Afghanistan crisis: Three British nationals among those killed in Kabul airport attack
Two British men and a British teenager were among those killed in yesterday’s suicide bomb attack outside Kabul airport, the foreign secretary has confirmed.
All three British fatalities were waiting outside the airport and attempting to leave Afghanistan on an evacuation flight, and all belonged to different families.
A fourth British national was injured and treated by military medics, and is now awaiting evacuation to the UK.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab said he was “deeply saddened” in a statement announcing the news.
“These were innocent people and it is a tragedy that as they sought to bring their loved ones to safety in the UK they were murdered by cowardly terrorists,” he said.
“Yesterday’s despicable attack underlines the dangers facing those in Afghanistan and reinforces why we are doing all we can to get people out. We are offering consular support to their families.”
Over 90 Afghans were killed and another 150 wounded, according to the Afghan Health Ministry’s latest toll, after a suicide bomber detonated an explosion outside Kabul airport on Thursday evening as crowds of people were trying to evacuate from the country.
13 US soldiers, including marines, were also killed.
Previously, two separate explosions were believed to have taken place outside the airport, but this is now understood to be one, according to the US Pentagon.
“We do not believe that there was a second explosion at or near the Baron hotel, that it was one suicide bomber,” US Army Major General William Taylor told reporters at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.