggerheads with the western-funded and Saudi Arabia-supported ISIS, has vowed to avenge the killings by bringing to justice the perpetrators after the foreign powers leave the country.

According to news agency Reuters, ISIS’s Amaq News Agency claimed responsibility for the blasts in its Telegram channel. A suicide bomber “managed to reach a large gathering of translators and collaborators with the American army at ‘Baran Camp’ near Kabul Airport and detonated his explosive belt among them, killing about 60 people and wounding more than 100 others, including Taliban fighters,” the ISIS claimed.

Even though the Taliban holds power in Afghanistan and its fighters are guarding the streets of Kabul—while a government formation is underway—the Kabul Airport is under the US and its allies’ control, who have been managing the largest airlifting after the Vietnam War. There are around 1,000 US nationals still left in Afghanistan to be airlifted. Moreover, the US and its western colonial lackeys are now stopping the airlifting operations for more than 10,000 Afghans who worked as their collaborators during the occupation period. These people are stranded at the Kabul Airport in a wretched condition as they fear reprisal from the Taliban if they stay in Afghanistan.

Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s official spokesperson, tweeted in Pashto saying, “The Islamic Emirate strongly condemns the bombing of civilians at Kabul airport, which took place in an area where US forces are responsible for security. The Islamic Emirate is paying close attention to the security and protection of its people, and evil circles will be strictly stopped.”

The Taliban has been assuring the global community that it will not allow Afghan soil to be used by terrorist forces against any country. The suicide bombings at Kabul Airport have raised concerns over the Taliban’s commitment and ability to maintain law and order.

Moreover, the west’s role, especially its intelligence inputs on an imminent attack at the Kabul Airport, hours before the attack, is raising questions. If there were such solid intelligence, then why the US and the UK didn’t take preventive measures to stall such an act? Why didn’t the Taliban, which has been fighting the fringe, CIA-supported ISIS, didn’t take any step either? No evacuation was planned for the crowd that assembled at the Kabul Airport before the blasts by either party.

A terror attack’s perpetrator can be traced by analysing who benefitted from the act. Who has benefitted from these terror attacks? On the one hand, the Taliban administration is now under heavy pressure to combat the ISIS threat, even though it has been fighting with the terrorists since 2014, on the other, the US and its allies can now use the pretext to end the airlifting of Afghan collaborators who want to flee.

The suicide bombings at Kabul Airport benefitted the western forces, despite killing a handful of their lower-rung men. Moreover, the grotesque optics of the terror attack will help the western mainstream press feed Islamophobic content to their audience, blurring the line between the Taliban and terrorist groups, which they have been doing since the September 11th 2001 attack on the US by Wahhabi Saudi terrorists.

How the Taliban manages the situation after the suicide bombings at Kabul Airport and how they wipe out these terrorists from Afghan soil are to be seen. In case they fail to perform, the western-funded ISIS may wreak havoc through fringe bloodbaths using its pawns in Afghanistan. Such macabre atrocities will add to the ordeals under which the Afghan people are reeling for decades.